Help:IPA key

This page is a key for International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols.

The symbols often used for the phonemes of both General American (GA, the "standard" accent in the US) and Received Pronunciation (RP, here defined as the "standard" accent in southern England) are shown here for reference. On the wiki, General American is typically used.

Note that the IPA symbols used are based on convention and do not necessarily represent exact phonetic quality.

A tilde (~) indicates variance depending on speaker.

Consonants

Example	IPA
but	b
cat	k
chin	t͡ʃ
dog	d
fish	f
goat	ɡ
horse	h
just	d͡ʒ
like	l
make	m
night	n
thing	ŋ
part	p
rat	r
sing	s
ship	ʃ
tag	t
thin	θ
the	ð
viking	v
wait	w
yes	j
zebra	z

There are some differences between GA and RP in the treatment of historical /j/ after certain consonants in some contexts.

Example	GA	RP
dew	d	d͡ʒ~dj
new	n	nj
assume	s	sj~ʃ
tune	t	t͡ʃ~tj
enthused	θ	θj
presume	z	zj~ʒ

Vowels

All but one of the examples in the first table are taken from John C. Wells's lexical sets (1982). "(r)" is used to simplify these tables; it indicates that the sound is present when before a vowel in RP, but absent otherwise.

Example	GA	RP
kit	ɪ	ɪ
dress	ɛ	e
trap	æ	æ
lot	ɑ	ɒ
strut	ʌ	ʌ
foot	ʊ	ʊ
bath	æ	ɑː
cloth	ɔ~ɑ	ɒ
fleece	i	iː
face	eɪ	eɪ
palm	ɑ	ɑː(r)
start	ɑr
thought	ɔ~ɑ	ɔː(r)
north	ɔr
goat	oʊ	əʊ
goose	u	uː
price	aɪ	aɪ
choice	ɔɪ	ɔɪ
mouth	aʊ	aʊ
happy	i	i
comma	ə	ə(r)
letter	ɚ
horses	ɪ~ə	ɪ
nurse	ɝ	ɜː(r)
near	ɪr	ɪə(r)
square	ɛr	eə(r)
cure	ʊr	ʊə(r)

The following table is for vowels that merge before intervocalic R in GA.

Example	GA	RP
furry	ɝ	əːr
hurry		ʌr
clearer	ɪr	ɪər
mirror		ɪr
Mary	ɛr	eər
marry		ær
merry		er
starry	ɑr	ɑːr
borrow		ɒr
horrid	ɔr
boring		ɔːr

Punctuation and diacritics

The ◌ is a placeholder symbol representing a letter.

Character	Explanation
ˈ	Before a syllable, this indicates primary stress.
ˌ	Before a syllable, this indicates secondary stress.
.	This marks a break between syllables. It is optional unless it will make the intention clearer: for example, in General American, "thawing" could be transcribed /ˈθɔ.ɪŋ/ with the period to avoid confusion with the /ɔɪ/ vowel found in words such as "toy".
ː	After a vowel sound, this indicates that the sound is pronounced longer.
◌͡◌	Over two consonant symbols, this indicates that they are pronounced at the same time as a single, combined sound: for example, /d͡ʒ/ for the consonant in edge.
◌̯	Under a vowel symbol, in the case of English, this is used for the second part of diphthongs (single vowel sounds that change in quality from the start to the end of the sound): for example, /aɪ̯/ for the vowel in nice. It is optional.
◌̩	Under a consonant, this indicates it is pronounced as a syllable nucleus all by itself with no pronounced vowel sound: for example, /ˈkɪtn̩/ for kitten. In the case of English, this will alternatively be instead expressed with a /ə/ prior to the consonant.