Obsolete and nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet

"ᴙ" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Cyrillic letter Я.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) possesses a variety of obsolete and nonstandard symbols. Throughout the history of the IPA, characters representing phonetic values have been modified or completely replaced. An example is ⟨ɷ⟩ for standard [ʊ]. Several symbols indicating secondary articulation have been dropped altogether, with the idea that they should be indicated with diacritics: ⟨ʮ⟩ for [z̩ʷ] is one. In addition, the rare voiceless implosive series ⟨ƥ ƭ 𝼉 ƈ ƙ ʠ⟩ has been dropped.

Other characters have been added in for specific phonemes which do not possess a specific symbol in the IPA. Those studying modern Chinese phonology have used ⟨ɿ⟩ to represent the sound of -i in Pinyin hanzi which has been variously described as [ɨ], [ɹ̩], [z̩] or [ɯ]. (See the sections Vowels and Syllabic consonants of the article Standard Chinese phonology.) The term para-IPA is used to describe "symbols that are commonly used within IPA notation but that are not themselves part of the IPA alphabet."^[1]

There are also unsupported symbols from local traditions that find their way into publications that otherwise use the standard IPA. This is especially common with Americanist symbols, including affricates such as ⟨ƛ⟩ for [t͡ɬ]. Extensions from the Americanist affricate convention of c = ts and č = tš include 𝼝 = tʂ and ɕ = t𝼞.

While the IPA does not itself have a set of capital letters (the ones that look like capitals are actually small capitals), many languages have adopted symbols from the IPA as part of their orthographies, and in such cases they have invented capital variants of these. This is especially common in Africa. An example is Kabiyé of northern Togo, which has ⟨Ɔ Ɛ Ŋ Ɣ⟩. Other pseudo-IPA capitals supported by Unicode are ⟨Ɓ/Ƃ Ƈ Ɗ/Ƌ Ə/Ǝ Ɠ Ħ Ɯ Ɲ Ɵ Ʃ (capital ʃ) Ʈ Ʊ Ʋ Ʒ⟩. (See Case variants of IPA letters.)

Capital letters are also used as cover symbols in phonotactic descriptions: ⟨C⟩ = consonant, ⟨V⟩ = vowel, ⟨N⟩ = nasal, ⟨S⟩ = sonorant, etc.

This list does not include commonplace extensions of the IPA, such as doubling a symbol for a greater degree of a feature ([aːː] extra-long [a], [ˈˈa] extra stress, [kʰʰ] strongly aspirated [k], and [a˞˞] extra-rhotic [a]^[2]), nor superscripting for a lesser degree of a feature ([ᵑɡ] slightly prenasalized [ɡ], [ᵗs] slightly affricated [s], and [ᵊ] epenthetic schwa). The asterisk, as in [k*] for the fortis stop of Korean, is the convention the IPA uses when it has no symbol for a phone or feature.

For symbols and values which were discarded by 1932, see History of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Table

Obsolete and/or nonstandard symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet

Symbol or exemplar	Name	Meaning	Standard IPA equivalent	Notes
,	comma	secondary stress	ˌ	a mistake
'	apostrophe ​	primary stress	ˈ
		glottal stop	ʔ	typewriter substitution
7	digit seven
?	question mark
ɋ	q with hook tail	bilabial click	ʘ	the tenuis bilabial click, and basis of digraphs for other bilabial clicks; equivalent to IPA [ʘ].[3]
ꜰ	Small capital f	voiceless bilabial fricative	ɸ	replaced by ⟨ɸ⟩ in 1928.
φ	Greek phi			a mistake, typewriter substitution or similarity of shape
!	exclamation mark	alveolar click	ǃ
ǂ	palatal click			Obsolete naming in Unicode
ǃ	alveolar click	retroflex click	𝼊, ‪‼
ψ	Greek psi			used by (Doke 1925).
