IPA Keyboard & Chart

Interactive International Phonetic Alphabet chart. Click any symbol to add it to your transcription, hear its sound, and copy the result.

---

---

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each distinct sound (phone) used in spoken human language. It is maintained by the International Phonetic Association and was first published in 1888.

How It Works

IPA symbols are organized into three major categories based on how sounds are produced:

• Consonants — organized by place of articulation (where in the vocal tract the airflow is obstructed) and manner of articulation (how the airflow is obstructed). Voiced and voiceless pairs share table cells.
• Vowels — arranged on a trapezoidal chart by tongue height (close to open) and tongue backness (front to back). Rounded and unrounded pairs appear together.
• Diacritics — small marks added to base symbols to modify their phonetic value, such as nasalization, aspiration, or length.
• Suprasegmentals — marks for stress, length, intonation, and syllable boundaries that apply above the level of individual segments.
• Tones — level and contour tone marks used to represent pitch patterns in tonal languages like Mandarin, Yoruba, and Thai.

Transcription Conventions

• Phonemic (broad) — placed between slashes /…/ and represents the abstract sound categories (phonemes) of a language.
• Phonetic (narrow) — placed between square brackets […] and captures precise articulatory detail.

Use Cases

• Language learning — look up correct pronunciation of foreign words.
• Linguistics research — transcribe speech data for analysis.
• Speech pathology — document speech sound disorders precisely.
• Dictionary notation — many dictionaries use IPA for pronunciation guides.
• Constructed languages — define phonology for fictional languages.

---

---

Feedback