ජාත්‍යන්තර ධ්වනි අකාරාදිය

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Below is a basic key to the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. For the smaller set of symbols that is sufficient for English, see Help:IPA for English. Several rare IPA symbols are not included; these are found on the main IPA article. For the Manual of Style guideline for pronunciation, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation).

For each IPA symbol, an English example is given where possible; here "RP" stands for Received Pronunciation. The foreign languages that are used to illustrate additional sounds are primarily the ones most likely to be familiar to English speakers, French, German, and Spanish. For symbols not covered by those, recourse is taken to the populous languages Mandarin Chinese, Hindustani, Arabic, and Russian. For sounds still not covered, other smaller but well-known languages are used, such as Swahili, Turkish, and Zulu.

The left-hand column displays the symbols like this: . Click on the speaker icon to hear the sound; click on the symbol itself for a dedicated article with a more complete description and examples from multiple languages. All the sounds are spoken more than once, and the consonant sounds are spoken once followed by a vowel and once between vowels.
Main symbols

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not resemble any letter are placed at the end.


}
| English adze, Italian zero
|
|-
|
| English judge
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate|[ dʑ ]]]
| Polish niedźwiedź "bear"
| Like [dʒ], but with more of a y-sound.
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Voiced retroflex affricate|[ dʐ ]]]
| Polish dżem "jam"
| Like [dʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back.

|- id="E"
! colspan="3" | ^ top E
|-
|
| Spanish fe; French clé
|
|-
|
| German Klee
| Long [e]. Similar to English hey, before the y sets in.
|-
|
| English above, Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"
| (Only occurs in English when not stressed.)
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[R-colored vowel#R-colored vowel|[ ɚ ]]]
| American English runner
|
|-
|
| English bet
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Nasal vowel|[ ɛ̃ ]]]
| French Agen, vin, main
| Nasalized [ɛ].
|-
|
| RP bird (long)
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[R-colored vowel#R-colored vowel|[ ɝ ]]]
| American English bird
|

|- id="F"
! colspan="3" | ^ top F
|-
|
| English fun
|
|-
|
| see under J
|
|-
|
| see under J
|

|- id="G"
! colspan="3" | ^ top G
|-
|
| English gig
| (no different from the symbol "g")
|-
|
| Swahili Uganda
| Like [ɡ] said with a gulp.
|-
|
|
| Like [ɡ], but further back, in the throat. Found in some Arabic dialects for /q/, as in Gaddafi.
|-
|
| see under Z
| English beige.

|- id="H"
! colspan="3" | ^ top H
|-
|
| American English house
|
|-
|
| English ahead, when said quickly.
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Aspiration|[ ʰ ]]]
|
| The extra puff of air in English top [tʰɒp] compared to stop [stɒp], or to French or Spanish [t].
|-
|
| Arabic محمد Muhammad
| Far down in the throat, like [h], but stronger.
|-
|
| see under U
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [ ɮ ]
| see under L
|

|- id="I"
! colspan="3" | ^ top I
|-
|
| French ville, Spanish Valladolid
|
|-
|
| English sea
| Long [i].
|-
|
| English sit
|
|-
|
| Russian ты "you"
| Often used for unstressed English roses.

|- id="J"
! colspan="3" | ^ top J
|-
|
| English yes, German Junge
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Palatalization|[ ʲ ]]]
| Russian Ленин [lʲeˈnʲɪn]
| Indicates a sound is more y-like.
|-
|
| Spanish cayo (some dialects)
| Like [j], but stronger.
|-
|
| Turkish gör "see", Czech díra "hole"
| Between English dew (RP) and argue. Sometimes used instead for [dʒ] in languages like Hindi.
|-
|
| Swahili jambo
| Like [ɟ] said with a gulp.

|- id="K"
! colspan="3" | ^ top K
|-
|
| English kick, skip
|

|- id="L"
! colspan="3" | ^ top L
|-
|
| English leaf
|
|-
|
| English woolRussian малый [ˈmɑɫɨj] "small"
| "Dark" el.
|-
|
| Welsh llwyd [ɬʊɪd] "grey"Zulu hlala [ɬaːla] "sit"
| Rather like [l] and [ʃ] or [l] and [θ] said together. Found in Welsh names like Lloyd and Llywelyn and Nelson Mandela's Xhosa name Rolihlahla.
|-
|
|
| Like [l] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
|-
|
|
| A flapped [l], like [l] and [ɾ] said together.
|-
|
| Zulu dla "eat"
| Rather like [l] and [ʒ], or [l] and [ð], said together.

