IPA number

Numbering system for alphabetical symbols

IPA numbers are a legacy system of coding the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. They were the organizational basis for XSAMPA and the IPA Extensions block of Unicode.

Following the Kiel Convention in 1989, most letters, diacritics and other symbols of the IPA were assigned a 3-digit numerical code, with updates through 2005. The purpose was to identify IPA symbols explicitly in an era of competing computer encodings, and thus to prevent confusion between similar characters (such as ⟨ɵ⟩ and ⟨θ⟩, ⟨ɤ⟩ and ⟨ɣ⟩, ⟨ʃ⟩ and ⟨ʄ⟩, ⟨ɫ⟩ and ⟨ɬ⟩ or ⟨ǁ⟩ and ⟨‖⟩) in such situations as the printing of manuscripts. The system never saw much if any use and is now defunct, having been superseded by Unicode.[1]

The semantic and graphic categories of the symbols are assigned different ranges of numbers: The 100 series are IPA consonants, the 200s retired and non-IPA consonants, the 300s vowels, the 400s diacritics, the 500s suprasegmentals, the 600s extIPA, the 700s capital letters and the 900s delimiters.[1] Some symbols have more than one code.[2]

## 100: IPA consonants

[edit]

Current IPA consonants, and those retired after the Kiel convention, are assigned numbers in the 100 range. The tie-bars used to create affricate consonants are assigned numbers in the 400 and 500 ranges.

Consonants (main chart)  | Bilabial  | Labiodental  | Alveolar  | Retroflex  | Palatal  | Velar  | Uvular  | Pharyngeal  | Glottal

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Plosive  | p b
101 102  |  | t d
103 104  | ʈ ɖ
105 106  | c ɟ
107 108  | k ɡ g
109 110 210  | q ɢ
111 112  | ʡ
173  | ʔ
113
Nasal  | m
114  | ɱ
115  | n
116  | ɳ
117  | ɲ
118  | ŋ
119  | ɴ
120  |  |
Trill  | ʙ
121  |  | r
122  |  |  |  | ʀ
123  | ʜ ʢ
172 174  |
Tap or Flap  |  | ⱱ
184  | ɾ
124  | ɽ
125  |  |  |  |  |
Fricative  | ɸ β
126 127  | f v
128 129  | θ ð
130 131  | s z
132 133  | ʃ ʒ
134 135  | ʂ ʐ
136 137  | ç ʝ
138 139  | x ɣ
140 141  | χ ʁ
142 143  | ħ ʕ
144 145  | h ɦ
146 147
Lateral fricative  |  |  | ɬ ɮ
148 149  |  |  |  |  |  |
Approximant  |  | ʋ
150  | ɹ
151  | ɻ
152  | j
153  | ɰ
154  |  |  |
Lateral approximant  |  |  | l
155  | ɭ
156  | ʎ
157  | ʟ
158  |  |  |
Implosives  | Clicks

|

ƥ ɓ
159 160  | ʘ
176
ƭ ɗ
161 162  | ǀ
177
ƈ ʄ
163 164  | ǃ
178
ƙ ɠ
165 166  | ǂ
179
ʠ ʛ
167 168  | ǁ
180
Other symbols
ʍ w
169 170  | ɧ
175

171  | ɺ
181
ɕ ʑ
182 183  | ◌͡◌ ◌͜◌
433 509

## 200: retired and non-IPA consonants

[edit]

The 200 range is mostly retired IPA consonants, though it includes several letters of the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet that are sometimes used alongside the IPA. A few superscript IPA letters, including a single vowel, have also been assigned numbers in this range. Symbols official until retirement by Kiel in 1989 are numbered upwards from 201; those already retired, or not IPA at all, are numbered downwards from 299.

In addition, there is the pre-composed character ⟨ɫ⟩, the loop-tail ⟨g⟩ (see the main consonant chart above), and the implicit IPA letter ⟨ᶑ⟩.

Old click letters  | ʇ
201 | ʗ
202 | ʖ
203 | ʞ
291

|
|
|
|

Superscript letters  | ˢ
207 | ᶿ
217 | ᵊ
218 | ˣ
292
Misc.  | ɼ
206 | ƞ
293 | ɫ
209 | ᶑ
219 | ƻ
290  | ƾ

Palatalized letters  | ʆ
204 | ʓ
205 | ƫ
208 | ᶁ
NA | ᶅ
NA | ᶇ

Ligature affricates  | ʦ
211 | ʣ
212 | ʧ
213 | ʤ
214 | ʨ
215 | ʥ
216
NAPA letters  | ƛ
294 | λ
295 | ž
296 | š
297 | ǰ
298 | č
299

## 300: IPA vowels

[edit]

Vowel letters that were official after Kiel were numbered upward from 301. ⟨ı⟩, which was once needed to create ⟨i⟩ with a diacritic, two letters retired at Kiel, ⟨ɩ ɷ⟩, and the three non-rhotic vowels added in the 1993 and 1996 updates to the IPA, ⟨ɘ ɞ ʚ⟩, were numbered downward from 399. Pre-composed ⟨ɚ⟩, present at Kiel, was assigned a number, but later ⟨a˞⟩ and ⟨ɝ⟩ were not.

