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| International Phonetic Alphabet |
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History |
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) possess a variety of obsolete and nonstandard symbols. Throughout the history of the IPA, characters representing phonetic values have been modified or completely replaced. An example is <ɷ> for standard [ʊ]. Several symbols indicating secondary articulation have been dropped altogether, with the idea that such things should be indicated with diacritics: ʮ for z̩ʷ is one. In addition, the rare voiceless implosive series ƥ ƭ ƈ ƙ ʠ has been dropped.
Other characters have been added in for specific phonemes which do not possess a specific symbol in the IPA. Sinologists have used <ɿ> to represent [z̩], a vowel which represents the i in hanzi (see Pinyin).
There are also unsupported symbols from local traditions that find their way into publications that otherwise use the standard IPA. This is especially common with affricates such as ƛ, and many Americanist symbols.
While the IPA does not itself have a set of capital letters (the ones that look like capitals are actually small capitals), many languages have adopted symbols from the IPA as part of their orthographies, and in such cases they have invented capital variants of these. This is especially common in Africa. An example is Kabye of northern Togo, which has Ɔ Ɛ Ŋ Ɣ Ʃ (capital ʃ). Other pseudo-IPA capitals supported by unicode are Ɓ/Ƃ Ƈ Ɗ/Ƌ Ə/Ǝ Ɠ Ħ Ɯ Ɲ Ɵ Ʈ Ʊ Ʋ Ʒ.
This list does not include commonplace extensions of the IPA, such as doubling a symbol for a greater degree of a feature ([aːː] extra-long [a], [ˈˈa] extra stress, [kʰʰ] strongly aspirated [k], and [a˞˞] extra-rhotic [a]), nor superscripting for a lesser degree of a feature (ŋɡ] slightly prenasalized [ɡ], ts] slightly affricated [s], and ə epenthetic schwa). The asterisk, as in [k*] for the fortis stop of Korean, is the convention the IPA uses when it has no symbol for a phone or feature.
| ƍ | = [ðʷ, zʷ] |
| ƪ | = [ʃʷ] |
| ƺ | = [ʒʷ] |
| ? | = [ʔ] |
| σ | = [θʷ, sʷ] |
| ƻ | Barred two, withdrawn 1976, = [d͡z] |
| ƾ | Withdrawn 1976, = [t͡s] |
| ƞ | Right-leg N, withdrawn 1976, = [n̩] |
| ƫ | Left-hook T, withdrawn 1989, = [tʲ] |
| ʆ | Curly-tail esh, withdrawn 1989, = [ʃʲ] or [ɕ] |
| ʓ | Curly-tail ezh, withdrawn 1989, = [ʒʲ] or [ʑ] |
| ɑ̢ etc. | = [ɑ˞] etc. ("retroflex" or r-colored vowels) |
| λ | Americanist usage, = [d͡ɮ] |
| š | Americanist usage, = [ʃ] |
| ł | Americanist usage, = [ɬ] |
| č | Americanist usage, = [t͡ʃ] |
| ƛ | Americanist usage, = [t͡ɬ] |
| ž | Americanist usage, = [ʒ] |
| ẋ | Americanist usage, = [χ] |
| ǰ, ǧ, ǯ | Americanist, Slavicist etc. usage, = [d͡ʒ] |
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Baby gamma, rejected 1989 in favor of  |
| ᵻ | barred small capital I, near-close central unrounded vowel, used by the OED among others. = [ɨ̞] |
| ᵿ | barred small upsilon, near-close central rounded vowel, used by the OED among others. = [ʉ̞] |
| Ǝ | (small) capital turned E, used by some scholars who study Gyeongsang dialect of Korean, between /ㅓ/ [ʌ] and /ㅡ/ [ɯ~ɨ] in Standard language of South Korea.citation needed It can be considered as close-mid near-back unrounded vowel. |
| ʚ | Closed epsilon, a mistake for [ɞ] |
| ɷ | Closed omega, rejected 1989 in favor of [ʊ] |
| ȡ | d with curl, voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) plosive, used by Sinologists |
| ȶ | t with curl, voiceless palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) plosive, used by Sinologists |
| ȵ | n with curl, voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) nasal, used by Sinologists |
| ȴ | l with curl, voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) lateral approximant, used by Sinologists |
| ı | Dotless small i, a mistake for [ɪ] |
| ȹ | = [p̪], used in Africanist linguistics |
| ȸ | = [b̪], used in Africanist linguistics |
| ∅ | A symbol of the empty set is usually used as the meaning of "no sound values." However, in Chinese linguistics, some scholars considered it as "weak" glottal stop or something similar as sound value of the "existent" first consonant of syllables started by a vowel (e.g. ān in Tiān'ānmén), and this opinion can be connected with ㅇ (ieung) in hangul. ∅ can be confusing with close-mid front rounded vowel [ø]. |
| ƥ ƭ ƈ ƙ ʠ | Hooktop P, T, C, K, Q, withdrawn 1993, = [ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̊] |
| ʖ | Inverted glottal stop, superseded 1989 by [ǁ] |
| ɩ | Iota, rejected 1989 in favor of [ɪ] |
| ɼ | Long-leg R, voiced strident apico-alveolar trill (Czech ř), withdrawn 1989, = [r̝] |