|- id="M"
! colspan="3" | ^ top M
|-
|
| English mime
|
|-
|
| English symphony
| Like [m], but lips touch teeth as they do in [f].
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [ ɯ ]
| see under W
|
|-
|
| see under W
|

|- id="N"
! colspan="3" | ^ top N
|-
|
| English nun
|
|-
|
| English sing
|
|-
|
| Spanish Peña, French champagne
| Rather like English canyon.
|-
|
| Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳ] "Varuna"
| Like [n] with the tongue curled or pulled back.
|-
|
| Castilian Spanish Don Juan
| Like [ŋ], but further back, in the throat.

|- id="O"
! colspan="3" | ^ top O
|-
|
| Spanish no, French eau
|
|-
|
| German Boden, French Vosges
| Long [o]. Somewhat reminiscent of English no.
|-
|
| German Oldenburg, French Garonne
|
|-
|
| RP law, French Limoges
| Long [ɔ].
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Nasal vowel|[ ɔ̃ ]]]
| French Lyon, son
| Nasalized [ɔ].
|-
|
| French feu, bœufs
| Like [e], but with the lips rounded like [o].
|-
|
| German Goethe, French Deûle, neutre
| Long [ø].
|-
|
| Swedish dum
| Halfway between [o] and [ø]. Similar to [ʊ] but with the tongue slightly more down and front.
|-
|
| French bœuf, seul, German Göttingen
| Like [ɛ], but with the lips rounded like [ɔ].
|-
|
| French œuvre, heure
| Long [œ].
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Nasal vowel|[ œ̃ ]]]
| French brun, parfum
| Nasalized [œ].
|-
|
| English thigh, bath
|
|-
|
| Japanese 富士 [ɸɯdʑi] Fuji
| Like [p], but with the lips not quite touching

|- id="P"
! colspan="3" | ^ top P
|-
|
| English pip, spit
|

|- id="Q"
! colspan="3" | ^ top Q
|-
|
| Arabic Qur’ān
| Like [k], but further back, in the throat.

|- id="R"
! colspan="3" | ^ top R
|-
|
| Spanish perro, Scots borrow
| "Rolled R". (Generally used for English [ɹ] when there's no need to be precise.)
|-
|
| Spanish pero, American English kitty/kiddie
| "Flapped R".
|-
|
|
| A trill in the back of the throat. Found for /r/ in some conservative registers of French.
|-
|
| Hindi साड़ी [sɑːɽiː] "sari"
| Like flapped [ɾ], but with the tongue curled back.
|-
|
| RP borrow
|
|-
|
| American English borrow, butter
| Like [ɹ], but with the tongue curled or pulled back, as pronounced by many English speakers.
|-
|
| French Paris, German Riemann
| Said back in the throat, but not trilled.

|- id="S"
! colspan="3" | ^ top S
|-
|
| English sass
|
|-
|
| English she
|
|-
|
| Mandarin Shàolín, Russian Пушкин (Pushkin)
| Acoustically similar to , but with the tongue curled or pulled back.

|- id="T"
! colspan="3" | ^ top T
|-
|
| English tot, stop
|
|-
|
| Hindi ठग [ʈʰəɡ] (thug) "thief"
| Like [t], but with the tongue curled or pulled back.
|-
|
| English cats, Russian царь tsar
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Voiceless postalveolar affricate|[ tʃ ]]]
| English church
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate|[ tɕ ]]]
| Mandarin 北京 , Polish ciebie "you"
| Like [tʃ], but with more of a y-sound.
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Voiceless retroflex affricate|[ tʂ ]]]
| Mandarin zh, Polish cz
| Like [tʃ] with the tongue curled or pulled back .

|- id="U"
! colspan="3" | ^ top U
|-
|
| French vous "you"
|
|-
|
| French Rocquencourt, German Schumacher, close to RP food
| Long [u].
|-
|
| English foot, German Bundesrepublik
|
|-
|
| Australian English food (long)
| Like [ɨ], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
|-
|
| French lui
| Like [j] and [w] said together.
|-
|
| see under W
|

|- id="V"
! colspan="3" | ^ top V
|-
|
| English verve
|
|-
|
| Hindi वरुण [ʋəruɳə] "Varuna"
| Between [v] and [w]. Used by some Germans and Russians for v/w, and by some speakers of British English for r.
|-
|
| Arabic / Swahili ghali "expensive"
| Sounds rather like French [ʁ].
|-
|
| Mandarin Hénán
| Like [o] but without the lips rounded, something like a cross of [ʊ] and [ʌ].
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [ ʌ ]
| see under A
|