Vowels  | Front  | Central  | Back

|
|
|

Close  | i ı y
301 394 309  | ɨ ʉ
317 318  | ɯ u
316 308
Near-close  | ɪ ɩ ʏ
319 399 320  |  | ʊ ɷ
321 398
Mid-close  | e ø
302 310  | ɘ ɵ
397 323  | ɤ o
315 307
Mid  |  | ə ɚ
322 327  |
Mid-open  | ɛ œ
303 311  | ɜ ɝ ɞ ʚ
326 NA 395 396  | ʌ ɔ
314 306
Near-open  | æ
325  | ɐ
324  |
Open  | a ɶ
304 312  |  | ɑ ɒ
305 313

## 400: non-tone diacritics

[edit]

Diacritics  ◌ʼ
401  | ◌̥
402A | ◌̊
402B | ◌̬
403

|
|
|

404  | ◌ʱ
NA | ◌̤
405  | ◌̰
406

407  | ◌̪
408  | ◌̺
409  | ◌̻
410

411  | ◌̜
412  | ◌̟
413  | ◌̠
414

415  | ◌̽
416  | ◌̘
417  | ◌̙
418

419  | ◌ʷ
420  | ◌ʲ
421  | ◌ᶣ

422  | ◌ˤ
423  | ◌̃
424  | ◌ⁿ
425

426  | ◌̚
427  | ◌̴
428  | ɫ
209

429  | ◌̞
430  | ◌̩
431  | ◌̯
432
Retired and non-IPA

491  | ◌ʻ
492  | ◌̇
493  | ◌˹
490

494  | ◌˖
495  | ◌ʸ
496  | ◌ʴ

489  | ◌̣
497  | ◌̡
498  | ◌̫
499

## 500: suprasegmentals

[edit]

Indicators of tone, stress, intonation and other elements of prosody. Combinations of tone diacritics or letters that were illustrated on the IPA Chart in 1999 are assigned individual numbers, leaving 3 tone diacritics and many, many compound tone letters without assigned numbers.

Prosody  ˈ◌
501  | ˌ◌
502  | ◌.◌
506  | ◌‿◌
509

|
|
|

503  | ◌ˑ
504  | ◌̆
505  | ◌̑
595

507  | ‖
508  | ↗
510  | ↘
511
Tone and intonation  Level  | Contour

|

512  | ˥
519  | ◌̌
524  | ˩˥
529

513  | ˦
520  | ◌̂
525  | ˥˩
530

514  | ˧
521  | ◌᷄
526  | ˧˥
531

515  | ˨
522  | ◌᷅
527  | ˩˧
532

516  | ˩
523  | ◌᷈
528  | ˨˦˨
533
|  | ◌᷇
NA | ˥˧

517  |  | ◌᷆
NA | ˧˩

518  |  | ◌᷉
NA | ˦˨˦

Retired and non-IPA

596  | ˆ◌
597  | ◌̖
598  | ◌̗
599

## 600: extIPA

[edit]

The symbols of the Extensions to the IPA were numbered sequentially to 683. Several are redundant with other ranges. (The capital Latin letters are not shown here; see the 700 range.) A few letters that were apparently added to extIPA after 1999, such as ⟨ʬ⟩, were not given numbers either, though they predate ⟨ⱱ⟩, which was added to the regular IPA in 2005 and did receive a number. The symbols added in the 2015 expansion of extIPA were apparently never assigned numbers either.

Letters  | ʭ
601 | ʩ
602 | ʪ
603 | ʫ
604 | ʬ
NA | ¡

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611 | *
612 | Œ
627 | Θ
628 | И
NA | ꟿ

Connected
speech  | (.)
631 | (‥)
632 | (...)
633 | 1
640 | 2
641 | 3
643

634 | ff
635 | p
636 | pp
637 | allegro
638 | lento
639
Inline symbols  | \
659 | ↓
661 | ↑
662 | ◌‼
672 | ◌!
679

Number 611 is the "balloon" used to encircle unidentified segments.