		bunched-r	ɹ̈	proposed by John Laver (1994)
		voiced bilabial fricative trill	ʙ̝	Proposed by Sinologists.[4][5]
		voiceless labio-alveolar affricate	p͡s	Used by Blench (2008).[6]
		voiced bilabial trill	ʙ	used by Uralicists[7]
ᴪ	small capital Greek psi	voiceless bilabial trill	ʙ̥
ᴘ	small capital p			para-IPA[8]
		voiceless labiodental plosive	p̪	Proposed in 1911, rejected[9]
π	Greek pi			Proposed in 1911[9] and 1989,[10] rejected
ᴍ	small capital m	voiced labiodental nasal	ɱ	Proposed in 1911, rejected[9]
μ	Greek mu
ʙ	small capital b	voiced labiodental plosive	b̪
β	Greek beta
ß	sharp s	voiced bilabial fricative	β	a mistake, typewriter substitution or similarity of shape
∫ or ${\textstyle \int }$	integral symbol	voiceless postalveolar fricative	ʃ
3	digit three	voiced postalveolar fricative	ʒ	a mistake, typewriter substitution or similarity of shape; often confused with open-mid central unrounded vowel
đ	d with stroke	voiced dental fricative	ð	a mistake, typewriter substitution or similarity of shape
þ	thorn	voiceless dental fricative	θ	Proposed by early 20th century American phoneticians for English dictionaries;[13] also proposed in 1989, rejected.[10]
ƍ	turned delta	labialized voiced alveolar or dental fricative	zʷ, z͎, ðʷ	intended for the voiced whistled sibilant, ɀ, of Shona and related languages, withdrawn 1976[14]
σ	sigma	labialized voiceless alveolar or dental fricative	sʷ, s͎, θʷ	intended for the voiceless whistled sibilant, ȿ, of Shona and related languages, withdrawn 1976[14]
ƺ	ezh with tail	labialized voiced alveolo-palatal fricative	ʑʷ, ʒᶣ	intended for w before front vowels in Twi;[14] may also be used for the lightly rounded English /ʒ/, withdrawn 1976.
ƪ	reversed esh with top loop	labialized voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative	ɕʷ, ʃᶣ	intended for hw before front vowels in Twi;[14] may also be used for the lightly rounded English /ʃ/, withdrawn 1976.
ƻ	barred digit two	voiced alveolar affricate	d͡z	withdrawn 1976
ƾ	inverted glottal stop with stroke	voiceless alveolar affricate	t͡s
ȼ	c with stroke			Americanist notation
¹, ², etc.	superscript digits	pitch accents	ˈ◌̌, ˈ◌̂ or ˈ◌̂, ˈ◌̌	used in Swedish and Norwegian
		tonal accents	◌́, ◌̌, ◌̀, ◌̂ or ◌̋, ◌᷄, ◌᷉, ◌̂ or similar, or Chao tone letters	used by Sinologists in China and Taiwan
ƞ	n with long right leg	moraic nasal	m, ɰ̃, ɴ, etc.	Intended for the moraic nasal /N/ of Japanese.[14] Withdrawn 1976
N	uppercase n			commonly used wildcard
ā, ī, ū, etc.	macron	long vowel	aː, iː, uː, etc.	a mistake
a:, i:, u:, etc.	colon
◌̡	palatal hook	palatalization	◌ʲ	Typically used in the transcription of Slavic languages such as Russian. Superseded 1989
◌̢	retroflex hook	voiced alveolar or retroflex approximant	ɹ / ɻ	a mistake; an example like /ᶚ/ was actually [ʒ͡ɻ]
		r-colored vowels	ɚ, ɝ, ◌˞	Superseded 1989; MODIFIER LETTER RHOTIC HOOK (U+02DE) is now preferred
	schwa with right hook			Used by Kenyon until 1935;[15] in the Unicode pipeline[16]
ꭤ	inverted Latin alpha	open back unrounded vowel	ɑ	used by Kurath (1939),[17] where ⟨ɑ⟩ is instead used for the open central unrounded vowel
α	Greek alpha			a mistake; homoglyphic in many sans-serif and italic fonts
α	turned Greek alpha	open back rounded vowel	ɒ
a	reversed a	near-open front unrounded vowel	æ	Proposed in 1989, rejected[10]
	nv ligature	close front rounded vowel	y
ᵿ˞	barred horseshoe u with hook	back sulcal vowel
	w with left hook	voiced labial-velar fricative (labialized voiced velar fricative)	ɣʷ
	long-leg g	voiced velar lateral approximant	ʟ
ɓ ɭ ɻ	letters with left-swinging top hook	dental consonants	d̪ l̪ r̪	proposed in 1989, rejected[10]
𝼥 𝼦 𝼧 𝼨 𝼩 𝼪	letters with left-swinging mid hook	retroflex consonants	ɖ ɭ ɳ ɽ ʂ ʈ	Malayalam transcriptions[18]
ƕ	hv ligature	voiceless labial-velar approximant	w̥	appears only in the 1921 chart
		voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	ɬ	proposed in 1989, rejected[10]
	h turned h ligature	voiceless labial-palatal approximant	ɥ̊	appears only in the 1921 chart
ƃ or б	small capital b with top bar or Cyrillic be	voiced bilabial approximant	β̞	proposed in 2011[19]
ъ	small capital Cyrillic hard sign
β	reversed Greek beta			used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
β	turned Greek beta			para-IPA[21]
δ	small capital Greek delta	voiced dental approximant	ð̞	proposed in 2011[19]
ƌ or б	small capital d with top bar or reversed Cyrillic be
ð	reversed eth			used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
ð	turned eth			proposed in 2010[22]
ᴆ	small capital eth
		partially-devoiced dental fricative	ð̥	used by Uralicists[7]
		voiceless alveolar tap and flap	ɾ̥
σ	small capital reversed Greek sigma	laminal voiced alveolar approximant	z̞ or ɹ̻	proposed in 2011[19]
ƨ	reversed s
z	reversed z			used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
ƹ	reversed ezh	voiced pharyngeal fricative	ʕ	it is based on the Arabic letter ʿayn (ع) instead of letter ezh,[23] used in Arabic and Ethiopic transcriptions
		laminal voiced postalveolar approximant	ʒ̞ or ɹ̻˗	proposed in 2011;[19] used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
ᶎ	reversed z with retroflex hook	laminal voiced retroflex approximant	ʐ̞ or ɻ̻	used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
J	capital inverted J	voiced palatal approximant	j or ʝ̞	proposed in 2011[19]
ʝ	reversed curly-tail j			used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
ᴦ	small capital Greek gamma	voiced velar approximant	ɰ or ɣ̞	proposed in 2011[19]
ɣ	inverted Latin gamma			used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
ʁ̢	small capital inverted r with hook	voiced uvular approximant	ʁ̞	proposed in 1989, rejected[10]
ᴩ	small capital Greek rho	voiceless uvular trill	ʀ̥	used by Uralicists[7]
ᴙ	small capital reversed r			appears sporadically in historical charts
		voiced uvular approximant	ʁ̞	proposed in 2011[19]
ᴚ	small capital turned r	voiceless uvular fricative	χ / ꭓ	replaced in 1928[24]
		voiced uvular approximant	ʁ̞	proposed in 2011;[19] used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
ʖ	inverted glottal stop	alveolar lateral click	ǁ	removed 1989; see click letters, but in some African languages still use this symbol to avoid confusion with ⟨‖⟩ (major break)
		voiced pharyngeal approximant	ʕ̞	proposed in 2011[19]
ʔ	turned glottal stop			used by Ball et al. in 2020[20]
	hooktop ezh	voiced velar fricative	ɣ	proposed in 1989, rejected[10]
	double-loop g			used in the early alphabet from 1895 to 1900; replaced with [ǥ] in the 1900 chart
		voiced velar plosive	ɡ	standard Unicode Basic Latin/ASCII lower-case g (U+0067) may have a double-loop g glyph. The preferred IPA single-loop g (U+0261) is in the IPA Extensions Unicode block. For a time it was proposed that the double-loop g might be used for [ɡ] and the single-loop g for [ᶃ] (ɡ̟),[14] but the distinction never caught on.
		voiced postalveolar affricate	d͡ʒ	used in Arabic transcriptions
	single-loop g with stroke	voiced velar fricative	ɣ	replaced double-loop g in 1900, then replaced by gamma [ɣ] around 1928-1930. the character ǥ may not have the single-loop shape in some fonts.[25]
ʆ	curly-tail esh	voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative	ɕ	variant, also for Russian щ (now ⟨ɕ⟩). removed 1989
		voiceless laminal closed postalveolar sibilant		modern usage;^[citation needed] transcribed by Catford with ⟨ŝ⟩
ᵷ	turned g			withdrawn 1904
ʓ	curly-tail ezh	voiced alveolo-palatal fricative	ʑ	variant, removed 1989
		voiced laminal closed postalveolar sibilant		modern usage;^[citation needed] transcribed by Catford with ⟨ẑ⟩
ʒ	turned ezh			withdrawn 1904
ȵ, ȡ, ȶ, ȴ	curly-tail n, d, t, l	alveolo-palatal consonants	n̠ʲ, d̠ʲ, t̠ʲ, l̠ʲ or ɲ̟, ɟ˖, c̟, ʎ̟	used by some Sinologists.