|- id="W"
! colspan="3" | ^ top W
|-
|
| English wow
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [[Labialisation|[ ʷ ]]]
| English rain [ɹʷeɪn]
| Indicates a sound has lip rounding, quick.
|-
|
| what (some dialects)
| like [h] and [w] said together
|-
|
| Turkish kayık "caïque"
| Like [u], but with the lips flat; something like [ʊ].
|-
|
| Spanish agua
|

|- id="X"
! colspan="3" | ^ top X
|-
|
| Scottish English loch, German Bach, Russian хороший [xɐˈroʂɨj] "good"
|
|-
|
| Dutch Scheveningen, Castilian Spanish Don Juan
| Like [x], but further back , in the throat. Some German and Arabic speakers have [χ] for [x].

|- id="Y"
! colspan="3" | ^ top Y
|-
|
| French rue
| Like [i], but with the lips rounded as for [u].
|-
|
| German Bülow, French sûr
| Long [y].
|-
|
| German Eisenhüttenstadt
| Like [ɪ], but with the lips rounded as for [ʊ].
|-
|
| Spanish llama (Castilian)
| More y-like than [l]. Rather like English million.
|-
|
| see under U
|
|-
|
| see under V
|
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [ ɣ ]
| see under V
|

|- id="Z"
! colspan="3" | ^ top Z
|-
|
| English zoos
|
|-
|
| English vision, French journal
|
|-
|
| formal Russian жжёшь [ʑːoʂ] "you burn", Polish źle
| More y-like than [ʒ], something like beigey.
|-
|
| Mandarin 人民日报 Rénmín Rìbào "People's Daily", Russian журнал "journal"
| Like [ʒ] with the tongue curled or pulled back .
|-
| style="padding-left: 16px" | [ ɮ ]
| see under L
|

|- id="other"
! colspan="3" | ^ top other
|-
|
| English uh-oh, Hawai‘i, German die Angst
| The 'glottal stop', a catch in the breath. For some people, found in button [ˈbʌʔn̩], or between vowels across words: Deus ex machina [ˌdeɪəsˌʔɛksˈmɑːkɨnə]; in some nonstandard dialects, in a apple [ʌˈʔæpl̩].
|-
|
| Arabic عربي (carabī) "Arabic"
| A light sound deep in the throat.
|-
|
| English tsk-tsk! or tut-tut!, Zulu icici "earring"
| (The English click used for disapproval.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including . The Zimbabwean MP Ncube has this click in his name, as did Cetshwayo.
|-
|
| English tchick! tchick!, Zulu ixoxo "frog"
| (The English click used to urge on a horse.) Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including . Found in the name of the Xhosa.
|-
|
| Zulu iqaqa "polecat"
| A hollow popping sound, like a cork pulled from a bottle. Several distinct sounds, written as digraphs, including .
|}

* These symbols are officially written with a tie linking them (e.g. ), and are also sometimes written as single characters (e.g. ) though the latter convention is no longer official. They are written without ligatures here to ensure correct display in all browsers.
Diacritic marks

All diacritics are here shown on a carrier letter such as the vowel a.
Brackets

Two types of brackets are commonly used to enclose transcriptions in the IPA:
*[Square brackets] indicate the phonetic details of the pronunciation, regardless of whether they are actually meaningful to a native speaker. This is what a foreigner who does not know the structure of a language might hear. For instance, the English word lulls is pronounced , with different el sounds at the beginning and end. This may be obvious to speakers of other languages, though a native English speaker might not believe it. Likewise, Spanish la bomba has two different b sounds to foreign ears, , though a Spaniard might not be able to hear it. Omitting such detail does not make any difference to the identity of the word.
*/Slashes/ indicate meaningful sounds called phonemes. Changing the symbols between slashes would either change the identity of the word or produce nonsense. Since there is no meaningful difference between the two el sounds in the word lulls, they need to be transcribed with the same symbol: . Similarly, Spanish la bomba is transcribed phonemically with a single b sound, . Thus a reader who is not familiar with the language in question might not know how to interpret these transcriptions.

A third kind of bracket is occasionally seen:
*Either //double slashes// or |pipes| (or occasionally other conventions) show that the enclosed sounds are theoretical constructs that aren't actually heard. (This is part of morphophonology.) For instance, most phonologists argue that that the -s at the ends of verbs, which surfaces as either in talks or as in lulls , has a single underlying form. If they decide this form is an s, they would write it //s// (or |s|) to claim that phonemic and are essentially and underneath. If they were to decide it was essentially the latter, //z//, they would transcribe these words and .

Lastly,
* may be used to represent the original orthography: , .
Outside links

IPA pronunciation chart: http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm