The main tool of transcription: the IPA alphabet

The commonest tool for phonetic transcription is the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association. A little confusingly, both the Association and the Alphabet are commonly known as ‘the IPA’, a practice maintained here. The Alphabet is approved by the Association; amendments are made to it regularly on the basis of practical experience and scientific advice. For this reason, phonetics textbooks from different years contain slightly different versions of the Alphabet. (In particular, over the years there have been substantial changes to the number of vowels the IPA represents.)

‘Alphabet’ is perhaps also not the best way to refer to the IPA. The letters of the alphabet, {A, B, C …}, occur in a random order, with vowels scattered among consonants, and the consonants not grouped according to any linguistic principle. The IPA, however, is a set of tables containing symbols organized into rows and columns which are labelled with terms that have agreed meanings.

The rows of the Consonant chart groups sounds according to manner of articulation. The first row contains plosives:. The rows below have sounds with progressively more open stricture. The columns organize symbols by place of articulation, with the leftmost column containing symbols that stand for bilabial sounds, and sub - sequent columns containing symbols for sounds made progressively further down the vocal tract, so that the rightmost column contains symbols for glottal sounds.

The symbols of the IPA are presented in a number of tables, the main ones being pulmonic egressive consonants and vowels. The other tables contain non-pulmonic consonants, diacritics (small marks that combine with letter symbols to represent sounds not on the chart, as we have already seen) and suprasegmentals, aspects of sound which relate to things like length, phrasing, intonation and so on. There is also a collection of ‘other symbols’, which stand for sounds that do not easily fit in the main scheme.