International Phonetics Alphabet

International Phonetics Association (IPA)

·         the major as well as the oldest representative organization for phoneticians

·         established in 1886 in Paris

·         to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science

·         provides the academic community world-wide with a notational standard for the phonetic representation of all languages

International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA)

·         the guiding principle of this system of transcriptions is to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol

·         symbols are enclosed in brackets [    ] or  slashes / slants  /  /

The articulation of vowel sounds differs on the following aspects:

Tongue Advancement or Position: FRONT, CENTRAL, BACK

Tongue Height: HIGH, MID, LOW

Shape of Lips: UNROUNDED or ROUNDED

Tension: TENSE or LAX

Voiced Consonants	Voiceless Consonants	Examples
/b/		Bank, base, brain (Silent b: bomb, climb, debt, doubt, dumb, lamb, plumber, thumb, subtle)
	/p/	Period, Peasant, Palate (Silent p: Pneumonia, psychology, pseudonym, psychic)
/v/		Vain, Vision, Vinyl
	/f/	Fair, Forte, Fan, Photo, Hyphen, Pharaoh, Catastrophe, Emphasis, Prophet
/g/		Grain, Grow, Grade, Green (Silent g: gnome, gnaw, assign, malign, foreign, reign)
	/k/	Kite, King, Cardinal, Crush, Continent, Carry, Care, Scheme, Competence, Acquire
/d/		Dissolve, Dessert, Disease (Silent d: Wednesday, handsome, sandwich)
	/t/	Track, Treason, Two (Silent t: castle, gourmet, ballet, rapport, soften) Pop the T – take, stable, tent, trip Flap the T – better, sweater, theater, twitter, meter Silent T – inter, center, winter, enter Hold the T – brat, bet, but, slit
/ð/		There, thy, though, leather, breathe, bathe, clothe
	/Ɵ/	Three, thigh, thru, theater, breath, bath, cloth
/ʒ/		Pressure, garage, leisure, massage, pleasure, vision
	/ʃ/	Direction, shrine, gracious, chivalry, champagne
/ʤ/		Surgery, journey, message, danger, project
	/tʃ/	Chisel, literature, mixture, reach, choke (Silent ch : yacht)
/z/		Use, specialize, sarcasm, zone, Thursday (Silent z: rendezvous) S is pronounced as /z/ when preceded by a voiced consonant or vowel sounds in plural forms:  Begs, beds, leaves, mobs, bells, jars, straws, limbs, slices, bridges, watches
	/s/	Scatter, surface, scenario, scheme (Silent s: debris, island, aisle, bourgeois)
/m/		Mime, moment, martyr (Silent m: mnemonic)
/n/		Nine, none, November (Silent n: autumn, column, solemn, hymn)
/ŋ/		Lungs, Bang, Throng
	/h/	Height, heaven, heart (Silent h: honest, ghost, heir, hour, what, whether)
/l/		Latitude, Localize, Legal, Balloon, Mall (Silent l: would, calf, half, yolk)
/r/		Reduce, Repertoire, Represent, Rapporteur
/j/		Yellow, Yacht, Yoke, Yard
/w/		Whistle, What, Water, Wing