The
International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA) requires specific names for the symbols and diacritics used in the alphabet.
It is often desirable to distinguish an IPA symbol from the sound it is intended to represent, since there is not a one-to-one correspondence between symbol and sound in broad transcription. The symbol's names and phonetic descriptions are described in the
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association
. The symbols also have nonce names in the
Unicode
standard. In some cases, the Unicode names and the IPA names do not agree. For example, IPA calls
?
"epsilon", but Unicode calls it "small letter open E".
Letters
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The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are used for unmodified symbols. In Unicode, some of the symbols of Greek origin have Latin forms for use in IPA
[
clarification needed
]
; the others use the symbols from the Greek section.
Examples:
Note
The IPA standard includes some small capital letters, such as
?
, although it is common to refer to these symbols as simply "capital" or "cap" letters, because the IPA standard does not include any full-size capital letters.
Cursive-based letters
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A few letters have the forms of cursive or script letters. Examples:
Note
Ligatures
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Ligatures are called precisely that, although Unicode often mistakenly calls them "
digraphs
" and some have dedicated names, such as
ash
and
ethel
. Examples:
Rotated letters
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Many letters are
turned
, or rotated 180 degrees. Examples:
- Notes
A few letters are
reversed
(flipped on a vertical axis):
- Notes
One letter is
inverted
(flipped on a horizontal axis):
?
inverted capital small R
. (
?
could also be called an
inverted w
, but
turned w
is more common.)
Letters with extra lines, curls and serifs
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When a horizontal stroke is added, it is called a
crossbar
:
ħ
barred h
,
?
barred o
,
?
reversed barred glottal stop
or
barred ayin
,
?
barred dotless j
or
barred gelded j
(apparently never 'turned f'),
?
double-barred pipe
, etc.
One letter instead has a
slash
through it:
ø
slashed o
.
The implosives have
hook
tops:
?
hook-top b
, as does
?
hook-top h
.
Such an extension at the bottom of a letter is called a
tail
. It may be specified as
left
or
right
depending on which direction it turns:
?
right-tail n
,
?
right-tail turned r
,
?
left-tail n
,
?
tail z
(or just
retroflex z
), etc. But note:
ŋ
eng
or
engma
,
?
meng
,
?
heng
.
When the tail loops over itself, it's called
curly
:
?
curly-tail j
,
?
curly-tail c
.
There are also a few unique modifications:
?
belted l
,
?
closed reversed epsilon
(there was once also a
?
closed omega
),
?
right-leg turned m
,
?
turned long-leg r
(there was once also a
long-leg r
),
?
double pipe
, and the obsolete
?
stretched c
.
Several non-English letters have traditional names:
c
c
cedilla
,
ð
eth
(also spelled
edh
),
ŋ
engma
or
eng
,
?
schwa
(also spelled
shwa
),
?
exclamation mark
,
?
pipe
.
Other symbols are unique to the IPA, and have developed their own quirky names:
?
fish-hook r
,
?
ram's horns
,
?
bull's eye
,
?
esh
(apparently never 'stretched s'),
?
ezh
(sometimes confused with
yogh
),
?
hook-top heng
.
The
?
is usually called by the sound it represents,
glottal stop
. This is not normally a problem, because this symbol is seldom used to represent anything else. However, to specify the symbol itself, it is sometimes called a
gelded question mark
. This latter name is derived from its original form as a dotless question mark in a fashion reminiscent of
gelding
.
Diacritic marks
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Traditionally named diacritics
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- e
acute
,
?
macron
,
e
grave
,
e
circumflex
,
?
wedge
or
ha?ek
,
e
diaeresis
or
umlaut
,
?
breve
,
?
(superscript)
tilde
, plus variants such as
?
subscript tilde
,
?
superimposed tilde
, etc.
Non-traditionally named diacritics
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- d?
seagull
,
e?
hook
,
e?
over-cross
,
d
?
corner
,
d?
bridge
,
d?
inverted bridge
,
d?
square
,
e?
under-ring
,
e?
over-ring
,
e?
left half-ring
,
e?
right half-ring
,
e?
plus
,
e?
under-bar
,
e?
arch
,
d?
subscript wedge
,
e?
up tack
,
e?
down tack
,
e?
left tack
,
e?
right tack
,
d?z
tie bar
,
?
under-dot
,
n?
under-stroke
.
Diacritics are alternately named after their function: The bridge is also called the
dental sign,
the under-stroke the
syllabicity sign
, etc.
References
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]
- Pullum, Geoffrey K., and William A. Ladusaw. 1996.
Phonetic Symbol Guide
, 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
External links
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