International Phonetic Alphabet

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[Square brackets]

Square brackets are used for actual pronounciation.

More precisely, square brackets denote phonetic transcription.

/Slashes/

Slashes are used for abstract pronounciation, which omit extraneous detail.

More precisely, square brackets denote phonemic transcription.

(Parentheses)

Parentheses denote optional pronounciation.

Examples

  • The English word "camera" is pronounced multiple ways. Two common pronounciations are /ˈkæmərə/ ("cam-er-a") and /ˈkæmrə/ ("cam-ra"), which may be concisely denoted in parallel as /kæm(ə)rə/.

  • I, a doe from Colorado, pronounce the English word "mathematics" as /ˌmæθɛˈmætɪks/, while our dearly beloved Olivia, in New Jersey, pronounces it /ˌmæθˈmætɪks/; Thus, the word would be singly transcribed as /ˌmæθ(ɛ)ˈmætɪks/.

Primary stress /ˈmɑrkər/ (ˈ)

Examples

  • The English words /ˈprɑdʒɛkt/ (noun) and /prəˈdʒɛkt/ (verb) are primarily disambiguated by the placement of stress.

  • In the English word /ˈmɑrkər/, the syllable "mɑr" has a primary stress.

/ˈsɛkənˌdɛri/ stress marker (ˌ)

Examples

  • In US English, the word /ˈsɛkənˌdɛri/ ("secondary"), the syllable "sɛk" has a primary stress, whilst the syllable "dɛr" has a secondary stress.

  • In the English word /ɪˌlɛkˈtrɪsɪti/ ("electricity"), the syllable "lɛk" has a secondary stress, whilst the syllable "trɪ" has a primary stress.

/ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/ break (.)

Full stops denote breaks between syllables.

Long mark (ː)

Suffixes sounds pronounced for an especially long duration.

Examples

  • In the word /fliːs/ ("fleece"), the vowel "iː" is longer than the short "i" sound. Though rare in English, consonants can also be lengthened! Long consonants are often called geminates. In English, gemination sometimes be found crossing words, when the last consonant in a word is the same as the first consonant in a following word, and the two 'morph' together.

  • In the word /ˈhoʊlːi/ ("wholly"), the consonant "lː" is geminated. Wikipedia carefully uses the precise bracketed notation to give a more honest picture: [ˈhoʊl.li]. Compare the pronounciation of "wholly" with "holy."

Being the lovely phonetically-consistent language that Polish is, geminates are simply indicated by duplicate consonants:

  • In the word /ˈvanːa/ (pl: "vanna"; en: "bathtub"), /nː/ is geminated.

Consonant length is distinctive and deliberate, sometimes being necessary for disambiguation:

  • If one were to omit the geminate in the word /r/ /rɔˈd͡ʑinɨ/ (PL: "rodzini"; EN: "families")

Tension (◌͈)

Tension or glottal tension. Notably used in transcription of Korean. Nonstandard.

Tie bars (◌͡, ◌͜, ◌⁀◌)

Affricates and co-articulated stops are denoted a tie bar joining two letters from above or below, with no difference in meaning. Archaic IPA notation merged the two characters into a single ligature, e.g. ⟨ʧ, ʤ⟩.

See also