Phonetic alphabets for American English

This document displays IPA characters and other special characters in the Phonetic alphabets section. See also CzechPhoneticAlphabet.

Phonetic alphabets

Table version 4.0

Vowel

IPA	L&H+	Description	IPA Unicode	Example	IPA Transcription	L&H+ Transcription
ɑ	A	open back	0251	g(o)t	ˈgɑt	'gAt
ɛ	E	open-mid front	025B	f(e)ll	ˈfɛl	'fEl
i	i	close front	0069	f(ee)l	ˈfil	'fil
ɪ	I	mid-high mid-front	026A	f(i)ll	ˈfɪl	'fIl
ɔ	O	open-mid back rounded	0254	f(a)ll	ˈfɔl	'fOl
u	u	close back rounded	0075	f(oo)l	ˈful	'ful
ə	$	central (schwa)	0259	(a)llow	ə.ˈla͡ʊ	$.'la&U
æ	@	mid-low front	00E6	c(a)t	ˈkæt	'k@t
ʌ	^	open-mid back	028C	c(u)t	ˈkʌt	'k^t
ʊ	U	mid-high back rounded	028A	f(u)ll	ˈfʊl	'fUl
ɜ	E0	open-mid central	025C	c(u)rt	ˈkɜɻt	'kE0R+t

Diphthong

IPA	L&H+	Description	IPA Unicode	Example	IPA Transcription	L&H+ Transcription
e͡ɪ	e&I	from close-mid front to mid-high mid-front	0065 + 0361 + 026A	f(ai)l	ˈfe͡ɪl	'fe&Il
ɔ͡ɪ	O&I	from open-mid back rounded to mid-high mid-front	0254 + 0361 + 026A	f(oi)l	ˈfɔ͡ɪl	'fO&Il
a͡ɪ	a&I	from open front to mid-high mid-front	0061 + 0361 + 026A	f(i)le	ˈfa͡ɪl	'fa&Il
a͡ʊ	a&U	from open front to mid-high back rounded	0061 + 0361 + 028A	f(ou)l	ˈfa͡ʊl	'fa&Ul
o͡ʊ	o&U	from close-mid back rounded to mid-high back rounded	006F + 0361 + 028A	g(oa)l	ˈgo͡ʊl	'go&Ul

Consonant (Pulmonic)

IPA	L&H+	Description	IPA Unicode	Example	IPA Transcription	L&H+ Transcription
j	j	palatal approximant voiced	006A	(y)es	ˈjɛs	'jEs
w	w	labial velar approximant voiced	0077	(wh)y	ˈwa͡ɪ	'wa&I
p	p	bilabial plosive voiceless	0070	(p)it	ˈpɪt	'pIt
b	b	bilabial plosive voiced	0062	(b)it	ˈbɪt	'bIt
t	t	alveolar plosive voiceless	0074	(t)op	ˈtɑp	'tAp
d	d	alveolar plosive voiced	0064	(d)ig	ˈdɪg	'dIg
k	k	velar plosive voiceless	006B	(c)at	ˈkæt	'k@t
g	g	velar plosive voiced	0067	(g)ot	ˈgɑt	'gAt
f	f	labiodental fricative voiceless	0066	(f)at	ˈfæt	'f@t
v	v	labiodental fricative voiced	0076	(v)at	ˈvæt	'v@t
s	s	alveolar fricative voiceless	0073	(s)eal	ˈsil	'sil
z	z	alveolar fricative voiced	007A	(z)eal	ˈzil	'zil
ʃ	S	postalveolar fricative voiceless	0283	(sh)ip	ˈʃɪp	'SIp
ʒ	Z	postalveolar fricative voiced	0292	lei(s)ure	ˈli.ʒəɻ	'li.Z$R+
h	h	glottal fricative voiceless	0068	(h)at	ˈhæt	'h@t
m	m	bilabial nasal voiced	006D	(m)an	ˈmæn	'm@n
n	n	alveolar nasal voiced	006E	(n)ut	ˈnʌt	'n^t
ŋ	nK	velar nasal voiced	014B	ri(ng)	ˈɻɪŋ	'R+InK
l	l	alveolar lateral approximant	006C	(l)ip	ˈlɪp	'lIp
ʔ	?	glottal plosive	0294	()eat	ˈʔit	'?it
θ	T	dental fricative voiceless	03B8	(th)in	ˈθɪn	'TIn
ð	D	dental fricative voiced	00F0	(th)en	ˈðɛn	'DEn
ɻ	R+	retroflex approximant voiced	027B	(r)ip	ˈɻɪp	'R+Ip
ɾ	r6	alveolar flap voiced	027E	bu(tt)er	ˈbʌ.ɾəɻ	'b^.r6$R+
n̩	n%)	alveolar nasal voiced syllabic	006E + 0329	did(n')t	ˈdɪ.dn̩t	'dI.dn%)t
l̩	l%)	alveolar lateral approximant syllabic	006C + 0329	batt(le)	ˈbæ.ɾl̩	'b@.!r6l%)

Affricate

IPA	L&H+	Description	IPA Unicode	Example	IPA Transcription	L&H+ Transcription
t͡ʃ	t&S	affricate voiceless from alveolar to postalveolar	0074 + 0361 + 0283	ca(tch)	ˈkæt͡ʃ	'k@t&S
d͡ʒ	d&Z	affricate voiced from alveolar to postalveolar	0064 + 0361 + 0292	(j)ourney	ˈd͡ʒɜɻ.ni	'd&ZE0R+.ni

Suprasegmental

IPA	L&H+	Description	IPA Unicode
.	.	syllable break	002E
ˈ	'	primary stress	02C8
ˌ	'2	secondary stress	02CC

Other symbol

IPA	L&H+	Description
None	"	sentence accent
None	#	silence (pause)
None	_	word delimitor
None	*.	end of declarative
None	*,	comma
None	*!	end of exclamation
None	*?	end of question
None	*;	semicolon
None	*:	colon