Naming conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a special set of symbols used to show exactly how words are pronounced. Each symbol and mark in the IPA needs a clear name so people can talk about them easily.

It is important to separate the name of a symbol from the actual sound it stands for. The official names and descriptions for these symbols are found in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association.

In addition to these official names, there are also temporary names given in the Unicode standard, which is used for computer characters. Sometimes, these Unicode names are different from the IPA names. For example, the IPA calls the symbol ɛ “epsilon,” but Unicode calls it “small letter open E.”

Letters

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has special names for its symbols. These names help us talk about the symbols clearly.

Some symbols look like normal Latin or Greek letters. Others have special shapes. For example, there are small capital letters like ʀ and ɢ, often called "capital" or "cap" letters. Some letters look like cursive handwriting.

Ligatures are two letters joined together. They are called ligatures. Unicode sometimes calls them "digraphs," but the correct term is ligatures. Examples include "œ," also called ethel, and "æ," called ash.

Many letters are turned or rotated 180 degrees. Some are flipped sideways, and a few are flipped horizontally. For example, there is an inverted small capital R.

Letters can have extra lines, curls, or serifs added to them. Adding a horizontal line creates a "crossbar," as in ħ barred h. Some letters have hooks or tails added, like ɓ hook-top b. Others have unique shapes, such as ɾ fish-hook r or ʃ esh.

The symbol ʔ is often called by the sound it represents, glottal stop. If we need to talk about the symbol itself, it is sometimes called a gelded question mark.

Main article: rotated letters

	IPA symbol name	phonetic description	Unicode name
p	(lowercase) p	voiceless bilabial stop	LATIN SMALL LETTER P
x	(lowercase) x	voiceless velar fricative	LATIN SMALL LETTER X
r	(lowercase) r	coronal trill	LATIN SMALL LETTER R
β	beta	voiced bilabial fricative	GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA
ɛ	epsilon	open-mid front unrounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E
ɣ	gamma	voiced velar fricative	LATIN SMALL LETTER GAMMA
θ	theta	voiceless dental fricative	GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
χ	chi	voiceless uvular fricative	GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI
ɸ	phi	voiceless bilabial fricative	LATIN SMALL LETTER PHI
ʊ	upsilon	near-close near-back rounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON

	IPA symbol name	phonetic description	Unicode name
ɑ	single-story a	open back unrounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA
ɡ	single-story g	voiced velar stop	LATIN SMALL LETTER SCRIPT G
ʋ	cursive v	labiodental approximant	LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH HOOK

	IPA symbol name	phonetic description	Unicode name
æ	lower-case A-E ligature	near-open front unrounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER AE
œ	lower-case O-E ligature	open-mid front rounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE
ɮ	L-Ezh ligature	voiced coronal lateral fricative	LATIN SMALL LETTER LEZH

	IPA symbol name	phonetic description	Unicode name
ʎ	turned Y	palatal lateral approximant	LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED Y
ɥ	turned H	labial-palatal approximant	LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED H
ɒ	turned script A	open back rounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED ALPHA
ʌ	turned V	open-mid back unrounded vowel	LATIN SMALL TURNED V
ɔ	open O	open-mid back rounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O

	IPA symbol name	phonetic description	Unicode name
ɘ	reversed e	close-mid central unrounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED E
ɜ	reversed epsilon	open-mid central unrounded vowel	LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED OPEN E
ʕ	reversed glottal stop	voiced pharyngeal fricative	LATIN LETTER PHARYNGEAL VOICED FRICATIVE

Diacritic marks

Diacritics are special marks added to letters to show different sounds. Some have traditional names like é acute, ē macron, and ë umlaut. Others have less common names.

Sometimes, these marks are named based on what they do. For example, one mark can be called the "dental sign", and another can be called the "syllabicity sign".

Naming conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet

Letters

Diacritic marks

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