International Phonetic Alphabet
|
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"IPA" in IPA (
[a? p?iː e?]
)
|
Script type
| Alphabet
? partially
featural
|
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Time period
| since 1888
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Languages
| Used for
phonetic
and
phonemic
transcription of any language
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Parent systems
| |
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The
International Phonetic Alphabet
(
IPA
) is a system for writing down sounds. It was created by the
International Phonetic Association
in 1886, so that people could write down sounds of
languages
in a standard way.
[1]
Linguists
, language teachers, and
translators
use this system to show the pronunciation for
words
.
Wikipedia
also uses the IPA to show how certain words are meant to be spoken. Most symbols are letters in the
Latin alphabet
, or variations of it. For example, the
palatal approximant
(the
y
in
y
esterday) is written with [
j
]. In IPA symbols can be written between slashes (called a broad transcription, e.g."little" can be written as /l?tl/ ) or in square brackets (called a narrow transcription, e.g. "little" can be written [l???], which is how specific groups say it). Narrow translation is more precise than broad.
The IPA has symbols only for sounds that are used normally in spoken languages. The
Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet
(or extIPA) are used to write down other sounds.
The IPA is sometimes changed, and symbols are added or taken away. Right now there are 107 different letters in the IPA. There are also 52 marks which are added to letters to change their sound. These marks are called "diacritics".
In 1886, a group of
French
and
British
language teachers formed the
International Phonetic Association
. These teachers used the
Romic alphabet
at first. They later changed the alphabet so that different languages would all write the same sounds with the same letters.
The IPA is made to have one symbol for every sound. This means that every letter always makes the same one sound. This is different from English. In English, some letters make multiple sounds. For example, the letter <x> in English normally is spoken as two sounds ([ks]), but could also be spoken as [gz] or [z].
The International Phonetic Alphabet has letters for three types of sounds: pulmonic consonants, non-pulmonic consonants, and vowels.
Pulmonic consonants are made by blocking air coming from the lungs. Most consonants (and all English consonants) are pulmonic. The symbols for these sounds are arranged in a table. The rows show how the sound is made (the
manner of articulation
), and the columns show where it is made (the
place of articulation
).
Non-pulmonic consonants are made without air coming from the lungs. There are three types of non-pulmonic consonants.
Implosive consonants
are made by taking air into the mouth.
Ejective consonants
are made by forcing the air out of the
larynx
instead of the lungs.
Click consonants
are made by creating an airtight pocket in the mouth and quickly releasing it.
Vowels are sounds made without blocking air at all.