సహాయం:IPA

For help installing IPA-compatible fonts, see Help:Special characters § IPA symbols.

For a basic introduction to using IPA written for English readers, see Help:IPA/Introduction.

Here is a basic key to the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. For the smaller set of symbols that is sufficient for English, see Help:IPA for English. Several rare IPA symbols are not included; these are found in the main IPA article. For the Manual of Style guideline for pronunciation, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation).

For each IPA symbol, an English example is given where possible; here "RP" stands for Received Pronunciation. The foreign languages that are used to illustrate additional sounds are primarily the ones most likely to be familiar to English speakers, French, German, and Spanish. For symbols not covered by those, recourse is taken to the populous languages Mandarin Chinese, Hindustani, Arabic, and Russian. For sounds still not covered, other smaller but well-known languages are used, such as Swahili, Turkish, and Zulu.

The left-hand column displays the symbols like this: మూస:Audio-pipe. Click on the speaker icon to hear the sound; click on the symbol itself for a dedicated article with a more complete description and examples from multiple languages. All the sounds are spoken more than once, and the consonant sounds are spoken once followed by a vowel and once between vowels.

Main symbols

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not resemble any Latin letter are placed at the end.

Symbol		Examples	Description
^ top A
మూస:Audio-pipe	a	Mandarin 他 tā, German Mann	For many English speakers, the first part of the ow sound in cow. Found in some dialects of English in cat or father.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ä	American English ah, Spanish casa, French patte
మూస:Audio-pipe	aː	German Aachen, French gare	Long [a].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɐ	RP cut, German Kaiserslautern	(In transcriptions of English, [ɐ] is usually written ⟨ʌ⟩.)
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɑ	Finnish Linna, Dutch bad
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɑː	RP father, French pâte	Long [ɑ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɑ̃	French Caen, sans, temps	Nasalized [ɑ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɒ	RP cot	Like [ɑ], but with the lips slightly rounded.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʌ	American English cut	Like [ɔ], but without the lips being rounded. (When ⟨ʌ⟩ is used for English, it may really be [ɐ] or [ɜ].)
మూస:Audio-pipe	æ	RP cat
^ top B
మూస:Audio-pipe	b	English babble
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɓ	Swahili bwana	Like a [b] said with a gulp. See implosive consonants.
మూస:Audio-pipe	β	Spanish la Bamba, Kinyarwanda abana "children"	Like [b], but with the lips not quite touching.
^ top C
మూస:Audio-pipe	c	Turkish kebap "kebab", Czech stín "shadow", Greek και "and"	Between English tune (RP) and cute. Sometimes used instead for [tʃ] in languages like Hindi.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ç	German Ich	More of a y-coloration (more palatal) than [x]. Some English speakers have a similar sound in huge. To produce this sound, try whispering loudly the word "ye" as in "Hear ye!".
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɕ	Mandarin Xi'an, Polish ściana	More y-like than [ʃ]; something like English she.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɔ	see under O
^ top D
మూస:Audio-pipe	d	English dad
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɗ	Swahili Dodoma	Like [d] said with a gulp.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɖ	American English harder	Like [d] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ð	English the, bathe
మూస:Audio-pipe	dz	English adds, Italian zero
మూస:Audio-pipe	dʒ	English judge
మూస:Audio-pipe	dʑ	Polish niedźwiedź "bear"	Like [dʒ], but with more of a y-sound.
మూస:Audio-pipe	dʐ	Polish dżem "jam"	Like [dʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top E
మూస:Audio-pipe	e	Spanish fe; French clé
మూస:Audio-pipe	eː	German Klee	Long [e]. Similar to English hey, before the y sets in.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ə	English above, Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"	(Only occurs in English when not stressed.)
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɚ	American English runner
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɛ	English bet
[ ɛ̃ ]	ɛ̃	French Saint-Étienne, vin, main	Nasalized [ɛ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɜ	RP bird (long)
[ɝ]	ɝ	American English bird
^ top F
మూస:Audio-pipe	f	English fun
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɟ	see under J
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʄ	see under J
^ top G
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɡ	English gag	(Should look like . No different from a Latin "g")
