The ''Phonetic Symbol Guide'' is a book by
Geoffrey Pullum
Geoffrey Keith Pullum (; born 8 March 1945) is a British and American linguist specialising in the study of English. Pullum has published over 300 articles and books on various topics in linguistics, including phonology, morphology, semantics ...
and
William Ladusaw that explains the histories and uses of the symbols of various
phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription (also known as Phonetic script or Phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or ''phonetics'') by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the ...
conventions. It was published in 1986, with a second edition in 1996, by the
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...
. Symbols include letters and diacritics of the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
and
Americanist phonetic notation
Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA), the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet or the American Phonetic Alphabet (APA), is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American ...
, though not of the
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
Finno-Ugric transcription (FUT) or the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nesto ...
. The ''Guide'' was consulted by the
International Phonetic Association
The International Phonetic Association (IPA; , API) is an organization that promotes the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. The IPA's major contribution to phonetics is the International Phoneti ...
when they established names and numerical codes for the International Phonetic Alphabet and was the basis for the characters of the
TIPA set of phonetic fonts.
List of symbols

The symbols included in the 2nd edition of the ''Guide'' are as follows. A number were adopted into Unicode 14 and 15 and have been available in SIL fonts since February 2023. Those not found in Unicode are marked with an asterisk.
:
a ȧ ä ᶏ
An r-colored or rhotic vowel (also called a retroflex vowel, vocalic r, or a rhotacized vowel) is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various ...
ɐ ɑ α ɒ ɒ̇ ɒ̈ ꭤ æ æ̇ æ̈ ᴀ A 4 ꜭ *
Ɐ ">mall cap Ɐ Æ *
">mall cap ʌ *
Δ ">mall cap Δ
:
b ḅ ƀ b̶ b̸ ь ъ ɓ ʙ β
:
c ć ꞓ
Ꞓ, minuscule: ꞓ, is a modified letter of the Latin script, formed from C with the addition of a bar. It was used in the final version of the Unified Northern Alphabet, approved in 1932 for Saami, Selkup, Khanty, Evenki, Even, Nanai, U ...
ȼ č ç ƈ ɕ ʗ 𝼏
file:Nama man giving us a lesson in the click language (3694165852).jpg, A Nama people, Nama man giving a literacy lesson in Khoekhoegowab that includes click letters
Various letters have been used to write the click consonants of southern Africa. ...
C
:
d đ ꟈ d̸ 𝼥 ɗ ɖ ᶑ ȸ ʣ ʤ ð δ D
:
e ë ę ᶒ
An r-colored or rhotic vowel (also called a retroflex vowel, vocalic r, or a rhotacized vowel) is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various w ...
ə ɚ ɘ ᴇ ᴇ̈ E ɛ ɛ̇ ᶓ ʚ ɜ ɝ ɞ
:
f ƒ ꜰ
:
ɡ g̸ ǥ ɠ g ɢ ʛ G ɣ γ *
alatal-hook γ*
etroflex-hook γ ɤ *(and its allograph )
:
h ḥ ħ ɦ ɦ̢
ꜧ ɧ ɥ ʮ ʯ ʜ H
:
i ï ı ɨ ɪ ɪ̈ ᵻ
The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , namely the lower-case I, letter ''i'' with ...
I ι ɿ ʅ
:
j *
ook-top j ɉ ʝ ǰ ɟ ʄ ᴊ
:
k ꝁ ƙ ʞ ᴋ 𝼐
:
l ɫ ƚ ɬ ɭ ɮ *(and its allograph )
ʟ L *
ʟ">eversed ʟ λ ƛ
:
m ɱ *
-m ligature ɯ ɰ ᴍ M
:
n ń *
eft-arm n π ƞ ñ ɲ ŋ η ɳ ɴ N
:
o ȯ ö ǫ ƍ σ O ♀
file:SBB Giruno by Stadler (46959878215).jpg, Gender symbols on a public toilet in Switzerland, alt=Image shows male and female symbols incised deeply
A gender symbol is a pictogram or glyph used to represent sexual differentiation, sex and gender ...