ř	r with háček	voiced strident apico-alveolar trill	r̝	Intended for ř in Czech and related languages; replaced in 1949[26]
ɼ	long-leg r			Introduced in 1949,[26] withdrawn 1989
		syllabic alveolar trill	r̩	a mistake
Ꙫ	Cyrillic o with two dots inside	nasal-ingressive velic trill	𝼀↓	a paralinguistic impression of a snort, due to the graphic resemblance to a pig snout.[27]
ᴅ	small capital d	voiced alveolar tap and flap	ɾ	used by Americanists
		lenis alveolar plosive	d̥	used by Uralicists[7]
ᴃ	small capital barred b	partially-devoiced bilabial fricative	β̥
ᴊ	small capital j	voiceless palatal approximant	j̊
ᴌ	small capital ł	voiceless velarized alveolar lateral approximant	ɫ̥
ᴫ	small capital Cyrillic el	voiceless velar lateral approximant	ʟ̥
ᴎ	small capital reversed n or engma	voiceless velar nasal	ŋ̊
λ	Greek lambda	voiced palatal lateral approximant	ʎ	a mistake
		voiced alveolar lateral affricate	d͡ɮ	used by Americanists
ƛ	barred lambda	voiceless alveolar lateral affricate	t͡ɬ
ł	l with stroke	voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	ɬ	used by Americanists, also a typographic substitute
		velarized voiced alveolar lateral approximant	ɫ	used by Baltic transcriptions
ᵽ	p with middle stroke	voiceless bilabial fricative	ɸ	used by Americanists[28]
ᵽ	b with middle stroke	voiced bilabial fricative	β
ᵽ	d with middle stroke	voiced dental fricative	ð
š č ž	s c z with háček	postalveolar consonants	ʃ t͡ʃ ʒ; ʂ ʈ͡ʂ ʐ	used by Americanists, Uralicists, Semiticists, Slavicists
ǰ, ǧ, ǯ	j, g, ezh with háček	voiced postalveolar affricate	d͡ʒ; ɖ͡ʐ	used by Americanists, Slavicists
𝼞	curly-tail s	voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative	ɕ	used by Roos (1998, 2000)[29]
𝼝	c with retroflex hook	voiceless retroflex affricate	ʈ͡ʂ
ć ĺ ń ś ź dź	c l n s z dz with acute accent	alveolo-palatals or palatals and postalveolar consonants	t͡ɕ l̠ʲ n̠ʲ ɕ ʑ d͡ʑ; t͡ʃ ʎ ɲ ʃ ʒ d͡ʒ	used by Slavicists
ẋ	x with dot	voiceless uvular fricative	χ	used by Americanists
X	uppercase x	voiceless uvular fricative	χ	a mistake
Y	uppercase y	voiced labial–palatal approximant	ɥ
	baby gamma	close-mid back unrounded vowel	ɤ	used from 1921 to 1989, replaced by ramshorn to avoid confusion with gamma; LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN (U+0264) now represents both glyphs
ρ	Greek rho	voiced bilabial trill	ʙ	common before an official letter was adopted^[citation needed]
		voiced uvular trill	ʀ	used by Uralicists[7]
ȸ ȹ	db and qp ligatures or footless phi and headless phi	voiced and voiceless labiodental plosives	b̪ p̪	Used by Africanists.
0, 0̷, or Ø	digit zero, slashed digit zero or uppercase slashed o	null initial	∅	usually used in phonology to mean a spelling with no sound value. however, in Chinese and some Korean linguistics, some scholars use it for a weak glottal stop; the sound value of the first consonant of syllables started by a vowel.
ƥ ƭ 𝼉 ƈ ƙ ʠ	hooktop p, t, ʈ, c, k, q	voiceless implosives	ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̊ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥ or pʼ↓ tʼ↓ ʈʼ↓ cʼ↓ kʼ↓ qʼ↓	brief additions to the IPA; removed 1993
ʇ	turned t	dental click	ǀ	removed 1989; see click letters, but in some African languages still use this symbol to avoid confusion with ⟨l⟩ (voiced alveolar lateral approximant) and/or ⟨|⟩ (minor break)
ʗ	stretched (or descended) c	alveolar click	ǃ	removed 1989; see click letters
		voiced retroflex flap	ɽ	some assumed this symbol was made by combining ⟨ɾ⟩ with ⟨◌̢⟩ and thus was used as the symbol for voiced retroflex flap ([ɽ]); ⟨ɽ⟩ assumed as the symbol of voiced retroflex trill ([ɽr]).[30][31]
ʞ	turned k	originally a palatal click, reinterpreted as a velar click		velar articulation was judged impossible.[32] later reanalyzed and found paralinguistically. For several years used for a voiceless velodorsal stop in the extIPA.[33]
𝼋 (⨎)	esh with two bars	voiced palatal implosive	ʄ	old form of ⟨ʄ⟩.
		fricated palatal click	ǂǂ or ǃ͡s	uncommon letter in Ekoka !Kung transcription
ȣ	ou	close-mid back unrounded vowel or voiced velar fricative	ɤ or ɣ	a common mistake
ʀ or R	small capital or uppercase r	long vowel or prolonged moraic N	ː	used by Japanologists. This symbol represents phonemic long vowel (such as /aʀ/) or /aR/) or rarely prolonged moraic N (hatsuon).^[citation needed]
ɿ	reversed r with fishhook	syllabic denti-alveolar approximant	ɹ̩,[34] ɹ̩, z̩, ◌͡ɯ[35]	used by Sinologists, and by Japanologists specifically for the Miyako and Tarama languages.
℩	turned iota			old form of ⟨ɿ⟩, used by Sinologists, and by Japanologists specifically for the Miyako and Tarama languages.
