THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (revised to 2015)

CONSONANTS (PULMONIC) 2015 IPA

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Plosive

Nasal

Trill

Tap or Flap

Fricative
Lateral
fricative
Approximant
Lateral
approximant
Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

CONSONANTS (NON-PULMONIC) VOWELS

Front Central Back
Clicks Voiced implosives Ejectives
Close
Bilabial Bilabial Examples:

Dental Dental/alveolar Bilabial Close-mid

(Post)alveolar Palatal Dental/alveolar

Palatoalveolar Velar Velar Open-mid

Alveolar lateral Uvular Alveolar fricative

OTHER SYMBOLS Open

Voiceless labial-velar fricative
Voiced labial-velar approximant
Voiced labial-palatal approximant
Voiceless epiglottal fricative
Voiced epiglottal fricative
Epiglottal plosive
Alveolo-palatal fricatives Where symbols appear in pairs, the one
to the right represents a rounded vowel.
Voiced alveolar lateral flap
SUPRASEGMENTALS
Simultaneous and
Primary stress
Affricates and double articulations
Secondary stress
can be represented by two symbols
joined by a tie bar if necessary. Long
Half-long
DIACRITICS Some diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, e.g.
Voiceless Breathy voiced Dental Extra-short
Minor (foot) group
Voiced Creaky voiced Apical
Major (intonation) group
Aspirated Linguolabial Laminal
Syllable break
More rounded Labialized Nasalized
Linking (absence of a break)
Less rounded Palatalized Nasal release
TONES AND WORD ACCENTS
Advanced Velarized Lateral release
LEVEL Extra CONTOUR
Retracted Pharyngealized No audible release
or or Rising
high
Centralized Velarized or pharyngealized High Falling
Mid-centralized Raised ( = voiced alveolar fricative) Mid High
rising
Syllabic Lowered ( = voiced bilabial approximant) Low Low
rising
Extr a Rising-
Non-syllabic Advanced Tongue Root low falling
Downstep Global rise
Rhoticity Retracted Tongue Root
Upstep Global fall
Typefaces: Doulos SIL (metatext); Doulos SIL, IPA Kiel, IPA LS Uni (symbols)