⚲ ʘ ɵ θ ø 0︀ (and its variant
∅
In mathematics, the empty set or void set is the unique set having no elements; its size or cardinality (count of elements in a set) is zero. Some axiomatic set theories ensure that the empty set exists by including an axiom of empty set, wh ...
)
ɸ œ ɶ 8
:
ɔ ɔ̇ ɔ̈ *
ꞓ">urned ꞓ ᶗ ꭢ ω ω̇ ω̈ *
ω">urned ω ɷ ꭥ ꭥ̇ ꭥ̈ ꭥ̶
:
p ᵽ ƥ *
ƍ ">traight allograph of
ƍ ᴘ P ρ ƿ þ
:
q ʠ ȹ
:
r ɾ ɼ ɽ ɹ ɻ ɺ ʀ R ᴙ ʁ
:
s S š ʂ ʃ 𝼋 ƪ ʆ 𝼌
:
t ŧ 𝼪 ƫ ʈ ƭ ʇ 𝼍 ʦ ʧ
:
u u̇ ü ʉ *
alf-barred u ꞹ ʊ ᴜ ᴜ̇ ᵾ *
∩ ">mall cap ∩ U
:
v ʋ
:
w ◌̫ ẇ ẅ w̸ ʍ
:
x x̭ x̯ X χ
:
y ÿ ʎ ʏ
:
z ȥ ž ʑ ʐ ƻ ↊ ʒ ǯ ƺ ʓ ƹ ↋
:
ʔ ? 7 ʡ ʖ ƾ 𝼎 ʕ 9 ʢ
:
ǃ ǀ / ǂ ≠ ǁ ⫽ ⫻ # & *
:
Chao tone letters:
˩ ˨ ˧ ˦ ˥ ''etc.''
:IPA tone diacritics:
◌́ ◌̄ ◌̀ ◌̌ ◌̂ ◌᷉ ''etc.''
:
◌̄ ˉ ˗ − ◌̠ ˍ + ◌̟ ◌̽ ˭
:
◌̪ ◌̺ ◌̻ ◌̝ ˔ ◌̞ ˕ ◌꭪ ◌꭫
:
ˈ ˌ ◌̩ ◌̚
:
↑ ↓ ↗ ↘ ˂ ˃ ◌͕; ⃖ or ← (superscript
←)
:
◌̇ ꞏ . ˑ ◌̣ ◌̈ ◌̤ ꞉
The colon alphabetic letter is used in a number of languages and phonetic transcription systems, for vowel length in Americanist Phonetic Notation, for the vowels and in a number of languages of Papua New Guinea, and for grammatical tone in s ...
ː
:
ʼ ʽ ʻ , ⹁
:
◌̊ ◌̥ ◌̜ ˒ ◌̹
:
◌̃ ◌̴ ◌̰ ◌̼
:
◌́ ˊ ◌̀ ˋ ◌̂ ◌̭ ◌̌ ◌̬
:
◌̨ ◌̧ ◌̡ ◌˞ ◌̢
:
◌̆ ◌̑ ◌̯ ◌͡◌ ◌͜◌
Non-trivial Unicode support
Not all Unicode support is direct. Some typewriter substitutions made by overstriking a Latin letter with a virgule require composite encoding:
*, for a
voiced bilabial fricative
The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B. The official symbol is the ...
*, for a
voiced dental fricative
The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
*, for a
voiced velar fricative
The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents ...
*, used for
Nahua
Similarly , an unused proposal to replace Americanist .
The 'baby gamma' variant of the vowel letter is available as a
character variant in fonts such as
Gentium
Gentium (, from the Latin for "of the nations") is a Unicode serif typeface family designed by Victor Gaultney. Gentium fonts are free and open source software, and are released under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), which permits modification ...
and
Andika.