Misc.
diacritics  | ◌͆
651 | ◌͍
652 | ◌̪͆
653 | ◌͊
654 | ◌͋
655 | ◌͌
656 | ◌͈
657 | ◌͉
658 | ◌͎
660

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673 | ◌͢◌
674 | ◌͇
675 | ◌ʶ
676 | ◌ꟸ
677 | ◌ꟹ
678 | ◌˭
680 | ◌͔
681 | ◌͕
682
Voicing
diacritics  | ◌̬᪽
665 | ◌̬᫃
666 | ◌̬᫄
667 |  | ◌̥᪽
668 | ◌̥᫃
669 | ◌̥᫄
670

663 = 403 | ◌ˬ
664 = 403 | ◌˷
683 = 406 | ʰ◌
671 = 404

## 700: capital letters

[edit]

The capitals of the basic Latin alphabet, A-Z, are assigned the numbers 701 to 726 in order.

C 703, F 706, J 710, L 712, V 722 and W 723 are redundant with their extIPA numbers 624, 622, 626, 625, 621, 623, respectively.

## 900: transcription delimiters

[edit]

Brackets and other punctuation that mark linguistic transcription

Delimitation characters  phonetic  | [ ]
901 902

|

phonemic  | /
903
silent (mouthing) /
indistinguishable[3] | ( )
906 907
sound obscured  | ⸨ ⸩
908 909
prosodic  | { }
910 911

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Steven Moran & Michael Cysouw (2018) The Unicode cookbook for linguists, p. 44-45
2. ^ "Appendix 2: Computer coding of IPA symbols" and "Appendix 3: Extensions to the IPA". The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. 1999. pp. 161–192.
3. ^ The labels "silent (mouthing)" and "indistinguishable" appear on p. 175 and p. 191, respectively, of the IPA Handbook.

## External links

[edit]

* IPA number chart – a chart of the numbers of most of the current symbols in the IPA proper, on the IPA website

* v
* t
* e

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

| IPA|

* International Phonetic Association
* History of the alphabet
* Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA)
* Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS)
* Journal of the IPA (JIPA)

|

Special topics|

* Cursive forms
* Case variants
* Obsolete and nonstandard symbols
* Naming conventions
* Sinological extensions
* World Orthography
* IPA chart for English dialects

Encodings|

* ASCII encodings
* SAMPA
* X-SAMPA
* Kirshenbaum
* TIPA
* Phonetic symbols in Unicode
* IPA number
* IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants |  | Place →  | Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Laryngeal

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|
|
|

Manner ↓  | Bi­labial | Labio­dental | Linguo­labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post­alveolar | Retro­flex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn­geal/epi­glottal | Glottal
Nasal | m̥ | m | ɱ̊ | ɱ |  | n̼ | n̪̊ | n̪ | n̥ | n | n̠̊ | n̠ | ɳ̊ | ɳ | ɲ̊ | ɲ | ŋ̊ | ŋ | ɴ̥ | ɴ |  |  |  |
Plosive | p | b | p̪ | b̪ | t̼ | d̼ | t̪ | d̪ | t | d |  |  | ʈ | ɖ | c | ɟ | k | ɡ | q | ɢ | ʡ |  | ʔ |
Sibilant affricate |  |  |  |  |  |  | t̪s̪ | d̪z̪ | ts | dz | t̠ʃ | d̠ʒ | tʂ | dʐ | tɕ | dʑ |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Non-sibilant affricate  | pɸ | bβ | p̪f | b̪v |  |  | t̪θ | d̪ð | tɹ̝̊ | dɹ̝ | t̠ɹ̠̊˔ | d̠ɹ̠˔ |  |  | cç | ɟʝ | kx | ɡɣ | qχ | ɢʁ | ʡʜ | ʡʢ | ʔh |
Sibilant fricative |  |  |  |  |  |  | s̪ | z̪ | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | ʂ | ʐ | ɕ | ʑ |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Non-sibilant fricative  | ɸ | β | f | v | θ̼ | ð̼ | θ | ð | θ̠ | ð̠ | ɹ̠̊˔ | ɹ̠˔ | ɻ̊˔ | ɻ˔ | ç | ʝ | x | ɣ | χ | ʁ | ħ | ʕ | h | ɦ
Approximant |  | β̞ |  | ʋ |  |  |  | ð̞ |  | ɹ |  | ɹ̠ |  | ɻ |  | j |  | ɰ |  | ʁ̞ |  |  |  | ʔ̞
Tap/flap |  | ⱱ̟ |  | ⱱ |  | ɾ̼ |  |  | ɾ̥ | ɾ |  |  | ɽ̊ | ɽ |  |  |  |  |  | ɢ̆ |  | ʡ̆ |  |
Trill | ʙ̥ | ʙ |  |  |  |  |  |  | r̥ | r |  | r̠ | ɽ̊r̥ | ɽr |  |  |  |  | ʀ̥ | ʀ | ʜ | ʢ |  |
Lateral affricate  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tɬ | dɮ |  |  | tꞎ | d𝼅 | c𝼆 | ɟʎ̝ | k𝼄 | ɡʟ̝ |  |  |  |  |  |
Lateral fricative  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ɬ̪ |  | ɬ | ɮ |  |  | ꞎ | 𝼅 | 𝼆 | ʎ̝ | 𝼄 | ʟ̝ |  |  |  |  |  |
Lateral approximant  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | l̪ | l̥ | l |  | l̠ | ɭ̊ | ɭ | ʎ̥ | ʎ | ʟ̥ | ʟ |  | ʟ̠ |  |  |  |
Lateral tap/flap  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ɺ̥ | ɺ |  |  | 𝼈̊ | 𝼈 |  | ʎ̆ |  | ʟ̆ |  |  |  |  |  |

