LANGUAGE
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The IPA |
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The International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet, created by the International Phonetic Association, is a universally agreed system for representing the sounds of any human language in written form. The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is based on the Roman alphabet that has the advantage of being widely familiar but also includes letters and symbols from a variety of other sources. Since I make regular use of the IPA to exemplify the phonemic inventory of my and other languages, I thought that it deserved its own page as explanation. THE IPA CHART
PLACES OF ARTICULATION The eleven places of articulation for each column are shown from right to left at the top of the table of pulmonic consonants in the IPA chart to simulate front to back within the vocal tract. The diagram below is a cross section of the vocal tract, labelling the various possible points and areas (in capitals) of articulation. Note that retroflex is infact not a point of articulation, but rather a manner. These sounds are produced by curling the tongue backwards so that the tip is touching the palate and then usually bringing it back forward during the articuation of the sound.
EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE SYMBOLS PULMONIC CONSONANTS These are the most common type of consonants. They are those that use air from the lungs to produce outward airflow. Where consonants are presented in two columns, those on the left are voiceless, and those on the right are voiced. Those groups of consonants in only one column are all voiced. Plosives These are also known as stops as they are sounds made with a complete and momentary closure of airflow through the vocal tract.
Nasals These
are sounds produced by lowering the velum, allowing air to pass through the
nasal passages.
Trills These
are sounds made by forcing air to pass through the lips, over the tip of the
tongue when placed at the alveolar, or over the uvula to produce a vibrating
sound.
Taps
Or Flaps These
are produced like the trills, but instead of allowing a vibration, the tip of
the tongue rapidly touches the point of articulation once, thus causing a tap
or flap.
Fricatives These
are also known as continuants and are produced by a continuous airflow
through the mouth accompanied by a continuous audible noise.
Lateral
Fricatives These
are sounds that are produced by release through the sides of the tongue, with
the tip touching the alveolar and continuous audible friction.
Approximants These
are also called frictionless continuants. They are produced by
bringing the articulators close enough together while at the same time
leaving a sufficiently large gap between them through which air escapes
without causing audible turbulence.
Lateral
Approximants These
sounds are made by release through both sides of the tongue, without audible
friction.
NON-PULMONIC
CONSONANTS These
type of consonants are less common. Clicks
Voiced
Implosives
Ejectives
VOWELS In
the two columns, the vowels in the left-hand column are unrounded, and those in
the right-hand column are rounded. Because of their status as reference
points, it is difficult to represent some of the vowel symbols appropriately
in terms of particular languages; this is particular true to the mid central
vowels [ˆ, 8, 3, ‰, 6].
OTHER
SYMBOLS
NOTE
ON CONTENT Nearly all of
this information on the page was taken from the Handbook of the
International Phonetic Association, ISBN number: 0-521-63751-1. This is an
excellent book to widen ones knowledge on the subject of phonetics in general,
and of course, specifically on its transcription with the IPA. |
