IPA in Unicode

The International Phonetic Alphabet can be represented in Unicode, with symbols not used in other alphabets assigned range U+0250–02AD. The following is a representation of the IPA chart encoded in Unicode.

There also exist systems for representing the information contained in IPA in ASCII, including SAMPA, Kirshenbaum and other ad hoc systems to work around the difficulty of displaying IPA on computers.

See also: Table of Unicode characters, 128 to 999, Unicode and HTML

Consonants (pulmonic)

	Labial				Coronal										Dorsal						Radical				—
	Blab.		Ldent.		Dent.		Alv.		Palv.		Apal.		Ret.		Pal.		Velar		Uvular		Phar.		Epig.		Glot.
Plosive	[[voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]	[[voiced bilabial plosive|b]]			[[voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]			[[voiced alveolar plosive|d]]					[[voiceless retroflex plosive|ʈ]]	[[voiced retroflex plosive|ɖ]]	[[voiceless palatal plosive|c]]	[[voiced palatal plosive|ɟ]]	[[voiceless velar plosive|k]]	[[voiced velar plosive|ɡ]]	[[voiceless uvular plosive|q]]	[[voiced uvular plosive|ɢ]]			[[epiglottal plosive|ʡ]]		[[glottal stop|ʔ]]
Nasal stop	[[bilabial nasal|m]]		[[labiodental nasal|ɱ]]		[[alveolar nasal|n]]								[[retroflex nasal|ɳ]]		[[palatal nasal|ɲ]]		[[velar nasal|ŋ]]		[[uvular nasal|ɴ]]
Trill	[[bilabial trill|ʙ]]				[[alveolar trill|r]]														[[uvular trill|ʀ]]				*
Tap or Flap	*		*		[[alveolar tap|ɾ]]								[[retroflex flap|ɽ]]										*
Lateral Flap					[[alveolar lateral flap|ɺ]]								*
Fricative	[[voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]	[[voiced bilabial fricative|β]]	[[voiceless labiodental fricative|f]]	[[voiced labiodental fricative|v]]	[[voiceless dental fricative|θ]]	[[voiced dental fricative|ð]]	[[voiceless alveolar fricative|s]]	[[voiced alveolar fricative|z]]	[[voiceless postalveolar fricative|ʃ]]	[[voiced postalveolar fricative|ʒ]]	[[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|ɕ]]	[[voiced alveolo-palatal fricative|ʑ]]	[[voiceless retroflex fricative|ʂ]]	[[voiced retroflex fricative|ʐ]]	[[voiceless palatal fricative|ç]]	[[voiced palatal fricative|ʝ]]	[[voiceless velar fricative|x]]	[[voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]	[[voiceless uvular fricative|χ]]	[[voiced uvular fricative|ʁ]]	[[voiceless pharyngeal fricative|ħ]]	[[voiced pharyngeal fricative|ʕ]]	[[voiceless epiglottal fricative|ʜ]]	[[voiced epiglottal fricative|ʢ]]	[[voiceless glottal fricative|h]]	[[voiced glottal fricative|ɦ]]
Lateral Fricative					ɬ			ɮ					*		*		*
Approximant	*		[[labiodental approximant|ʋ]]		[[alveolar approximant|ɹ]]								[[retroflex approximant|ɻ]]		[[palatal approximant|j]]		[[velar approximant|ɰ]]		(ʁ)		(ʕ)		(ʢ)
Lateral Approximant					[[alveolar lateral approximant|l]]								[[retroflex lateral approximant|ɭ]]		[[palatal lateral approximant|ʎ]]		[[velar lateral approximant|ʟ]]

Notes:

• Where symbols appear in pairs (the obstruents), the one to the right represents a voiced consonant (except for breathy-voiced [[voiced glottal fricative|ɦ]]). Otherwise (the sonorants), the single symbol is voiced.
• Shaded areas indicate articulations judged impossible.
• Asterisks (*) mark reported sounds that do not (yet) have official IPA symbols. See the articles on the appropriate manner for ad hoc symbols found in the literature.
• The voiced fricative symbols, especially [ʁ, ʕ, ʢ], may be used for either voiced fricatives or approximants.
• It is primarily the shape of the tongue rather than its position that distinguishes the fricatives [ʃ ʒ], [ɕ ʑ], and [ʂ ʐ].
• The labiodental nasal [ɱ] is not known to exist as a phoneme in any language.