* IPA help
* audio
* full chart
* template

Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants |  | BL | LD | D | A | PA | RF | P | V | U | EG

|
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|
|

Ejective | Stop | pʼ |  |  | tʼ |  | ʈʼ | cʼ | kʼ | qʼ | ʡʼ
Affricate |  | p̪fʼ | t̪θʼ | tsʼ | t̠ʃʼ | tʂʼ | tɕʼ | kxʼ | qχʼ |
Fricative | ɸʼ | fʼ | θʼ | sʼ | ʃʼ | ʂʼ | ɕʼ | xʼ | χʼ |
Lateral affricate  |  |  |  | tɬʼ |  |  | c𝼆ʼ | k𝼄ʼ | q𝼄ʼ |
Lateral fricative  |  |  |  | ɬʼ |  |  |  |  |  |
Click
(top: velar;
bottom: uvular)  | Tenuis | kʘ
qʘ |  | kǀ
qǀ | kǃ
qǃ |  | k𝼊
q𝼊 | kǂ
qǂ |  |  |
Voiced | ɡʘ
ɢʘ |  | ɡǀ
ɢǀ | ɡǃ
ɢǃ |  | ɡ𝼊
ɢ𝼊 | ɡǂ
ɢǂ |  |  |
Nasal | ŋʘ
ɴʘ |  | ŋǀ
ɴǀ | ŋǃ
ɴǃ |  | ŋ𝼊
ɴ𝼊 | ŋǂ
ɴǂ | ʞ
|  |
Tenuis lateral |  |  |  | kǁ
qǁ |  |  |  |  |  |
Voiced lateral  |  |  |  | ɡǁ
ɢǁ |  |  |  |  |  |
Nasal lateral  |  |  |  | ŋǁ
ɴǁ |  |  |  |  |  |
Implosive | Voiced  | ɓ |  |  | ɗ |  | ᶑ | ʄ | ɠ | ʛ |
Voiceless | ɓ̥ |  |  | ɗ̥ |  | ᶑ̊ | ʄ̊ | ɠ̊ | ʛ̥ |

* IPA help
* audio
* full chart
* template

Co-articulated consonants

Nasal

n͡m

Labial–alveolar

ɳ͡m

Labial–retroflex

ŋ͡m

Labial–velar

Plosive

t͡p

d͡b

Labial–alveolar

ʈ͡p

ɖ͡b

Labial–retroflex

k͡p

ɡ͡b

Labial–velar

q͡ʡ

Uvular–epiglottal

q͡p

Labial–uvular

Fricative/approximant

Labialized palatal

Labialized velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Implosive

ɠ̊͜ɓ̥

ɠ͡ɓ

Labial–velar

Ejective

t͡pʼ

Labial–alveolar

* IPA help
* full chart
* template

Other|

* Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃]
* Nasal palatal approximant [j̃]
* Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆]
* Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥]
* Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]
* Voiceless upper-pharyngeal plosive [ʡ̟]
* Voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive [ʡ̟̬]
* Bilabial percussive [ʬ]
* Bidental percussive [ʭ]
* Sublaminal lower-alveolar percussive [¡]

Vowels

|  |  | Front | Central | Back

|
|
|

Close |

Near-close |

|  |

Close-mid |

Mid |

Open-mid |

Near-open |

Open |

* IPA help
* audio
* full chart
* template

Legend: unrounded • rounded
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[BL]: Bilabial
*[LD]: Labiodental
*[D]: Dental
*[A]: Alveolar
*[PA]: Postalveolar
*[RF]: Retroflex
*[P]: Palatal
*[V]: Velar
*[U]: Uvular
*[EG]: Epiglottal