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɠ	Swahili Uganda	Like [ɡ] said with a gulp.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɢ		Like [ɡ], but further back, in the throat. Found in Persian and some Arabic dialects for /q/, as in Gaddafi.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʒ	see under Z	English beige.
^ top H
మూస:Audio-pipe	h	American English house
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɦ	English ahead, when said quickly.
[ʰ]		The extra puff of air in English top [tʰɒp] compared to stop [stɒp], or to French or Spanish [t].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ħ	Arabic ‏مُحَمَّد‎ Muhammad	Far down in the throat, like [h], but stronger.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɥ	see under Y
[ɮ]	ɮ	see under L
^ top I
మూస:Audio-pipe	i	French ville, Spanish Valladolid
మూస:Audio-pipe	iː	English sea	Long [i].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɪ	English sit
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɨ	Russian ты "you"	Often used for unstressed English roses.
^ top J
మూస:Audio-pipe	j	English yes, hallelujah, German Junge
[ʲ]	ʲ	Russian Ленин [ˈlʲenʲɪn]	Indicates a sound is more y-like.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʝ	Spanish cayo (some dialects)	Like [j], but stronger.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɟ	Turkish gör "see", Czech díra "hole"	Between English dew (RP) and argue. Sometimes used instead for [dʒ] in languages like Hindi.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʄ	Swahili jambo	Like [ɟ] said with a gulp.
^ top K
మూస:Audio-pipe	k	English kick, skip
^ top L
మూస:Audio-pipe	l	English leaf
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɫ	English wool Russian малый [ˈmɑɫɨj] "small"	"Dark" el.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɬ	Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] "grey" Zulu hlala [ɬaːla] "sit"	By touching roof of mouth with tongue and giving a quick breath out. Found in Welsh placenames like Llangollen and Llanelli and Nelson Mandela's Xhosa name Rolihlahla.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɭ		Like [l] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɺ		A flapped [l], like [l] and [ɾ] said together.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɮ	Zulu dla "eat"	Rather like [l] and [ʒ], or [l] and [ð], said together.
^ top M
మూస:Audio-pipe	m	English mime
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɱ	English symphony	Like [m], but lips touch teeth as they do in [f].
[ɯ]	ɯ	see under W
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʍ	see under W
^ top N
మూస:Audio-pipe	n	English nun
మూస:Audio-pipe	ŋ	English sing
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɲ	Spanish Peña, French champagne	Rather like English canyon (/nj/ said quickly).
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɳ	Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳ] Varuna	Like [n] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɴ	Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan]	Like [ŋ], but further back, in the throat.
^ top O
మూస:Audio-pipe	o	Spanish no, French eau
మూస:Audio-pipe	oː	German Boden, French Vosges	Long [o]. Somewhat reminiscent of English no.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɔ	German Oldenburg, French Garonne
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɔː	RP law, French Limoges	Long [ɔ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɔ̃	French Lyon, son	Nasalized [ɔ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ø	French feu, bœufs	Like [e], but with the lips rounded like [o].
మూస:Audio-pipe	øː	German Goethe, French Deûle, neutre	Long [ø].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɵ	Swedish dum	Halfway between [o] and [ø]. Similar to [ʊ] but with the tongue slightly more down and front.
మూస:Audio-pipe	œ	French bœuf, seul, German Göttingen	Like [ɛ], but with the lips rounded like [ɔ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	œː	French œuvre, heure	Long [œ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	œ̃	French brun, parfum	Nasalized [œ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	θ	see under other
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɸ	see under other
^ top P
మూస:Audio-pipe	p	English pip
^ top Q
మూస:Audio-pipe	q	Arabic ‏قُرْآن‎ Qur’ān	Like [k], but further back, in the throat.
^ top R
మూస:Audio-pipe	r	Spanish perro, Scots borrow	"Rolled R". (Generally used for English [ɹ] when there's no need to be precise.)
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɾ	Spanish pero, Tagalog daliri, Malay kabar, American English kitty/kiddie	"Flapped R".
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʀ	Dutch rood and German rot (some speakers)	A trill in the back of the throat. Found for /r/ in some conservative registers of French.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɽ	Hindi साड़ी [sɑːɽiː] "sari"	Like flapped [ɾ], but with the tongue curled back.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɹ	RP borrow
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɻ	American English borrow, butter	Like [ɹ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back, as pronounced by many English speakers.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʁ	French Paris, German Riemann	Said back in the throat, but not trilled.
