International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of Latin- and Greek-based symbols that represent the sounds of spoken languages. The IPA's purpose is to allow users to transcribe the sounds of almost any spoken language into a written form that anyone can understand. French linguist and educator Paul Passy devised the IPA and had it published by his International Phonetic Association in the late 1880s in Paris. The association has revised and updated the IPA numerous times into the twenty-first century.

The IPA categorizes spoken sounds according to where and how the human mouth forms them. For example, the IPA has a set of symbols for fricatives, the consonant sounds produced by sharply blowing air through a narrow opening in the mouth, as with the v or f sounds. Meanwhile, the IPA vowel symbol æ (known as ash) represents the short a sound used in words such as cat and hand.

Background

The IPA was an invention of Paul Passy, a Frenchman who became interested in phonetics (the study of speech sounds) as a young man in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Passy's father was a renowned economist who instilled in his family a love of knowledge and culture. Passy himself learned four languages through home study but never received formal schooling in his youth. He studied language in college and then taught English and German for a decade.

Passy disliked the way schools traditionally taught foreign languages. He believed printed foreign words would always confuse students, since the students would be naturally inclined to pronounce the words using the conventions of their native languages. Passy thought students would benefit more from learning foreign languages from a universal system of symbols that represented all the sounds produced in a multitude of languages. To Passy, such a system would eliminate the possibility of students mispronouncing foreign words.

In Paris in 1886, while in his mid-twenties, Passy founded the Phonetic Teachers' Association, which became known as the International Phonetic Association in 1897. He intended for the group to popularize a new method of teaching foreign languages around the world. The method would be one of Passy's own design: a phonetic alphabet containing symbols that speakers of any language could use to pronounce foreign words. Passy had created such an alphabet as a teenager, but he and his fellows in the association refined the system after convening in 1886.

The association released the first IPA chart that year. It featured symbols for thirty consonants and thirteen vowels and several diacritics. Diacritics are accent marks or other symbols placed above or below letters to indicate the letters are to be pronounced differently than unaccented letters. However, the first IPA was imperfect, as its symbols were pronounced differently in different languages. This only contributed to the confusion Passy had been trying to eliminate by creating the IPA.

The association revised the IPA in 1888. The new version's symbols represented the sounds made in English, French, and German, and each sound was now represented by only one symbol across all the languages. Passy and his partners in the association were so committed to publicizing the IPA that the original name of their organization, the Phonetic Teachers' Association, was initially written in IPA characters as Dhi Fonètik Tîcerz' Asóciécon. Passy remained active in the International Phonetic Association into his later years. He died in 1940.

Overview

The International Phonetic Association revised and updated the IPA several times in the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. In 1994, the organization created a set of extensions to the IPA. This was an additional phonetic alphabet featuring symbols that represented the sounds of disordered speech, such as that produced by people who habitually stutter or lisp.

The IPA features one symbol for each speech sound. That symbol is always used to represent that sound, even if the same sound can be produced with numerous spellings, as in the -f sound in the words proof and graph. The IPA separates its symbols by the types of sounds they represent. Vowels are categorized together, as are consonants. These groups are broken down further into, for example, short vowels, long vowels, and different types of consonants. The IPA symbol ʌ represents the short vowel sound made in words such as love, money, and fun. The symbol ʊ represents the short vowel sound heard in the words put, look, and should. The IPA symbol i: illustrates the long vowel sound heard in the words need and beam.

The IPA has more complex symbols for diphthong vowels. Diphthongs are sounds formed from two vowels pronounced together. The IPA combines symbols to form the official character representations of diphthongs. For instance, the symbol ɪə represents the e and a sounds used in the words weird and appear. Meanwhile, the aʊ character depicts the diphthong formed from the o and u sounds heard in words such as house and mouth.

Fricative consonants are made from the friction of breath in a narrow space of the mouth. The fricative sh can be heard in words such as shirt and bash and is symbolized as ʃ in the IPA. The IPA's ʒ symbol represents a slightly different kind of sh sound: the one heard in the words measure and treasure. Another kind of consonant is a plosive. Plosives are pronounced by using the lips, teeth, or roof of the mouth (palate) to stop airflow from the mouth. One example is the p sound of words such as purple and pie and represented in the IPA simply as p. The IPA also uses the English letters b, g, and k to symbolize other plosives.

Affricates are consonants that combine plosives with fricatives. Examples are the j sound heard in the words manage and joy and the ch sound of the words chime and watch. The IPA symbol dʒ represents the j sound, while ʈʃ represents the ch sound. The IPA also features symbols for nasal and approximant consonants. Nasals are sounds made by the flow of air through the nostrils. An example is the m sound, represented in the IPA as a simple m. Approximants are consonants that can sound somewhat like vowels. The y sound, for example, can sound like a long e, as in the words yesterday and yellow. The IPA depicts the y sound with the letter j. By memorizing which IPA symbols correspond to which human speech sounds, people can pronounce foreign words relatively easily.

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