ʅ	squat reversed esh	syllabic retroflex approximant	ɹ̩,[34] ɻ̩, ʐ̩, ◌͡ɨ	used by Sinologists. See Chinese vowels
ʃ or ꭍ	reversed (baseline) esh			old form of ⟨ʅ⟩, used by Sinologists. See Chinese vowels
ʮ	turned h with fishhook	labialized syllabic denti-alveolar approximant	ɹ̩ʷ, z̩ʷ, ◌͡u	used by Sinologists
ʯ	turned h with fishhook and tail	labialized syllabic retroflex approximant	ɻ̩ʷ, ʐ̩ʷ, ◌͡ʉ
ꬰ	barred Latin alpha	open central unrounded vowel	ä, ɑ̈, ɐ̞, a̠, ɑ̟	Proposed by Charles-James N. Bailey in 1976[36]
ꜵ	ao ligature			Used by Leoni & Maturi (2002).[37]
ᴀ	small capital a			used by Sinologists
ᴀ	small capital turned a	close-mid back unrounded vowel	ɤ	withdrawn in 1928.
ᴇ	small capital e	mid front unrounded vowel	e̞, ɛ̝	Bloch & Trager (1942). Used by Sinologists and some Koreanists
ꬳ	barred e	close-mid central unrounded vowel	ɘ	used by Teuthonista
ⱻ	small capital turned e	mid back unrounded vowel	ɤ̞, ʌ̝	used by some Koreanists who study Gyeongsang dialect, where there is no phonemic differentiation between /ʌ/ (RR eo; Hangul ㅓ) and /ɯ/ (RR eu; Hangul ㅡ).^[citation needed]
ʚ	closed Latin epsilon	open-mid central rounded vowel	ɞ	appears sporadically in historical charts
				typographical error from 1993, fixed in 1996
ɩ	Latin iota	near-close near-front unrounded vowel	ɪ	longstanding alternate symbol until 1989
ı	dotless small i			a mistake or typographic substitute; or used by Americanists.
		close front unrounded vowel	i	placeholder for modified sound, by placing diacritic above (e.g. /ı̽/, /ȷ̊/).
ȷ	dotless small j	voiced palatal approximant	j or ʝ̞
ᵻ	barred small capital i	near-close central unrounded vowel	ɪ̈, ɨ̞, ɘ̝, ɪ̠	used by some English phoneticians, including the Oxford English Dictionary; Americanist notation[38]
ᵼ	barred Latin iota			used by Slavicists[38]
(^ɪ ə)	small capital i over schwa			used by some English phoneticians and dictionaries;[28] may be more broadly described as any obscure vowel between ⟨i⟩ or ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨ə⟩
ꝋ	barred o	close-mid central rounded vowel	ɵ	variant shape of ɵ in some early 20th century works.[39]
ꭥ	small capital omega	mid back rounded vowel	o̞, ɔ̝	Proposed by Bloch & Trager (1942) and Koreanists.
o̧	o with cedilla			Used by Sinologists.[40]
ω	omega	near-open back rounded vowel	ɒ̝, ɔ̞	Proposed by Bloch & Trager (1942) and Sinologists.[40]
		near-close near-back unrounded vowel	ɯ̽ or ʊ̜	Used by Wells (1982);[41] made from obsolete ɷ symbol.
ұ	Cyrillic straight U with stroke			used in Mande studies[42]
ɷ	closed omega	near-close near-back rounded vowel	ʊ	longstanding alternate symbol until 1989
ᴜ	small capital u			Americanist notation; also shape of ʊ in the original 1900 chart
ᵿ	barred Latin upsilon	near-close central rounded vowel	ʊ̈, ʉ̞, ɵ̝, ʊ̟	used by some English phoneticians, including the Oxford English Dictionary
ᵾ	barred small capital u			Americanist notation[38]
(^ʊ ə)	small capital Latin upsilon over schwa			used by some English phoneticians and dictionaries;[28] may be more broadly described as any obscure vowel between ⟨u⟩ or ⟨ʊ⟩ and ⟨ə⟩
ɏ	barred y	close central compressed vowel	ÿ	para-IPA, by analogy of central ⟨i u⟩ being transcribed as ⟨ɨ ʉ⟩
ɏ	small capital barred y	near-close central compressed vowel	ʏ̈	para-IPA, by analogy of central ⟨ɪ ʊ⟩ being transcribed as ⟨ᵻ ᵿ⟩
ɉ	barred j	voiced post-palatal approximant	ȷ̈	used by Ball et al. (2011, 2020)[19][20]
ɥ	barred turned h	compressed voiced post-palatal approximant	ɥ̈	used by Ball et al. (2011);[19] in the Unicode pipeline[43]
w	barred w	protruded voiced post-palatal approximant	ẅ	used by Ball et al. (2020);[20] in the Unicode pipeline[43]
B G Ɠ H I L Ɬ N Œ R Y	uppercase letters	small caps	ʙ ɢ ʛ ʜ ɪ ʟ 𝼄 ɴ ɶ ʀ ʏ	often mistaken by typing, uppercase alternatives to symbols shaped like small capitals
Q	uppercase q	sokuon		used by Japanologists.