^ top S
మూస:Audio-pipe	s	English sass
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʃ	English shoe
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʂ	Mandarin 少林 (Shàolín), Russian Пушкин (Pushkin)	Acoustically similar to [ʃ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top T
మూస:Audio-pipe	t	English tot, stop
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʈ	Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"	Like [t], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ts	English cats, Russian царь tsar
మూస:Audio-pipe	tʃ	English church
మూస:Audio-pipe	tɕ	Mandarin 北京 మూస:Audio-pipe, Polish ciebie "you"	Like [tʃ], but with more of a y-sound.
మూస:Audio-pipe	tʂ	Mandarin zh, Polish czas	Like [tʃ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
^ top U
మూస:Audio-pipe	u	French vous "you"
మూస:Audio-pipe	uː	French Rocquencourt, German Schumacher, close to RP food	Long [u].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʊ	English foot, German Bundesrepublik
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʉ	Australian English food (long)	Like [ɨ], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɥ	see under Y
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɯ	see under W
^ top V
మూస:Audio-pipe	v	English verve
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʋ	Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳə] "Varuna"	Between [v] and [w]. Used by some Germans and Russians for v/w, and by some speakers of British English for r.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɤ	see under Y
[ɣ]	ɣ	see under Y
[ʌ]	ʌ	see under A
^ top W
మూస:Audio-pipe	w	English wow
[ʷ]	ʷ	English rain [ɹʷeɪn]	Indicates a sound has lip rounding, quick.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʍ	what (some dialects)	like [h] and [w] said together
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɯ	Turkish kayık "caïque"	Like [u], but with the lips flat; something like [ʊ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɰ	Spanish agua
^ top X
మూస:Audio-pipe	x	Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хороший [xɐˈroʂɨj] "good", Spanish joven	between [k] and [h]
మూస:Audio-pipe	χ	northern Standard Dutch Scheveningen, Castilian Spanish Don Juan [doɴˈχwan]	Like [x], but further back , in the throat. Some German and Arabic speakers have [χ] for [x].
^ top Y
మూస:Audio-pipe	y	French rue	Like [i], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
మూస:Audio-pipe	yː	German Bülow, French sûr	Long [y].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʏ	German Düsseldorf	Like [ɪ], but with the lips rounded as for [ʊ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɣ	Arabic ‏غَالِي‎ ghālī and Swahili ghali "expensive", Spanish suegro	Sounds rather like French [ʁ] or between [ɡ] and [h].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɤ	Mandarin Hénán	Like [o] but without the lips rounded, something like a cross of [ʊ] and [ʌ].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʎ	Italian tagliatelle	Like [l], but more y-like. Rather like English volume.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɥ	French lui	Like [j] and [w] said together.
^ top Z
మూస:Audio-pipe	z	English zoos
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʒ	English vision, French journal
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʑ	formal Russian жжёшь [ʑːoʂ] "you burn", Polish źle	More y-like than [ʒ], something like beigey.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʐ	Mandarin 人民日报 Rénmín Rìbào "People's Daily", Russian жир "fat"	Like [ʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
[ɮ]	ɮ	see under L
^ top Other
మూస:Audio-pipe	θ	English thigh, bath
మూస:Audio-pipe	ɸ	Japanese 富士 [ɸɯdʑi] Fuji, Māori [ˌɸaːɾeːˈnuiː] wharenui	Like [p], but with the lips not quite touching
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʔ	English uh-oh, Hawai‘i, German die Angst	The 'glottal stop', a catch in the breath. For some people, found in button [ˈbʌʔn̩], or between vowels across words: Deus ex machina [ˌdeɪəsˌʔɛksˈmɑːkɨnə]; in some nonstandard dialects, in a apple [ʌˈʔæpl̩].
మూస:Audio-pipe	ʕ	Arabic ‏عَرَبِيّ‎ ʻarabī "Arabic"	A light sound deep in the throat.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ǀ	English tsk-tsk! or tut-tut!, Zulu icici "earring"	(The English click used for disapproval.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǀ], [ɡǀ], [ŋǀ]. The Zimbabwean MP Ncube has this click in his name, as did Cetshwayo.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ǁ	English tchick! tchick!, Zulu ixoxo "frog"	(The English click used to urge on a horse.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǁ], [ɡǁ], [ŋǁ]. Found in the name of the Xhosa.
మూస:Audio-pipe	ǃ	Zulu iqaqa "polecat"	(The English click used to imitate the trotting of a horse.) A hollow popping sound, like a cork pulled from a bottle. Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including [kǃ], [ɡǃ], [ŋǃ].

