International Phonetic Alphabet

History

The API one was developed at the beginning by professors of language British and French under the direction of Paul Passy within the framework of the international phonetic Association, founded with Paris in 1886 under the name of Dhi Fonètik Tîcerz' Asóciécon . The first version the API one, published in 1888, was inspired by the romic Alphabet of Henry Sweet, itself elaborate starting from the phonotypic Alphabet of Isaac Pitman and Alexander John Ellis.

The API one knew five revisions in 1900, 1932, 1989, 1993 and 2005.

General principles

The phonetic transcription into API consists in cutting out the Parole in presumedly atomic sound segments, and employing a single symbol for each one of those, by avoiding the multigrammes (combinations of letters, like the sound CH of French, noted or the Italian gli , transcribed).

The number of principal natures the API one is of 118 what makes it possible to cover the most frequent sounds. These characters are for the majority of the Greek or Latin letters or the modifications of those: , (drawn from R); , (drawn from E). The less frequent sounds are transcribed starting from the precedents by indicating a modification of the mode or Joint by the means of one or several diacritics (76) on the principal character: for example, the B of the Castillan caber (“to hold, to return in”) is transcribed to indicate a Spirante instead of the Fricative sound Bilabiale . There exist also special symbols to note suprasegmental phenomena , like the Your S melody or the tonic Accent: , transcription of German dulden (“to support, to tolerate”) indicates a tonic accent of intensity on the first syllable (') and N final vocalized ().

It will be noted that the linguistic use is to indicate the transcription Phonétique of a word between hooks; the use of oblique bars indicates a transcription Phonologique, i.e. which opposes the relevant features various sounds of a language given without entering in detail of their pronunciation.

The use of API is now established in the Enseignement, the training and the study of the languages. In particular, the majority of the bilingual Dictionnaire S use this alphabet or a phonological transcription which is inspired by it. The API one is also an essential tool to return to the writing the not written languages until now: many a Langues of Africa obtained an orthography using like signs complementary to the characters the API one; a typical example is the Alphabet side-Nigerian.

Description of the alphabet

Image: summary Card API . (in English)

Vowels

Segments

The API one has principal characters for the oral Voyelle S most current which are classified according to:

their degree of aperture: closed vowels (high), pre-closed (high lower), semi-closed (average higher), averages, semi-open (average lower), pre-open (low higher), opened (low);

their joint: former, quasi-former, central, quasi-posterior, posterior;
their character rounded or not.

The others are transcribed starting from the preset vowels by addition of one or more diacritic modifying the articulation

For example,

the nasal ones of standard French are ( one ), ( hein ), ( a ), ( in );
the /o/ short of Hungarian (e.g. kor , hour) is former and slightly more open than /o: /long (e.g. kór , disease), a careful transcription gives it like.

Quantity (lengthening or disappearance)

The Quantité of the vowels is indicated as follows: Notes:

the colon is often employed in the place of the chrone, for example instead of.
the phonemic notations often deviate from the API notation and use a Macron for the long syllables.

For example, Installation this pink! is often carried out in French Paris IEN.

The disappearance of long phonemic vowels is not noted phonetically: one uses the usual symbol by removing his sign of phonetic lengthening. On the other hand the short syllables are noted phonologiquement by a short accent and the vowels amuies are is removed phonemic notation are marked between brackets.

Tonèmes

The transcription of the Tonème S follows the process below.

For some let us tons whose profile height is simple one uses either diacritic or a Pictogramme representing the height of the tone or an accent (for example: your of height constant high, semi-high, median, knee sock, low)
For let us tons whose profile height is more complex only a pictogram representing the profile of the tone is envisaged. For example, it is possible to return the Mandarin zh 我姓张 (“I am called Zhang”) by ɕiŋ˥˩ tʂɑŋ˥}} ¹.

Notes:

There does not exist yet of data-processing standard making it possible to post correctly the pictograms for tons variable height; above are posted after the pictograms corresponding to the various heights taken by the tone. The correct layout of the pictograms is given on the summary card API.
the numerical notation of let us tons while exposing, for example zh 我姓张 {{APIb|ɕiŋ}} ⁵¹ T {{APIb|ʂɑŋ}} ⁵ is often used to mitigate the poor management of tons the API one by the current computers. This notation is not standard and its format depends on the families of studied languages.

Consonants

Segments

The API class consonants according to three criteria:

the Mode of articulation;
the Joint;
deaf or voiced character.

As for the vowels, of diacritic allow to indicate a modification of the point or mode of articulation in order to transcribe consonants which do not have a principal symbol.

For example,

T French dental is transcribed starting from the Plosive Alvéolaire;
the m devoized of French isthmus is transcribed starting from the Occlusive Nasale Voisée;
the Spirante Bilabial of the Castilian of the word caber (to hold inside), allophone of /v/, is noted starting from the Fricative bilabial.

Quantity/Gémination

The quantity of the consonants (their possible Gémination) is indicated same manner as for the vowels. Hungarian MIT mondott? (Which does it have/it says?) mo̟n̪d̪o̟t̪ː}} will be transcribed, phonologiquement /mit mondotː/.

Vocalization

A consonant vocalized, i.e. being used as top with a Syllable, comprises a subscribed vertical feature:

German reden (to speak): ;
Czech Brno (Brno): ;
English whistle (to whistle): .

Syllables

The stressed syllables are preceded by a vertical bar:

while exposing for the primary education accent: ;
on the level of the base line for the secondary accents: .

A point (.) separate the syllables.

For example, German Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (law on the transfer of responsibility for the monitoring of the labelling of the bovine meat) transcribes itself:
.

The sign (̯) announces that an element is to be attached to the current syllable and a new syllabic element does not constitute. For example: , transcription of the Spanish word meaning " poète". (example drawn from the Handbook off the IPA , p.25)

Unicode

The Character set Unicode makes it possible to write the whole of API, except for the indications Your complex ales. The symbols and diacritic are in the blocks of following natures:

U+0000 with U+007F: Basic C0 orders and Latin;
U+0080 with U+00FF: C1 orders and supplement Latin-1;
U+0250 with U+02AF: International Phonetic Alphabet;
U+02B0 with U+02FF: Modifying letters with hunting;
U+0300 with U+036F: Diacritic;
U+0370 with U+03FF: Greek and copte;
U+A700 with U+A71F: Modifying letters of tone.

Certain precomposed characters (with diacritic) are accessible in the following blocks:

U+0080 with U+00FF: Supplement Latin-1;
U+0100 with U+017F: Wide Latin has;
U+0180 with U+024F: Wide Latin B;
U+1E00 with U+1EFF: Wide Latin supplement.

See too

Random links:

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