ꞯ	small capital q
		Voiceless upper-pharyngeal stop	q᫢ (q˗)	proposed for the pharyngeal stop of Formosan languages,^[citation needed] officially used in extIPA
ꞎ 𝼆 𝼄	belted letters	voiceless lateral fricatives (retroflex, palatal, and velar)	ɭ̊˔ ʎ̝̊ ʟ̝̊	now in the extIPA[33]
ⱳ	w with hook	bilabial flap	ⱱ̟	para-IPA[44]
𝼑	l with fishhook	alveolar lateral flap	ɺ	historical alternate used in transcriptions before the official adoption of ⟨ɺ⟩ by the IPA;[45] also in the Anthropos phonetic alphabet
𝼈	turned r with long leg and retroflex hook	retroflex lateral flap	ɭ̆	para-IPA, by analogy of retroflex ⟨ɗ⟩ being transcribed as ⟨ᶑ⟩[45]
ᶘ ᶚ	esh or ezh with retroflex hook	retroflex palato-alveolar fricatives	ʃ͡ɻ̊ ʒ͡ɻ	may be impossible to pronounce[46]
k', t', etc.	apostrophe	no audible release	k̚, t̚, etc.	removed
		palatalization	k̟, tʲ, etc.	common in X-SAMPA
k’, t’, etc.	right single quotation mark	Korean fortis	k͈, t͈, etc.	used by some Koreanists for fortis sounds.
K, T, etc.	uppercase letters (not small capitals)
ɔ̩	vowel with tilted line below	lower-pitched rising / falling tone contour		for languages that distinguish multiple rising or falling tones
kʻ, tʻ, etc.	turned comma above	weak (sometimes normal) aspiration	k t (sometimes kʰ tʰ)	First symbol may be left single quotation mark (U+2018) or modifier letter apostrophe (U+02BC); second symbol may be single high-reversed-9 quotation mark (U+201B) or modifier letter reversed comma (U+02BD)
ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ ꭧ ꭦ ʨ ʥ	ligatures	affricates	t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ	formerly acceptable variants[47]
𝼗 𝼒	ligatures with palatal hook	palatalized affricates	t͡ɕ d͡ʑ	historical, para-IPA[45]
𝼜 𝼙	ligatures with retroflex hook	retroflex affricates	ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ
p′ s′ t′ etc.	prime	palatalization	pʲ sʲ tʲ etc.	traditional Irish phonology transcription
pʼ sʼ tʼ etc.	combining apostrophe			traditional Russian phonology transcription
*	asterisk	syntactic gemination		used in some Italian dictionaries
˹	open corner	release/burst		IPA number 490
◌˖, ◌˗	plus, minus	advanced, retracted	◌᫈, ◌᫢	used to avoid a descender or another diacritic. the minus may have serifs to distinguish it from a hyphen. withdrawn in 1989.
◌꭪, ◌꭫	left-tack, right-tack	advanced, retracted	◌᫠, ◌᫡	used to avoid a descender or another diacritic. retired in 1912. sometimes seen today with their modern values of advanced and retracted tongue root.
◌˔, ◌˕	up-tack, down-tack	raised, lowered	◌᷵, ◌᫛	used to avoid a descender or another diacritic. withdrawn in 1989.