• ^1 ^2 These symbols are officially written with a tie linking them (e.g. t͡ʃ), and are also sometimes written as single characters (e.g. ʧ) though the latter convention is no longer official. They are written without ligatures here to ensure correct display in all browsers.

Marks added to letters

Several marks can be added above, below, before or after letters. These are here shown on a carrier letter such as the vowel a. A more complete list is given at International Phonetic Alphabet § Diacritics and prosodic notation.

Symbol	Example	Description
Signs above a letter
[ã]	French vin blanc [vãblɑ̃] "white wine"	A nasal vowel, as with a Texas twang.
[ä]	Portuguese vá [vä] "go"	A central vowel pronounced with the tongue position in the middle of the mouth; neither forward nor back.
Signs below a letter
[ a̯ ]	English cow [kʰaʊ̯], koi [kʰɔɪ̯]	This vowel does not form a syllable of its own, but runs into the vowel next to it. (In English, the diacritic is generally left off: [kaʊ].)
[ n̥ ]		Sounds like a loud whisper; [n̥] is like a whispered breath through the nose. [l̥] is found in Tibetan Lhasa.
[ n̩ ]	English button	A consonant without a vowel. (English [n̩] is often transcribed /ən/.)
[ d̪ ]	Spanish dos, French deux	The tongue touches the teeth more than it does in English.
Signs next to a letter
[kʰ]	English come	Aspirated consonant, pronounced with a puff of air. Similarly [tʰ pʰ tsʰ tʃʰ tɕʰ].
[ k’ ]	Zulu ukuza "come"	Like a popped [k], pushed from the throat. Similarly [tʼ pʼ qʼ tʃʼ tsʼ tɬʼ].
[aː]	English shh! [ʃː]	Long. Often used with English vowels or diphthongs: Mayo /ˈmeːoː/ for [ˈmeɪ̯ɜʊ̯], etc.
[aˑ]	RP caught [ˈkʰɔˑt]	Semi-long. (Although the vowel is different, this is also longer than cot [ˈkʰɒt].)
[ˈa]	pronunciation [pɹ̥əʊ̯ˌnɐnsiˈeɪʃn̩]	Main stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ˌa]		Weaker stress. The mark denotes the stress of the following syllable.
[ . ]	English courtship [ˈkɔrt.ʃɪp]	Syllable break. (this is often redundant and therefore left off)

Brackets

Two types of brackets are commonly used to enclose transcriptions in the IPA:

