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ASCII IPA (American only)by Markus Laker, with some additions by Bob Cunningham
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ASCII IPA is a way to represent speech using a computer keyboard. This is a simplified version showing American pronunciations
only.
Contents
What is this?On the newsgroup alt.usage.english we often want to represent the way we speak. It's dangerous to make statements such as "bother rhymes with father" or "father sounds like farther" because, for many people, those statements aren't true. Besides, nobody knows how you say bother and farther.To get round the problem, we use a notation called ASCII IPA. We all agree on what sound each symbol represents, regardless of our own accents. ASCII IPA is similar to the International Phonetic Alphabet used in modern dictionaries, but it uses the symbols available on most computer keyboards. [For a full description of the International Phonetic Alphabet, see the Web site of the International Phonetic Association at http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html. The IPA symbols shown on this page are from the 1979 revision of the International Phonetic Association's IPA Chart. For that reason, some of the symbols shown may not be the same as those shown in later revisions of the Phonetic Association's chart. In particular, 'turned-t' is no longer used for the sound in 'tsk tsk', and lowercase iota is no longer used. (BC)] This page is an introduction to ASCII IPA; whether you already know conventional IPA or not, you should find ASCII IPA easy to learn here. If you don't, please contact the webmaster and suggest how this page might be improved. Not every ASCII IPA symbol is shown here, only those used most often on alt.usage.english. Other ASCII IPA symbols are used in descriptions of other languages and on other newsgroups, such as the linguistics group sci.lang. Each word in the following tables is used to demonstrate a particular sound. Don't worry if other parts of the words sound different from the way they're pronounced in your part of the world; the idea is to demonstrate the sounds themselves, not the words they form. Let's get started!For a quick look at ASCII IPA symbols, see page ASCII IPA in a nutshell. Come back here if you want more. Reading ASCII IPA is easier than writing it. For one thing, no one will know if you make a mistake. I suggest you learn to read it and then, when you can start to read words without constantly referring to the tables below, start to write. Reading ASCII IPAASCII IPA looks like this: /bIt/. The /slashes/ are just a way of keeping the ASCII IPA in and the English spelling out. All you have to do is to look up the three symbols "b", "I" and "t" in the tables below. You'll find that /b/ and /t/ are just what you expect them to be, assuming that you grew up speaking English, and /I/ is the vowel in it and bridge. Put it all together and you get the word bit. Here's a more complicated example: /'fA:D@/. What are all those symbols? Well, the apostrophe (') is a stress marker: it says that the following syllable is stressed. The colon (:) lengthens the preceding vowel. The at-sign (@) represents a schwa, the neutral, unstressed vowel in the words about and lemon. Put it all together and you get the way I [Markus Laker] - a Brit who drops his R's - say father. The word schwa, by the way, is pronounced /SwA:/. You'll find it easier to learn ASCII IPA if you remember the following points:
For practice in reading IPA, try following the Interlinear transliterations. Writing ASCII IPAWriting ASCII IPA is easy once you can read it fairly fluently. To represent a word in ASCII IPA, you have to break it down into its component sounds. The word cat, for example, has the "k" sound from kick, the "a" sound from pan and the "t" sound from hit. All you do is to find the relevant sounds in the tables below, pick the corresponding symbols, and write them one after another inside a pair of /slashes/. So the ASCII IPA for cat is /k&t/. For longer or more complex words, use an apostrophe (') to indicate that the following syllable is stressed. Use a colon (:) to indicate that the previous vowel is lengthened. You can learn how to use the rest of the other symbols table from other people as and when you need it. Sometimes you should use [square brackets] rather than slashes when you write ASCII IPA. But don't worry about that now; learn the symbols and how to use them, and then read the little essay near the end of this page. About the sound filesIf you are able to listen to sound files, I [Bob Cunningham] recommend that you emphasize use of the sound files to associate each symbol with a sound. Don't be concerned about whether or not the example words are pronounced as you would pronounce them. An example word has the sole purpose of illustrating the sound associated with a symbol, so all that matters is that the speaker is pronouncing the word with the correct sound of the symbol. I'd like to call particular attention to the section that is headed Focus on vowel sounds. The sounds presented in that section should be the most reliable and authoritative guide for associating sounds with symbols. (BC) The SymbolsConsonants and vowelsThe consonant symbols [b], [d], [f], [h], [k], [l], [m], [n], [p], [r], [s], [t], [v], [w], and [z] have their usual English values. In other words, they always have the same sound in English spelling, and that's the sound they have in ASCII IPA, too.The following table lists the other sounds most often used in ASCII IPA. It shows each ASCII IPA symbol, some words that use that sound, the way that American speakers typically pronounce those words (don't worry if that's not the way that you pronounce them), and the IPA symbol and name. Numbered links in the table lead to sound samples, the number identifying the speaker. The section Focus on Vowel Sounds, further down this page, gives additional information about English language vowel sounds. The links <+> provide quick access to, and return from, the relevant line of that table. (MB) Symbols in the table (click on a blue arrow to return here): A a D E e g I i j N O o R S T t! U u V V" Z & @ ? *