◌ᶹ	superscript v with hook	labialization (compressed)	◌ᵝ	extIPA; used in some language studies e.g. Swedish and Japanese; may actually indicate labiodentalization
◌ᷩ	combining Latin beta above			used to avoid implication of a diphthong
◌͍ ◌⃡	combining left–right arrow below and above			extIPA, but intended for spread lips rather than compression
◌ᫀ	combining turned w below			may also be used to indicate voiceless labialization ⟨◌ꭩ⟩ instead of compression[48]
◌᫦ ◌᫧	combining double arch below and above			added to Unicode in 2025 with this as its intended usage, but not IPA[48]
◌̫ ◌᫇	combining inverted double arch below and above	labialization (protruded)	◌ʷ	removed 1989
◌ᪿ ◌ᷱ	combining w below and above			used in some sources, but the rounded version (double arch) is the standard[48]
◌̣	underdot	Retroflex consonant	◌̢	early historical charts
		raised	◌̝	withdrawn in 1989
		whispered		never IPA, but picked up by VoQS
◌⸋	box	unreleased	◌̚	used where IPA ◌̚ would get confused with the corners used to indicate change of pitch in the Japanese pitch accent system
◌ʱ	Modifier h with hook	breathy voice or voiced aspiration	◌̤	Equivalent in the IPA
◌ˀ	Modifier glottal stop	creaky voice or glottalization	◌̰
◌̴	Combining middle tilde	velarization	◌ˠ
◌͋	Combining homothetic	nareal fricative	◌̾	replaced in 2024
◌͌	Combining double tilde	velopharyngeal release	◌𐞐 (◌ᶠᵑ)
ˉ◌, ˗◌, ˍ◌	Modifier high, mid and low macron behind	high, mid and low-level tone or intonation	◌́, ◌̄, ◌̀ or ˦ ꜓, ˧ ꜔, ˨ ꜕	removed^[citation needed]
˭◌, ₌◌	Modifier high and low equals sign behind	extra-high and extra-low level tone or intonation	◌̋, ◌̏ or ˥ ꜒, ˩ ꜖
ˋ◌, ˴◌, ˎ◌	Modifier high, mid and low grave behind	falling or high falling, mid falling and low-falling tone or intonation	◌᷇, ◌᷆ or ˥˧ ꜒꜔, ˦˨ ꜓꜕, ˧˩ ꜔꜖
ˊ◌, ˏ◌	Modifier high and low acute behind	high rising and low rising tone or intonation	◌᷄, ◌᷅ or ˧˥ ꜔꜒, ˨˦ ꜕꜓, ˩˧ ꜖꜔
ˇ◌, ˬ◌	Modifier high and low caron behind	high dipping and low dipping (falling-rising) tone or intonation	◌᷉ or ˥˧˥ ꜒꜔꜒, ˦˨˦ ꜓꜕꜓, ˧˩˧ ꜔꜖꜔
ˆ◌, ꞈ◌	Modifier high and low circumflex behind	peaking (rising-falling) tone or intonation	◌᷈ or ˧˥˨ ꜔꜒꜕, ˨˦˨ ꜕꜓꜕, ˩˧˩ ꜖꜔꜖
˜◌, ̰◌	Modifier high and low tilde behind	"wavy" tone or intonation
˙◌, ·◌, .◌	Modifier high, mid and low dot behind	atonic syllable with high, mid, and low pitch; respectively
◌́, ◌̂, ◌̀, ◌̆	Acute accent, circumflex, grave accent, breve	stress symbols: primary stress, weakened primary stress, secondary stress, and no stress; respectively	ˈˈ◌, ˈ◌, ˌ◌, ◌	some English phoneticians and phonologists use acute and grave accents as primary and secondary stress symbols. Some linguists[49] use the circumflex as weakened primary stress in compound words and the breve as no stress. these symbols are also written on the English spellings not just other IPA symbols.
◌̩, ◌̍	Vertical line below or above	moraic		used by Japanologists. In the standard IPA, these symbols represents syllabic sounds, but Japanologists use them for phonetic variants (except for nasal vowels) of the moraic N ([n̩, ɴ̩, ŋ̍ (or ŋ̩), m̩]).
◌̄, ◌́, ◌̌, ◌̀	Macron, acute accent, caron, grave accent	Chinese tones	◌́, ◌̌, ◌̀, ◌̂ or ◌̋, ◌᷄, ◌᷉, ◌̂ or similar, depending on dialect and analysis, or Chao tone letters	used by Sinologists with the values the symbols have in Hanyu Pinyin. the standard IPA values of these diacritics are: mid, high, rising, and low tone.

See also

• History of the IPA
• Americanist phonetic notation
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet

Footnotes or references

1. L2/24-171: Miscellaneous historical and para-IPA modifier letters
2. Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 313–314.
3. Larry Mattes & Donald Omark (1984) Speech and language assessment for the bilingual handicapped. College-Hill Press, San Diego.
4. Sedláček, Kamil (1967), "The Law of Phonetic Change in Initial Clusters in Common Sino-Tibetan", Monumenta Serica, 26: 24, JSTOR 40725837
