Module 4

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Introduction:
International Phonetic Alphabet is a scheme that has a direct, one-to-one correspondence
between an actual speech sound and the symbol used to represent that sound. This
system is proposed by the International Phonetic Association. With this system, each
symbol directly represents one, and only one, speech sound. Phones and phonemes will
also be discussed before some examples of IPA symbols will be provided.
Objectives: At the end of the lesson the students will be able to:
1. Identify and read IPA symbols;
2. Recognize phones and phonemes;
3. Understand allophones and diacritics.

Phones and phonemes

The sounds that people produce when they speak are called phones. To demonstrate
what is meant by this, consider the word top. How is the sound /t/ articulated in this word?
Is it the same as in the word stop? Try it for yourself. Say both words out loud and see if
you can detect any differences between the two. You may need to say the words several
times in succession, and quite forcefully, in order to notice any potential difference. If you
are uncertain as to whether or not there is a difference, hold a flimsy piece of paper so that
it hangs down closely in front of your mouth and then say the words again. What happens
now? This time when you say the word top you should see the paper blow quickly away
from your lips as the /t/ is articulated. However, when you say stop there should be little or
no movement of the paper when the /t/ is produced. What this demonstrates is that the
sound /t/ is, in fact, articulated differently in both words. In the word top the /t/ is
accompanied by a short puff of air and the sound is said to be aspirated. The /t/ in stop,
however, is not aspirated. We conclude, therefore, that these articulations are two
separate phones.

However, the distinction between these two phones is not relevant for distinguishing
between words. For example, if you substituted unaspirated-t for aspirated-t in the word
top, this would result in an unusual pronunciation but it would not create a new word:
despite the variant pronunciation the meaning would still be the meaning of the word stop.
Aspirated-t and unaspirated-t are not perceived to be distinct sounds that are capable of
creating distinctions in meaning between one word and another. In contrast, if we
substituted the sound /m/ for the /t/ in the word top, this would create a new word with a
new meaning, i.e. mop. The sound /m/ contrasts with the sound /t/ to create a new
distinction in meaning. Similarly, we could substitute the sound /h/ in the word top and
create the new word hop. Here, the sound /h/ contrasts with the sound /t/ to create another
distinction in meaning. Sounds that demonstrate this contrastive function and which are
capable of creating distinctions in meaning between one word and another are known
as phonemes. Thus, /t/, /m/ and /h/ are all phonemes because they can be contrasted
with one another to create new words with new meanings.

In summary, several phones can belong to one phoneme. For example, aspirated-t and
unaspirated-t belong to the phoneme /t/. The variant phones (known as allophones) do
not contrast with one another to create distinctions in meaning: they are simply variant
ways of articulating the sound depending on the context in which the sound occurs.
However, /t/ itself – whether articulated with or without aspiration – is capable of
contrasting with other sounds and, thereby, creating distinctions in meaning.
Consequently, /t/ is a phoneme. In sum, an allophone is a phonetic variation of a
phoneme.

Understanding this difference between phones and phonemes opens the possibility of
transcribing speech sounds with different degrees of detail.

Narrow and broad transcription

If we choose to transcribe all the fineness of detail that distinguishes one articulation of a
phone from another (e.g. such as representing aspiration) then we would conduct a so-
called narrow transcription (also known as a phonetic transcription). For example,
using IPA, if we wished to represent aspirated-t, as in the word top, this would be
transcribed as [tʰ]. The superscript, lowercase letter h is used to represent aspiration and it
is an example of a diacritic. Diacritics are the various marks added to IPA symbols to
represent different phonetic features. The unaspirated-t, as in the word stop, requires no
diacritic and it is transcribed as [t]. Conventionally, phonetic transcriptions are displayed in
square brackets [ ].

If, however, we wished only to represent those speech sounds that make a distinction in
meaning between words, i.e. phonemes, then we would conduct a so-called broad
transcription (or phonemic transcription). Returning to our opening example of how to
pronounce the word row in the text Dan and Kathryn had a row in the park, we could solve
the dilemma by transcribing the word phonemically. If the word carries the meaning ‘to
propel a boat with oars’, this would be written in IPA as /rəʊ/, in which the vowel is
represented as /əʊ/. In contrast, if we wished to transcribe the word with the meaning ‘a
noisy quarrel’, this would be written as /raʊ/, with the different vowel /aʊ/. We see,
therefore, that these two vowels are also phonemes because they exhibit a contrastive
function that creates different meanings in words. Note that, conventionally, phonemic
transcription is displayed within slanting lines //.

Similarly, if we used IPA symbols to conduct a phonemic transcription of the phonemes

represented by the alphabet letter ‘a’ in the
words act, ace, tall, announcer, ant, ale, late, astride and ball that we considered earlier,
and spoken in a Standard Southern British English accent, we would display these as
follows:
 1. act and ant represented by /æ/
2. ace, ale and late represented by /eɪ/
3. tall and ball represented by /ɔ/
4. announcer and astride represented by /ə/

The use of the IPA notational system removes any ambiguity. It is now clear which speech
sound (in this case, phoneme) is being represented. This is achievable because of the
one-to-one correspondence between a speech sound and the symbol used to represent
that sound. To complete our examples, reconsider the sound ‘sh’ (as in the word fish) that
we demonstrated appears in the words ocean [əʊʃ(ə)n], anxious [æŋʃəs], condition [kən
ˈdɪʃən], fission [fɪʃ(ə)n], fuchsia [ˈfjuː.ʃə], and fashion [ˈfæʃn]. You will notice that in broad
transcription of this sound it is represented in IPA as /ʃ/. Irrespective of which alphabet
letters may be used to represent this sound in writing (e.g. c, x, t, ss, chs or sh), in
phonemic transcription it is only ever written using the one symbol /ʃ/. Again, this is
possible because of the direct one-to-one correspondence between a speech sound and
the notational symbol used to represent that sound when transcribed. The International
Phonetic Alphabet is used widely in the field of linguistics and we will be using it
throughout this series of module as the preferred notational system for representing
speech sounds.

The complete set of IPA symbols for pulmonic consonants (i.e. consonants made on
outgoing air from the lungs) and for all vowels is set out in Figure 3.

SAQ 1

A. Supply the IPA vowel symbol for the following words:

1. key_____ 11. move_____
2. aunt_____ 12. lost _____
3. bear_____ 13. ghost_____
4. hot _____ 14. son______
5. seat______ 15. thread____
6. quay_____ 16. great_____
7. made _____ 17. bough____
8. good______ 18. sow______
9. moon_____ 19. taught____
10. month_____ 20. robe_____
B. Transcribe the following words using IPA symbols:
1. church______ 11. thought______
2. laugh_______ 12. teacher______
3. answer_______ 13. grammar_____
4. English ________ 14. linguist ______
5. phoneme_______ 15. language_____
6. absent_________ 16. foetus_______
7. admit_________ 17. four _______
8. pleasure______ 18. think_______
9. mother________ 19. crash______
 10. judge ________ 20. nation_____

Figure 3. IPA chart of pulmonic consonants and vowels.

References

Figure 3 is adapted from: IPA

Chart, http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart, available under
a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2015
International Phonetic Association.