Consonants (non-pulmonic)

Click releases		Implosives		Ejectives
[[bilabial click|ʘ]]	Bilabial	[[voiced bilabial implosive|ɓ]]	Bilabial	ʼ	For example:
[[dental click|ǀ]]	Laminal alveolar ("dental")	[[voiced alveolar implosive|ɗ]]	Alveolar	[[bilabial ejective|pʼ]]	Bilabial
[[postalveolar click|ǃ]]	Apical (post)alveolar ("retroflex")	[[voiced palatal implosive|ʄ]]	Palatal	[[alveolar ejective|tʼ]]	Alveolar
[[palatal click|ǂ]]	Laminal postalveolar ("palatal")	[[voiced velar implosive|ɠ]]	Velar	[[velar ejective|kʼ]]	Velar
[[alveolar lateral click|ǁ]]	Lateral alveolar ("lateral")	[[voiced uvular implosive|ʛ]]	Uvular	[[alveolar ejective fricative|sʼ]]	Alveolar fricative

Notes:

• Clicks are doubly articulated and require two symbols: a velar or uvular stop, plus a symbol for the release: [k͡ǂ, g͡ǂ, ŋ͡ǂ, q͡ǂ, ɢ͡ǂ, ɴ͡ǂ], etc.
• Symbols for the voiceless implosives [ƥ, ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ] are no longer supported by the IPA. Instead, the voiced equivalent is used with a voiceless diacritic: [ɓ̥, ʛ̥], etc.
• Although not reported from any language, the retroflex implosive, [ᶑ], is supported in the Unicode Phonetic Extensions Supplement.
• The ejective symbol is also used for glottalized but pulmonic sonorants, such as [mʼ], [lʼ], [wʼ], [aʼ].

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i • y		ɨ • ʉ		ɯ • u
		ɪ • ʏ		• ʊ
Close-mid	e • ø		ɘ • ɵ		ɤ • o
			ə
Open-mid	ɛ • œ		ɜ • ɞ		ʌ • ɔ
	æ		ɐ
Open	a • ɶ				ɑ • ɒ

Notes:

• Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. [ʊ] also represents a rounded vowel.
• [ɶ] is not confirmed as a distinct phoneme in any language.

Other symbols

Symbols for consonants with double or secondary articulation

[[voiceless labial-velar fricative|ʍ]]	Voiceless labial-velar approximant
[[labial-velar approximant|w]]	Voiced labial-velar approximant
[[labial-palatal approximant|ɥ]]	Voiced labial-palatal approximant
[[voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative|ɧ]]	Voiceless "dorso-palatal" fricative

Note:

• The nature of [ɧ] is disputed. See the article for discussion.

Affricates and doubly articulated stops are represented by two symbols joined by a tie bar either above or below the symbols, or optionally by a ligature for the six commonest affricates, though this is not current IPA usage:

Ligature	Tie bar	Description
[[voiceless alveolar affricate|ʦ]]	t͡s	voiceless alveolar affricate
[[voiceless postalveolar affricate|ʧ]]	t͡ʃ	voiceless postalveolar affricate
[[voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate|ʨ]]	t͡ɕ	voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate
[[voiced alveolar affricate|ʣ]]	d͡z	voiced alveolar affricate
[[voiced postalveolar affricate|ʤ]]	d͡ʒ	voiced postalveolar affricate
[[voiced alveolo-palatal affricate|ʥ]]	d͡ʑ	voiced alveolo-palatal affricate
–	[[voiceless labial-velar plosive|k͡p]]	voiceless labial-velar plosive
–	[[voiced labial-velar plosive|g͡b]]	voiced labial-velar plosive
–	[[labial-velar nasal|ŋ͡m]]	labial-velar nasal stop

Note:

• Due to a bug in the Arial Unicode MS font, these incorrectly formed character combinations may look better in your browser: ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, kp͡, gb͡, ŋm͡.

