International Phonetic Alphabet for English

   

Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Abbreviations below: AmE = American English; BrE = British English (Received Pronunciation)

Vowels

English 'plain' vowels

* The English [o] and [e] vowels are realized as diphthongs, but they are included here with the plain vowels because the [ɪ] and [ʊ] are just off-glides.

The symbol [ː] is just the IPA symbol that means the vowel to the left is long. The vowels marked here with [ː] are the English vowels that are usually longer than the others.

Note about [ɑ] and [ɔ]: For a large number of speakers of American English, there is no distinction between these vowels. This is called the [ɑ]/[ɔ] (or cot/caught) merger. For these speakers, all words with [ɔ] are pronounced with [ɑ].

Reduced vowels

These are vowels that occur in unstressed syllables.

  • roses - close central unrounded vowel AmE only. This sound is called barred-i
    • IPA [ɨ]
    • SAMPA [1]
  • Rosa 's - This sound is called schwa
    • IPA [ə]
    • SAMPA [@]
  • runner - AmE only. This is called an r-colored schwa. This is a single sound, not a sequence of schwa and r.
    • IPA [ɚ]
    • SAMPA [@`]
  • button - AmE only. This is called syllabic n.
    • IPA [n̩]
    • SAMPA [n=]
  • bottom - AmE only. This is called syllabic m.
    • IPA [m̩]
    • SAMPA [m=]

Some speakers do not have a contrast between barred-i and schwa.

R-colored vowels

These are plain vowels that are followed by r.

  • her
    • IPA AmE [ɝ] BrE [ɜ]
    • SAMPA AmE[3`] BrE [3]
  • near
    • IPA AmE [iɹ] BrE [ɪə]
    • SAMPA AmE[ir\] BrE [I@]
  • marry - AmE only *
    • IPA [æɹ]
    • SAMPA [{r\]
  • merry - AmE only *
    • IPA [ɛɹ]
    • SAMPA[Er\]
  • bare
    • IPA AmE [eɹ] BrE [ɛə]
    • SAMPA AmE[er\] BrE [E@]
  • car
    • IPA AmE [aɹ] BrE [aː]
    • SAMPA AmE[ar\] BrE [a:]
  • core
    • IPA AmE [ɔɹ] BrE [ɔə]
    • SAMPA AmE[Or\] BrE [O:]
  • pure
    • IPA AmE [ʊɹ] BrE [ʊə]
    • SAMPA AmE[Ur\] BrE [U@]
  • fire
    • IPA AmE [aɪɚ] BrE [aɪə]
    • SAMPA AmE[aI@`] BrE[aI@]
  • hour
    • IPA AmE [aʊɚ] BrE[aʊə]
    • SAMPA AmE[aU@`] BrE[aU@]


* For many speakers of American English, all or some of [æ], [ɛ], and [e] are merged before [r]. That is, merry, marry, and/or Mary are homophones. The vowel is pronounced as [eɹ]. For speakers of British English, these sequences are just the plain vowel, with [ɹ] beginning the next syllable;

Also note that speakers with the [ɑ]/[ɔ] merger usually still pronounce the vowel in core as [ɔɹ].

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are vowel sounds that smoothly glide from one vowel to another.

  • dry
    • IPA [aɪ]
    • SAMPA [aI]
  • boy
    • IPA [ɔɪ]
    • SAMPA [OI]
  • now
    • IPA [aʊ]
    • SAMPA [aU]
  • cue
    • IPA [ju]
    • SAMPA [ju]

Consonants

Stops

The voiceless stops, [p], [t], and [k] are aspirated when they occur at the beginning of stressed syllables. Aspiration is marked in IPA with a superscript h. These symbols are thus [pʰ], [tʰ], [kʰ]. It is not always necessary to include the superscript h when transcribing English into IPA because speakers make the distinction automatically.

Nasals

Note that engma only occurs postvocalically (after vowels) in English.

Fricatives

Note that the th in thigh and thy are different sounds. The latter is voiced, the former is voiceless.

Affricates

Affricates are phonetically just sequence of a stop and a fricative.

  • chop
    • IPA [tʃ]
    • SAMPA [tS]
  • joy
    • IPA [dʒ]
    • SAMPA [dZ]

A distinction is made in English between affricates and a series of a stop and fricative, because a syllable boundary never separates an affricate, but it might separate a stop/fricative sequence.

Approximants

Approximants, also called liquids, are smooth sounds that are almost like vowels.

[w] and [j] are also called glides.

Suprasegmentals

The suprasegmental symbols are called that because they apply to more than one segment, or symbol. In English, the relevant suprasegmentals are the markings for primary and secondary stress.

  • primary stress
    • IPA [ˈ]
    • SAMPA ["]
  • secondary stress
    • IPA [ˌ]
    • SAMPA [%]
  • syllable break
    • IPA [.]
    • SAMPA [.]

IPA examples

The square brackets around IPA symbols are not part of the IPA itself, but just serve to indicate that the contents of the brackets are not normal text, but IPA symbols. The distinction is important, as some IPA transcriptions can look like other words. For example, the IPA transcription for bean is [bin].

  • phonetician AmE [ˌfoʊnəˈtɪʃn̩] BrE [ˌfəʊnəˈtɪʃən]

See also


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