International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. It is intended as a notational standard for the phonemic and phonetic representation of all spoken languages.

Consonants (pulmonic)

Single articulation

The pulmonic consonant table, which includes most consonants, is arranged in rows that designate manner of articulation and columns that designate place of articulation. The main chart only includes consonants with a single place of articulation.

Related Topics:
Pulmonic - Manner of articulation - Place of articulation

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Notes:

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• In rows where some symbols appear in pairs (the obstruents), the symbol to the right represents a voiced consonant (except for breathy-voiced {{IPA|}}). However, {{IPA|}} cannot be voiced. In the other rows (the sonorants), the single symbol represents a voiced consonant.
• Although there is a single symbol for the coronal places of articulation for all consonants but fricatives, when dealing with a particular language, the symbols are treated as specifically alveolar, post-alveolar, etc., as appropriate for that language.
• Shaded areas indicate articulations judged to be impossible.
• Asterisks (*) mark reported sounds that do not (yet) have official IPA symbols. See the articles for ad hoc symbols found in the literature.
• The voiced fricative symbols, especially {{IPA|}}, may be used for either voiced fricatives or approximants.
• It is primarily the shape of the tongue rather than its position that distinguishes the fricatives {{IPA|}}, {{IPA|}}, and {{IPA|}}.
• The labiodental nasal {{IPA|}} is not known to exist as a phoneme in any language.

Coarticulation

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Notes:

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• {{IPA|}} is described as a "simultaneous {{IPA|}} and {{IPA|}}". However, this analysis is disputed. See the article for discussion.
• To be complete, this chart should also include the semi-palatalized postalveolar (palato-alveolar) fricatives voiceless postalveolar fricative and voiced postalveolar fricative.
• The miscellaneous portion of the chart, as published by the IPA, includes additional symbols that would have been included in the main consonant chart were it not for difficulties in typesetting on a printed page. In this article, which does not suffer from such problems, they have been included in the main chart above.