• /Slashes/ indicate those meaningful sounds that are distinguished as the basic sounds of a language by native speakers; these are called phonemes. Changing the symbols between slashes would either change the identity of the word or produce nonsense. For example, since there is no meaningful difference to a native speaker between the two sounds written with the letter el in the word lulls, they are considered the same phoneme and so, using slashes, they are given the same symbol in IPA: /ˈlʌlz/. Similarly, Spanish la bomba is transcribed phonemically with two instances of the same b sound, /laˈbomba/, despite the fact that they sound different to a speaker of English. Thus a reader who is not familiar with the language in question might not know how to interpret these transcriptions more narrowly.
• [Square brackets] indicate the narrower or more detailed phonetic qualities of a pronunciation, not taking into account the norms of the language to which it belongs; therefore, such transcriptions do not regard whether subtly different sounds in the pronunciation are actually noticeable or distinguishable to a native speaker of the language. Within square brackets is what a foreigner who does not know the structure of a language might hear as discrete units of sound. For instance, the English word lulls may be pronounced in a particular dialect more specifically as [ˈlɐɫz], with different letter el sounds at the beginning and end. This may be obvious to speakers of other languages that differentiate between the sounds [l] and [ɫ]. Likewise, Spanish la bomba (pronounced without a pause) has two different b-sounds to the ears of foreigners or linguists—[laˈβomba]—though a native Spanish speaker might not be able to hear it. Omitting or adding such detail does not make a difference to the identity of the word, but helps to give a more precise pronunciation.

A third kind of bracket is occasionally seen:

• Either //double slashes// or |pipes| (or occasionally other conventions) show that the enclosed sounds are theoretical constructs that are not actually heard. (This is part of morphophonology.) For instance, most phonologists argue that the -s at the ends of verbs, which surfaces as either /s/ in talks /tɔːks/ or as /z/ in lulls /lʌlz/, has a single underlying form. If they decide this form is an s, they would write it //s// (or |s|) to claim that phonemic /tɔːks/ and /lʌlz/ are essentially //tɔːks// and //lʌls// underneath. If they were to decide it was essentially the latter, //z//, they would transcribe these words //tɔːkz// and //lʌlz//.

Lastly,

• ⟨Angle brackets⟩ are used to set off orthography, as well as transliteration from non-Latin scripts. Thus ⟨lulls⟩, ⟨la bomba⟩, the letter ⟨a⟩. Angle brackets are not supported by all fonts, so a template {{angle bracket}} (shortcut {{angbr}}) is used to ensure maximal compatibility. (Comment there if you're having problems.)

Rendering issues

Voiced velar plosive

These two characters should look similar:

ɡ

If in the box to the left you see the symbol rather than a lower-case open-tail g, you may be experiencing a well-known bug in the font MS Reference Sans Serif; switching to another font may fix it.

On your current font: [ɡ],

and in several other fonts:

Affricates and double articulation

The tie bar is intended to cover both letters of an affricate or doubly articulated consonant. However, if your browser uses Arial Unicode MS to display IPA characters, the following incorrectly formed sequences may look better than the correct order (letter, tie bar, letter) because of a bug in that font:

ts͡, tʃ͡, tɕ͡, dz͡, dʒ͡, dʑ͡, tɬ͡, kp͡, ɡb͡, ŋm͡.

Here is how the proper configuration displays in your default IPA font:

t͡s, d͡z, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ, t͡ɬ, k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m,

and in several other fonts: మూస:MFSample

Angle brackets

True angle brackets, ⟨ ⟩, are unsupported by several common fonts. Here is how they display in your default settings:

⟨...⟩ (unformatted)

⟨...⟩ (default IPA font)

⟨...⟩ (default Unicode font),

and in several specific fonts:

See also

• Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet
• IPA charts for diphthongs in various languages
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)#Entering IPA characters

External links

• IPA pronunciation chart
• IPA Charts – pronunciation charts with an interactive chart of all IPA symbols with their sounds (Flash)