| g | Looptail g ( ), an alternative for [ɡ], "open-tail g" |
| ȣ | Ou, a mistake for [ɤ] or [ɣ] |
| ʞ | Proposed symbol for velar click, withdrawn 1970 |
| я | reversed ʀ or Cyrillic ya, voiced epiglottal trill |
| ɿ | Reversed fishhook R / turned iota, apical dental unrounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [z̩] |
| ᴀ | small capital A, open central vowel used by Sinologists, between [a] and [ɑ], = [ä] used unofficially as an open central vowel. |
| Historically, it is used as open back unrounded vowel (now it was changed with [ɑ]). See History of the IPA#History. | |
| ᴇ | small capital E, mid front unrounded vowel used by Sinologists and some Koreanologists, between [e] and [ɛ] |
| ʅ | Squat reversed esh (actually ɿ with retroflex tail), apical retroflex unrounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [ʐ̩] |
| ʗ | Stretched C, superseded 1989 by [ǃ] |
| d̡ etc. | Subscript left hook, superseded 1989 by [dʲ] etc. |
| k̫ etc. | Subscript w, superseded 1989 by [kʷ] etc. |
| t̂ etc. | t with circumflex, etc. = ȶ, etc. |
| ʯ | turned h with fishhook and tail, apical retroflex rounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [ʐ̩ʷ] |
| ʮ | turned h with fishhook, apical dental rounded vowel used by Sinologists, = [z̩ʷ] |
| ʇ | Turned T, superseded 1989 by [ǀ] |
| K P T etc. | Uppercase letters K, P, T, etc. not small capital, fortis sounds of Korean used by some Koreanologists. = [k͈], etc. |
| G etc. | Uppercase letters not small capitals, respective alternatives for small capital-shaped IPA symbols such as [ɢ], [ɴ], [ʀ], [ʙ], [ʜ], [ʟ], [ɪ], [ʏ] and [ɶ] |
| Ṽ | Uppercase V with tilde used as "any nasal vowels" |
| k‘1 etc. | Usually used as symbol for "weak" aspiration or sometimes same with "normal" aspiration, [kʰ], etc. |
| k‛2 etc. | = [k‘], etc. above |
| | Voiceless lateral fricatives (retroflex, palatal and velar) |
| k', etc. | Withdrawn, = [k̚] |
| ɔ̗, ɔ̖ etc. | The lower-pitched contour tones, in a language which distinguishes more than one rising (ɔ̗) or falling (ɔ̖) tone. |
| ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ etc. | Ligatures were formerly an acceptable way of designating affricates, but approval for them has been withdrawn. Affricates are indicated as a sequence of stop + fricative, either with or without a tie bar: [ts dz tʃ dʒ] etc. or [t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ] etc.3 |
| Q | (Small) capital Q, used as a Sokuon symbol in Japanese. This symbol is only used in phonologic descriptions. |
The table below shows official IPA symbols not used as the original definition of IPA.
| c | It is sometimes used as [t͡s], [t͡ʃ] or [t͡ɕ]. |
| j | It is sometimes used as [d͡ʒ] or [d͡ʑ]. |
| y | It is sometimes used as [j]. |
| ä | It is sometimes used as [ɛ] or [æ]. |
| ö | It is sometimes used as [ø] or [œ]. |
| ü | It is sometimes used as [y] or [ʏ]. |
| r | It is frequently used as one of rhotic sounds (including R-colored vowels) or of liquid sounds especially in phonological transcriptions. |
| l | It is usually used as one of liquid sounds especially in phonological descriptions. |
| a | It is frequently used as alternative for [ɑ] in printing when the distinction between [a] and [ɑ] is not used. |
| ɑ | It is frequently used as alternative for [a] in handwriting when the distinction between [a] and [ɑ] is not used. |
| k’ etc. | Fortis sounds in Korean used by some Koreanologists. = [k*], etc. above. |
| ʃ ʒ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | They are sometimes used as alternative for [ɕ], [ʑ], [t͡ɕ] and [d͡ʑ] respectively especially by some Japanologists and Koreanologists. |
| ɲ ʎ | They are sometimes used as alternative for the unofficial symbols [ȵ] and [ȴ] respectively especially by some Japanologists and Koreanologists. |
| ʀ | Chōon in Japanese especially used in some phonologic transcriptions. |
Footnotes
- ^ In Unicode, both ‘ (U+2018, LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK) and ʻ (U+02BC, MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE) can be used.
- ^ In Unicode, both ‛ (U+201B; SINGLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK) and ʽ (U+02BD; MODIFIER LETTER REVERSED COMMA) can be used.
- ^ Pullum, Geoffrey K.; William A. Ladusaw (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide, 2nd edition, University of Chicago Press, 180. ISBN 0-226-68535-7.
See also
External links
- A different kind of extended IPA: canIPA Natural Phonetics : Luciano Canepari's extended version of IPA (500 basic, 300 complementary, and 200 supplementary symbols), with a lot of downloadable PDF's