Note 1: The word pronunciations are not heard in every part of the United States. They are the ones in my [Bob Cunningham's] idiolect and probably are typical of the pronunciation of most speakers west of the Rocky Mountains. (BC) Note 2: The reference to 'Chicago pop' first appeared in Mark Israel's AUE FAQ, and I [Bob Cunningham] believe it was copied from there by Markus Laker for inclusion in his ASCII IPA guide. Some AUE readers have expressed disagreement with the Chicago pronunciation of 'pop' with [a]. I have no opinion on the subject, having no knowledge of how 'pop' is pronounced in Chicago. I suggest that you use your own knowledge or your own judgement about whom to believe. In any case, example words should not be relied upon in general to illustrate pronunciation. First priority should be given to listening to the sound files to learn the pronunciation associated with any symbol. Example words are to be regarded as crutches for the benefit of those who do not have sound cards. (BC) Note 3: Some U.S. speakers do not distinguish between "Mary", "merry", and "marry" 3. Among those who use the same vowel in 'Mary', 'merry', and 'marry', not all of them have the common vowel /E/ in the three words. One reader has said that he pronounces all three with /&/. (BC) Note 4: A short tap of the tongue used by some U.S. speakers in "pedal", "petal". If you distinguish"pedal" [3] from "petal" [3], then you do not use this sound. [Start of "Consonants and Vowels"] [Top of this page] Affricates, diphthongs and triphthongsA diphthong is a glide between two pure vowel sounds but which is normally considered as a unit. The vowels in cake, dive, bone are diphthongs.A triphthong is a glide between three vowels - again, normally considered as a unit. The vowels in fire and power are triphthongs. An affricate is a plosive consonant immediately followed by a fricative or spirant. In simple English, it's a consonant that momentarily stops the air flow through your mouth followed by a second consonant that you pronounce by forcing the air through a small gap. The two consonants in charge are affricates. Observant readers will notice that /hw/ doesn't belong in this table at all. Symbols in the table (click on a blue arrow to return here): tS dZ eI oU aI aU Oi
[Start of "Affricates, diphthongs, and triphongs"] [Top of this page] Other symbols
Note 1: The IPA symbol in question is shown in black. The arbitrarily-chosen gray symbol indicates positioning only. Slashes or square brackets?If you read alt.usage.english for long, you'll sometimes see ASCII IPA written between /slashes/ and you'll sometimes see it between [square brackets]. Which is right? This apparently simple question baffled me [Markus Laker] for months. Here is the understanding that I, as a non-linguist, eventually reached, along with four useful words that interested amateurs - like me - will find useful.
Phonemic transcriptions are enclosed in slashes. Here's an example. In English English, cold is pronounced /k@Uld/. This is true for all English accents, even those that sound very different from RP (Received Pronunciation or 'BBC English'). In many English accents, however, the presence of the [l] changes the [@U] to [oU], and the word comes out as [koUld]. But it's still correct to write it phonemically as /k@Uld/ because the change from [@U] to [oU] doesn't affect the meaning. In fact, all words in the same class - soul, pole, sold -- undergo the same change and we aren't normally even conscious of it. A second example: phonemic transcriptions - which use slashes - don't distinguish between the four [t] sounds in tot, bottle, button, and don't know. Phonetic transcriptions - which use square brackets - do attempt to distinguish. The scheme shown on this page can't make all these distinctions (although the [t] in don't know would be replaced by a [?]). More elaborate distinctions are possible using the full definition of ASCII IPA at Evan Kirshenbaum's Web site, although they aren't often used on alt.usage.english. Evan's definition is also available in a PDF version for those who have the Acrobat reader. He has stated "The PDF file is the one that should be treated as authoritative (to the extent that any of this is)." Focus on vowel soundsSymbols in the table (click on a blue arrow to return here): A a % E e I i O o U u V V" & @
Note 1: The remarks concerning the pronunciation of [O] were taken verbatim from Mark Israel's AUE FAQ. Some AUE contributors have expressed the opinion that the remarks are too sweeping a generalization, and that there are American pronunciations of 'caught' and 'court' that don't follow the guidelines given by the remarks. (They happen to apply exactly to my [Bob Cunningham's] idiolect.) In any case, if you are able to listen to the auditory pronunciations, you should ignore such explanatory remarks and should also ignore example words. You should give priority to listening to the sound files. Example words and explanatory notes are crutches for the benefit of those who don't have sound cards. (BC) [Start of "Focus on vowel sounds"] [Top of this page] SpeakersMany thanks to those who've kindly provided sound samples:
CreditsASCII IPA was developed by a team of alt.usage.english and sci.lang members led by Evan Kirshenbaum <e-mail>.The material in the Consonants and vowels and Other symbols tables is taken from the alt.usage.english FAQ written by Mark Israel. He and Evan Kirshenbaum made many helpful suggestions and corrections during the production of this page. This page is for the most part the work of Markus Laker. In early 1999 Bob Cunningham added the large number of pronunciation examples that are marked 3. He also added the indexes to individual characters and some linkages to other programs at his Web site, and made some other minor changes to suit his own taste. On 2 June 2000 he added the material in the 'Focus on vowel sounds' section. Bob writes: Let me call attention to the fact that I've tried to leave all of Markus Laker's comments as he wrote them. My intent has been to flag with initials 'BC' any comments that I've added. I hope I've found all of them. Any comments that are not so tagged should be assumed to be by Markus Laker. (BC) Mike Barnes made a number of changes to the presentation of this page, in May 2002. Help to complete this page!You'll have noticed that some of the symbols in the tables above don't have sound samples. That's because they don't occur in the contributors' dialects. If your dialect or language uses one of these sounds and you have a multimedia computer, please send to the webmaster a recording (see Recording Suggestions) of yourself saying one or more of the words shown. If you send a sample, please say how you'd like yourself named or described. |
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