5. Luo Changpei (罗常培); Wang Jun (王均) (2002) [1957]. 普通语音学纲要 [= Outline of general phonetics]. 商务印书馆.
6. Daniel, Gya; Blench, Roger (2008). Phonology of the Rigwe language (PDF).
7. L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS
8. Rangelov, Tihomir; Walworth, Mary; Barbour, Julie (2023). "A multifaceted approach to understanding unexpected sound change: The bilabial trills of Vanuatu's Malekula Island". Diachronica. doi:10.1075/dia.21051.ran. hdl:10289/15510. ISSN 0176-4225. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
9. Passy, Paul (1911), "desizjɔ̃ ɔfisjɛl", Le Maître Phonétique, 26 (5/6): 90, JSTOR 44701381
10. Henton, Caroline (1988), "5. Individual Symbols and Diacritics", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 18 (2): 85–88, doi:10.1017/s0025100300003686, JSTOR 44526005
11. Weeks, Raymond (1906), "ə fonɛtik ælfəbɛt fɔr iŋgliʃ", Le Maître Phonétique, 21 (2/3): 32-33, JSTOR 44703052
12. Joint Committee on a Phonetic English Alphabet; National Educational Association (U.S.); Modern Language Association of America; American Philological Association (1904), Report of a Joint Committee representing the National Educational Association, the American Philological Association, and the Modern Language Association of America: on the subject of a phonetic English alphabet, New York: Joint Committee on a Phonetic English Alphabet, pp. 1–53, hdl:2027/umn.31951002019575v
13. Weeks (1906), p. 32^[11] in reference to Joint Committee (1904), p. 17 and pp. 36-37^[12]
14. 1949 Principles of the IPA
15. Kenyon, John (1929), "The International Phonetic Alphabet", American Speech, 4 (4): 324–325, JSTOR 452075
16. L2/25-155: Unicode request for schwa with right hook
17. L2/12-266R: Proposal for Two Phonetic Characters
18. L2/21-155: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam
19. Ball, Martin; Rahilly, Joan (2011), "The symbolization of central approximants in the IPA", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 41 (2): 231–237, doi:10.1017/S0025100311000107
20. Ball, Martin; Rahilly, Joan; Lowry, Orla; Bessell, Nicola; Lee, Alice (2020), Phonetics for Speech Pathology, Communication Disorders and Clinical Linguistics (3rd ed.), University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1781791790
21. L2/25-077: Unicode request for w with palatal hook
22. Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebly, Carol Jean; Paterson III, Hugh (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 210–211, JSTOR 44527015
23. Pullum and Ladusaw (1996), page 209
24. Association Phonétique Internationale (1928), "desizjɔ̃ ofisjɛl", Le Maître Phonétique, Troisième Série, 6 (23): 51–53, JSTOR 44704266
25. International Phonetic Association (1912). Passy, Paul; Jones, Daniel (eds.). The Principles of the International Phonetic Association. p. 12. Retrieved 27 May 2025.
26. "THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET", Le Maître Phonétique, 27 (64): 11, 1949, JSTOR 44749216
27. "SpecGram—"Double-Dot Wide O / Nasal-Ingressive Voiceless Velar Trill"—by J–––– J––––––—Reviewed by Jonathan van der Meer". specgram.com.
28. L2/03-190: Proposal to Encode Additional Phonetic Symbols in the UCS
29. L2/21-041: Unicode request for additional para-IPA letters
30. "Romanization game #2 - Page 26 - The CBB". Archived from the original on 2025-04-27. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
31. "Romanization game #2 - Page 31 - The CBB". Archived from the original on 2025-04-26. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
32. An impossible sound
33. "extIPA Symbols for Disordered Speech (Revised to 2015)" (PDF). Retrieved 15 February 2018.
34. Lee-Kim, Sang-Im (December 2014). "Revisiting Mandarin 'apical vowels': An articulatory and acoustic study". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 44 (3): 261–282. doi:10.1017/S0025100314000267. S2CID 16432272.
35. Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (June 2003). "Standard Chinese (Beijing)". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (1): 109–112. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208.
36. Bailey, Charles-James N. (1976). "Some additions to the phonetic alphabet". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 6 (1): 32–34. doi:10.1017/s002510030000147x. JSTOR 44525830.
37. Federico Albano Leoni; Pietro Maturi (2002) [1995]. Manuale di fonetica (3 ed.). Carocci editore. ISBN 88-430-2127-3.
38. L2/04-132: Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS
39. For example in Wilhelm Viëtor, Wie ist die Aussprache des Deutschen zu lehren?, 1906.
40. Sun Hongkai (孙宏开); Jiang Di (江荻 (2004). "描写中国语言使用的国际音标及附加符号". Minzu Yuwen (民族语文). 1: 47–52.
41. Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128540-2 , 0-52128541-0 .
42. Roberts, David; Boyd, Ginger; Merz, Johannes; Vydrin, Valentin (2020). "Quantifying written ambiguities in tone languages: A comparative study of Elip, Mbelime, and Eastern Dan". Language Documentation & Conservation. 14: 108–138. hdl:10125/24915.
43. L2/24-049: Unicode support for historical and para-IPA letters
44. "IPA (SIL) Keyboard Help", help.keyman.com
45. L2/20-125: Unicode request for a ligature, expected IPA retroflex letters and similar hooks & tails.
46. Constable, Peter (2004). Revised Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Retroflex Hook in the UCS (PDF). p. 7.
47. Pullum, Geoffrey K.; William A. Ladusaw (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-226-68535-7.
48. L2/24-080: Unicode request for IPA diacritics above and one below
49. Trager, George L., and Henry Lee Smith Jr. 1951. An Outline of English Structure. Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers 3. Norman, Okla.: Battenburg Press.