005 - my Phonetics (or simple SAMPA)

(update: 26-10-2003)

In order to satisfy consistently my poor phonetic needs, I adopted a simplified form of the SAMPA notation, which could not to support every language of the world but is easy to understand and to write. The following charts are taken from the Wikipedia site, and show the correspondance with the IPA symbols.

SAMPA: simplified chart of consonants
(the paired signs are voiceless/voiced consonants)

Bilabial

Labiodentals

Dentals

Alveolars

Postalveolars

Palatals

Velars

Uvulars

Pharyngeals

Glottals

Stops
or affricates

Fricatives

Nasals

Laterals

Rhotics (flaps or trills)

r\`

Semivowels

w
H

'Note': It is (specially in Spanish and Italian) common use to represent the alveolar trill with [rr] and the alveolar flap with [r]. In Spanish, too, [jj] is used to represent the palatal fricative against the semivowel [j]. It has been proposed to use [4] for the alveolar flap, in which case [r] can be used to represent the trill (as its equivalent in the IPA system), and [j\] for the palatal fricative, keeping in this way the policy of using one letter per one IPA symbol (The backslash is used to generate alternative symbols).

Consonant modifiers:

[ ` ] after a consonant indicates retroflex.
[ _a ] apical (IPA subscript inverted bridge): [s_a] apical 's'
[ _d ] dental (IPA subscript bridge)
[ _G ] velarized diacritic (IPA superscipt gamma)
[ _h ] aspirated diacritic (IPA superscript h)
[ _j, ' ] palatalized. (IPA superscript j)
[ _m ] laminal (IPA subscript box)
[ _w ] labialized diacritic (IPA superscript w)
[ _< ] implosive (voiced stops) (IPA hooktop)
[ _> ] ejective (voiceless stops)
[ _=, =] syllabic, as in US bird [b=r\`d] (also written [b3`d]), bottle ["bOt=l], button ["bVt=n]

SAMPA: simplified list of consonants
SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
p	p	voiceless bilabial stop	English pen
b	b	voiced bilabial stop	English but
t	t	voiceless alveolar stop	English two
d	d	voiced alveolar stop	English do
tS	ʧ	voiceless postalveolar affricate	English chair, picture, Spanish mucho, Italian cena, German Deutsche
dZ	ʤ	voiced postalveolar affricate	English gin, joy, Italian giorno
c	c	voiceless palatal stop	Greek [ce] 'and', Hungarian tyúk 'hen', like British tune
J\	j (overstroked j)	voiced palatal stop	Hungarian egy 'one', like British dune
k	k	voiceless velar stop	English cat, kill, queen
g	g	voiced velar stop	English go, get
q	q	voiceless uvular stop	Arabic qof
p\	φ (Greek phi)	voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese fu
B	β (Greek beta)	voiced bilabial fricative	Spanish cabo, calvo (*)
f	f	voiceless labiodental fricative	English fool, enough, Spanish and Italian falso
v	v	voiced labiodental fricative	English voice, German Welt, Italian vedere
T	θ (Greek theta)	voiceless dental fricative	English thing, Castilian Spanish caza
D	ð (Icelandic eth), or δ (Greek delta)	voiced dental fricative	English this, Spanish cada (*)
s	s	voiceless alveolar fricative	English see, pass, city, Spanish sí, German Gross, Italian suono
z	z	voiced alveolar fricative	English zoo, roses, German See, Spanish riesgo, Italian casa
S	ʃ	voiceless postalveolar fricative	English she, sure, emotion, French chemin, Italian scendo, German Sprache
Z	ʒ	voiced postalveolar fricative	French jour, English pleasure, Argentinian Spanish lluvia, Ecuadorian Spanish arriba
C	ç (cedilla)	voiceless palatal fricative	Standard German Ich, Greek [Ceri] 'hand', some English pronunciations of human
j\ (jj)	ʝ (j with crossed tail)	voiced palatal fricative	Spanish yate, ayuda
x	x	voiceless velar fricative	Scots loch, Castilian Spanish ajo, German Buch
G	γ (Greek gamma)	voiced velar fricative	Spanish algo, agua (*)
X\	ħ (overstroked h)	voiceless pharyngeal fricative	Arabic h.â
?\	ʕ (Inverted ?)	voiced pharyngeal fricative	Arabic 'ayn
h	h	voiceless glottal fricative	English ham, German Hand, Colombian Spanish jamón
h\	ɦ (h with upper tail to the right)	voiced glottal fricative	Hungarian lehet, Some English pronunciations of aha
m	m	bilabial nasal	English man, Spanish hambre, Italian fame
F	ɱ (m with downward right tail)	labiodental nasal	Spanish infierno, enfermo, Hungarian kámfor, honvágy
n	n	alveolar nasal	English, Spanish and Italian no
J	ɲ (n with downward left tail)	palatal nasal	US English canyon, Spanish año, French oignion, Italian gnocchi, Hungarian anyu
N	ŋ (n with downward right tail)	velar nasal	English singer, ring, Spanish blanco, manguera, Italian bianco, pongo, German lange Tagalog ngayón, ngongò
l	l	alveolar lateral	English left, Spanish largo, Italian lungo
L	ʎ turned down y, alt. λ (Greek lambda)	palatal lateral	Italian aglio, famiglia, Catalan colla, Castilian Spanish cuello
5	ɫ (l with middle tilde)	velarized dental lateral	English milk (dark l), Catalan alga
4 (r)	ɾ (r without upper-left serif)	alveolar flap	US English better, Spanish pero, Italian essere
r (rr)	ɽ (r with serif)	alveolar trill	Spanish perro, rey, Italian arrivare, terra
r\`	ɻ (r rotate 180° with hook	retroflexed alveolar approximant	English run, very
R	ʀ (small capital R)	uvular trill	French rue, standard German Reich, Farb
w	w	rounded back semivowel	English we, Frech oui, Spanish hueso, Italian acqua, suono
H	ɥ (turned down h)	rounded front semivowel	French huit
j	j	unrounded front semivowel	English yes, Frech yeux, German ja, Italian occhio, piove, Spanish pierna