Extended IPA for disordered speech

[[velopharyngeal fricative|ʩ]]	Velopharyngeal fricative
[[lateralized s|ʪ]]	Lateralized [s]
[[lateralized z|ʫ]]	Lateralized [z]
[[bilabial percussive|ʬ]]	Bilabial percussive
[[bidental percussive|ʭ]]	Bidental percussive
[[sublaminal lower alveolar click|¡]]	Sublaminal lower alveolar click

Suprasegmentals

ˈ	Primary stress
ˌ	Secondary stress
ː	Long (long vowel or geminate consonant)
ˑ	Half-long
˘	Extra-short
.	Syllable break
	Minor (foot) group
‖	Major (intonation) group
‿	Linking (absence of a break)

Tone and intonation

e̋ or ˥	Extra high
é or ˦	High
ē or ˧	Mid
è or ˨	Low
ȅ or ˩	Extra low
ě	Rise
ê	Fall
↓e	Downstep
↑e	Upstep
↗	Global rise
↘	Global fall

Note:

• Unicode does not have separate encodings for most of the contour tones. Instead, sequences of level tone marks are used, with proper display dependent on the font, usually by means of OpenType font rendition: [é̄, ḕ̄] or [e˥˧, e˧˩˨]. (These are probably not displaying correctly in your browser.) Since very few fonts support such combinations of tone marks, a common solution is to use the old system of superscript numerals from '1' to '5', e.g. [e⁵³, e³¹²]. However, this depends on local linguistic tradition, with '5' generally being high and '1' being low for Asian languages, but '1' being high and '5' low for African languages. An old IPA convention sometimes still seen is to use sub-diacritics for low contour tones: [e̖, e̗] for low-falling and low-rising.
• The upstep and downstep diacritics are superscript arrows. Unicode currently does not have separate encodings for them.

Diacritics

Diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, i.e. ŋ̊

n̥ d̥	Voiceless	b̤ a̤	Breathy voiced	t̪ d̪	Dental
s̬ t̬	Voiced	b̰ a̰	Creaky voiced	t̺ d̺	Apical
tʰ dʰ	Aspirated	t̼ d̼	Linguolabial	t̻ d̻	Laminal
ɔ̹ x̹	More rounded	tʷ dʷ	Labialized	ẽ	Nasalized
ɔ̜ x̜ʷ	Less rounded	tʲ dʲ	Palatalized	dⁿ	Nasal release
u̟ t̟	Advanced	tˠ dˠ	Velarized	dˡ	Lateral release
i̠ t̠	Retracted	tˁ dˁ	Pharyngealized	d̚	No audible release
ë	Centralized	l̴	Velarized or pharyngealized
e̽	Mid-centralized	e̝ ɹ̝	Raised (ɹ̝ = voiced alveolar fricative)
ɹ̩	Syllabic	e̞ β̞	Lowered (β̞ = voiced bilabial approximant)
e̯	Non-syllabic	e̘	Advanced tongue root
ɚ	Rhoticity	e̙	Retracted Tongue Root

Notes

1. Some linguists restrict this breathy-voice diacritic to vowels, and transcribe consonants as bʱ.
2. With aspirated voiced consonants, many linguists prefer one of the diacritics specifically for breathy voice.

The state of the glottis can be finely transcribed. A series of alveolar plosives ranging from an open to a closed glottis phonation are:

[t] (voiceless)

[d̤] (breathy voice, also called murmured)

[d̥] (slack voice)

[d] (modal voice)

[d̬] (stiff voice)

[d̰] (creaky voice)

[ʔd or ʔt] (glottal closure).

Extended IPA for disordered speech.

s͍	Labial spreading		Strong articulation	m͊	Denasal
v͆	Dentolabial	v͉	Weak articulation	v͋	Nasal escape
	Interdental/bidental		Reiterated articulation	s͌	Velopharyngeal friction
s͇	Alveolar	s͎	Whistled articulation	p↓	Ingressive airflow
s̼	Linguolabial	s͢θ	Slurred/sliding articulation	!↑	Egressive airflow
ʰp	Pre-aspiration	p⁼	Unaspirated release	ạ	Whispery
₍s̬₎	Partial voicing	₍s̬	Initial partial voicing	s̬₎	Final partial voicing
₍z̥₎	Partial devoicing	₍z̥	Initial partial devoicing	z̥₎	Final partial devoicing
̬z	Pre-voicing	z ̬	Post-voicing	a ̰	Creaky

See also

• International Phonetic Alphabet for English
• List of phonetics topics

External links

• International Phonetic Alphabet in Unicode
• IPA chart - in glorious Technicolor Unicode
• An introduction to the sounds of languages
• IPA Chart in Unicode and XHTML/CSS
  • Interactive symbol selector