IPA Symbols

IPA Symbols

IPA: IPA is an abbreviation for International Phonetic Alphabet or International Phonetic Association. The association was formed by expert phoneticians of several languages. The IPA has designed symbols and these symbols represent all the sounds of all major languages spoken the world over. English has made a selection of 44 sounds to represent English sounds.

Vowels                                    Pure vowels (monophthongs) 12

                                                                                          

                                                                                                                    = 20

                                                 Diphthongs (vowel glides)      8

Consonants                                   Voiceless sounds    9  

                                                                                                                     = 24

                                                       Voiced sounds     15   

English Speech Sounds:

 English has 26 letters, but has 44 sounds. The 26 letters represent 44 sounds.

Phonemic Symbols:

            Phonetic symbols represent speech sounds. They are written within two slants or slashes //. For example, /i:/ represents ‘ee’ as in deep or as in deal. The phonemic symbols do not represent the letters used in the alphabet, but represent sound values.

IPA Symbols

Vowels                                                                        Diphthongs

1          / iː/ as in beat                                                  /eɪ / as in paid.

2          /ɪ / as in bit                                                      / aɪ / as in sight

3          / e / as in bet                                                    / ɔɪ/ as in boy

4          / æ / as in bat                                                   / əʊ / as in go

5          / ɑː/ as in past                                                 / aʊ / as in cow

6          / ɒ / as in pot                                                   / ɪə / as in dear

7          / ɔː/ as in port                                                 / eə / as in chair

8          / ʊ / as in put                                                   / ʊə / as in poor

9          / uː/ as in pool                                                

10        / ʌ / as in sun

11        / ɜː/ as in bird

12        / ə / as in about

                                                           

Consonants

Voiceless sounds                                            Voiced sounds

1          / p / as in pit                                             1  / b / as in bit

2          / t / as in took                                           2  / d / as in den

3          / k / as in kit                                             3  / g / as in get

4          / tʃ / as in bench                                       4  / dʒ / as in judge

5          / f / as in fan                                             5  / v / as in van

6          / θ / as in thick                                         6  / ð / as in then

7          / s / as in sit                                              7  / z / as in zoo

8          / ʃ / as in ship                                           8  / ʒ / as in measure

9          / h / as in hill                                             9  / m / as in man

                                                                              10  / n / as in nun

                                                                              11 / ŋ / as in sing

                                                                               12 / l / as in leave

                                                                                13 / r / as in room

                                                                                14  / j / as in yet

                                                                                15  / w / as in well

English

            There are differences between the spelling and the sounds in English. There is no  co-ordination between the spelling and the pronunciation of English words. It may be as:

One letter  = many sounds

/ ɑ /                             ----             Village  /ɪ /,      Many  / e /, Card  / ɑː/, Pad  / æ / 

 Want  / ɒ /, War  / ɔː/,Around  / ə /,Care  / eə /,Idea     / ɪə /.

Many letters one sound

/ k /---------   

Kill, Cat, Pick   ,Cheque, Quarter,

Combination of letters ‘ough’ in certain words:

Though                        /ðəʊ/               /əʊ/

Through                       / θruː/             /uː/

Thorough                     / θʌrə/             /ə/

Bough                         / baʊ/              / aʊ/

Bought                        / bɔːt/             / ɔː/

Rough                         / rʌf/                / ʌ/

Cough                         / kɒf/               / ɒ/

******************************************************************