*, a right-tail hooktop h (fusion of and :
file:H with hook and tail.svg), found for the velar fricative in the Germanic 'fortis' voiceless spirant series ''
'', contrasting with the voiced series ' and the Indo-European 'lenis' spirants ' in Prokosch (1939) ''A Comparative Germanic Grammar''. (See esp. p. 51.) Prokosch describes the symbol as a "modified ''h'', since ''h'' is the usual spelling in all Germanic languages" (p. 83), though other authors simply write these sounds '.
Several other symbols are graphic variants of Unicode characters:
*p with a tail facing left (
ɋ) and reversed o with
ogonek
The tail or ( ; Polish: , "little tail", diminutive of ) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European languages, and directly under a vowel in several Native American langu ...
(
ǫ). The first is an allograph in Doke of (turned delta ), and the latter a misanalysis by the ''Guide'' of the same letter.
*double virgule ⫽, a close-kerned // or italicized ǁ, is an allograph of . It might be adequately rendered with .
*triple virgule ⫻, a close-kerned /// or italicized ⦀, used in a passing mention of
retroflex click
A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...
s in the Cole article "Bushman Languages" in the 1966 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (4: 469). The symbol was removed from later editions. It might be adequately rendered with . This is an allograph of a triple pipe, for which Unicode recommends using character U+2980 TRIPLE VERTICAL BAR DELIMITER .
A couple are more distinct graphically, but without a corresponding semantic distinction:
*superscript spacing diacritic , used to indicate clicks in Smalley (1963). This is similar to the subscript arrow U+02FF (˿) used to indicate clicks in the same way in the
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
Finno-Ugric transcription (FUT) or the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nesto ...
. It could be encoded as a space plus U+20D6: , though substituting a combining modifier for a spacing modifier like this is deprecated by Unicode, as it can cause complications.
*hooktop j, an Americanist variant of in Smalley (1963) ''Manual of Articulatory Phonetics''. Unlike , in the Smalley letter the hook connects to the dot of the jay and so is detached from the body of the letter.
Common symbols not in Unicode
A couple of the symbols are found in Slavic sources:
*gamma with a palatal tail turning left, approx. γ̡, to replace
*gamma with a retroflex tail turning right, approx. γ̢, to replace
Rare symbols
The following are not supported by
Unicode
Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...
as of version 16.
[Updated fro]
Phonetic Symbol Guide
at ScriptSource ( was added to Unicode 11 as U+A7B9); additions in U14 and U15 are listed above.
Some of the symbols are idiosyncratic proposals by well-known scholars that never caught on:
A couple symbols were mentioned in the 1949 ''Principles of the International Phonetic Association'' as recent suggestions for further improvement and were never adopted:
*h-m ligature, approx.
or
(turned ) for
*turned small capital U,
, for a generic vowel; now is generally used.
The majority of the non-Unicode symbols were proposed by
George Trager to improve the
Bloch & Trager system of vowel transcription and other conventions of Americanist notation, but were never adopted:
*inverted (turned) small capital ᴀ (
) to replace ; this had been the original IPA form of the letter that is now .
*small capital ligature (looks like an ligature) to replace
*small capital to replace
*barred ,
(turned ) to replace
*inverted (turned) ,
, to replace
*u with a bar on the left leg,
, to replace
*a fusion of + (n with the arm of ᴛ to the left, approx.
) for the
dental nasal
The voiced alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol ...
. It is similar in shape to in Unicode 15, though with a flat left arm.
*a reversed small capital L,
(turned or small-cap ⅃), for a labial lateral approximant; this is not a distinctive sound and the symbol was never used. However, it would potentially be used for an
extIPA
The Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for Disordered Speech, commonly abbreviated extIPA , are a set of letters and diacritics devised by the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association to augment the Internati ...
velodorsal lateral.
References
{{reflist
1986 non-fiction books
1996 non-fiction books
Phonetics books
Phonetic transcription symbols