(* The sounds of the spanish g in agua, b in cabo and d in cada are not represented by the symbols γ, β, δ, despite what the creators of the SAMPA may think. Those sounds are not even fricatives; see [1] - Spanish only)

SAMPA: simplified chart of vowels
(the paired signs are unrounded/rounded vowels)

Front

Central

Back

Closed or high

i
I

y
Y

}

u
U

Half closed

Half open

Open or low

{

Vowel modifiers:

[ ~, _~ ] after a vowel indicates that it is nasalised (e.g. French bon [bO~] ).
[ : ] after a vowel indicates that it is lengthened (e.g. Japanese shōshō [So:So:], English see [si:] ).
[ ` ] after a vowel indicates rhoticity (e.g. US English bird [b3`d] ).
[ _^ ] non syllabic vowel (IPA subscript arch)

SAMPA: simplified list of vowels
SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
i	i	front closed unrounded vowel	English see, Spanish sí, French vite, German mieten, Italian visto
I	small capital I	front closed unrounded vowel, but somewhat more centralised and relaxed	English city, German mit
e	e	front half closed unrounded vowel	US English bear, Spanish él, French année, German mehr, Italian rete, Catalan més
E	ε (Greek epsilon)	front half open unrounded vowel	English bed, French même, German Herr, Italian ferro, Catalan mes, Spanish perro
{	ae ligature, æ	front open unrounded vowel	English cat
y	y	front closed rounded vowel	French du, German Tür
2	slashed o, ø	front half closed rounded vowel	French deux (hence '2'), German Höhle
9	oe ligature, œ	front half open rounded vowel	French neuf (hence '9'), German Hölle
1	overstroked i, i	central closed unrounded vowel	Russian [m1s] 'mouse'
@	ə (turned down e) schwa	central neutral unrounded vowel	English about, winner, German bitte
6	ɐ (turned down a) open schwa	central neutral unrounded vowel	German besser
3	ɜ (Greek epsilon mirrored to the left)	front half open unrounded vowel, but somewhat more centralised and relaxed	English bird
a	a	central open vowel	Spanish da, barra, French bateau, lac, German Haar, Italian pazzo
}	overstroked u, u	central closed rounded vowel	Scottish English pool, Swedish sju
8	overstroked o, o	central neutral rounded vowel	Swedish kust
&	small capital OE ligature, ɶ	front open rounded vowel	??
M	ɯ (upside-down m)	back closed unrounded vowel	Japanese fuji, Vietnamese ư Korean 으
7	ɤ (squeezed Greek gamma)	back half closed unrounded vowel	Vietnamese ơ Korean 어
V	ʌ (turned down v)	back half open unrounded vowel	RP and US English run, enough
A	ɑ ('d' with no upper tail)	back open unrounded vowel	English arm, US English law, standard French âme
u	u	back closed rounded vowel	English soon, Spanish tú, French goût, German Hut, Mutter, Italian azzurro, tutto
U	ʊ (turned down small capital Greek omega)	back closed rounded vowel somewhat more centralised and relaxed	English put, Buddhist
o	o	back half closed rounded vowel	US English sore, Scottish English boat, Spanish yo, French beau, German Sohle, Italian dove, Catalan ona
O	ɔ (c mirrored to the left)	back half open rounded vowel	English law, caught, Italian uomo, Catalan dona, Spanish gorra
Q	ɒ ('b' with no upper tail)	back open rounded vowel	British English not, cough, German Toll

Stress is indicated by ["] for primary stress, and [%] for secondary stress, placed before the stressed syllable.

This page was last modified 03:05, 21 Sep 2003. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.