espeak-ng/docs/phonemes.md

Phonemes

• Consonants
  • Pulmonic
  • Non-Pulmonic
  • Other Symbols
• Vowels
• Features
  • Phoneme Type
  • Voicing
  • Place of Articulation
    • Co-articulation
  • Manner of Articulation
  • Vowel Height
  • Vowel Backness
  • Rounding
  • Diacritics
  • Suprasegmentals
  • Unused
• References

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Evan Kirshenbaum created an ASCII transcription of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)^{[1], [2]}. As well as using ASCII characters for specific IPA phonemes, this transcription provides a set of 3-letter feature abbreviations allowing a phoneme to be described as a sequence of features.

This document describes the IPA phonemes using the features used by Kirshenbaum.

Consonants

Pulmonic

	blb		lbd		dnt		alv		pla		rfx		pal		vel		uvl		phr		glt
nas		m		ɱ				n				ɳ		ɲ		ŋ		ɴ
stp	p	b					t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ			ʔ
frc	ɸ	β	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
apr				ʋ				ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ
flp				ⱱ				ɾ				ɽ
trl		ʙ						r										ʀ
lat frc							ɬ	ɮ
lat apr								l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ

Symbols to the left are vls, and to the right are vcd.

Non-Pulmonic

	blb	lbd	dnt	alv	pla	rfx	pal	vel	uvl	phr	glt
clk	ʘ		ǀ	ǃ			ǂ
lat clk				ǁ
vcd imp	ɓ			ɗ			ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
ejc	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
ejc frc	fʼ		θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ		xʼ	χʼ
lat ejc frc				ɬʼ

Other Symbols

Symbol	Features
ʍ	vls lbv apr
w	vcd lbv apr
ɥ	vcd lbp apr
ʜ	vls epg frc
ʢ	vcd epg frc
ʡ	vls epg stp
ɕ	vls alp frc
ʑ	vcd alp frc
ɺ	vcd alv lat flp
ɧ	vls vzd pla frc

Vowels

	fnt		cnt		bck
hgh	i	y	ɨ	ʉ	ɯ	u
smh	ɪ	ʏ				ʊ
umd	e	ø	ɘ	ɵ	ɤ	o
mid			ə
lmd	ɛ	œ	ɜ	ɞ	ʌ	ɔ
sml	æ		ɐ
low	a	ɶ			ɑ	ɒ

Symbols to the left are unr, and to the right are rnd.

NOTE: The smh vowels are more cnt than the other vowels. However, this distinction is not needed to classify these vowels, so is not included in the above table.

Features

Phoneme Type

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
vwl	vwl	vowel

Voicing

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
vcd	vcd	voiced
vls	vls	voiceless

Place of Articulation

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
blb	blb	bilabial
lbd	lbd	labio-dental
dnt	dnt	dental
alv	alv	alveolar
pla	pla	post-alveolar (palato-alveolar)
rfx	rfx	retroflex
alp		alveolo-palatal
pal	pal	palatal
vel	vel	velar
uvl	uvl	uvular
phr	phr	pharyngeal
epg		epiglottal
glt	glt	glottal

Co-articulation

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
lbv	lbv	labial-velar
lbp		labial-palatal

Manner of Articulation

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
stp	stp	plosive (stop)
nas	nas	nasal
trl	trl	trill
flp	flp	tap/flap
frc	frc	fricative
apr	apr	approximant
lat	lat	lateral
clk	clk	click
ejc	ejc	ejective
imp	imp	implosive

Vowel Height

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
hgh	hgh	close (high)
smh	smh	near-close (semi-high)
umd	umd	close-mid (upper-mid)
mid	mid	mid
lmd	lmd	open-mid (lower-mid)
sml		near-open (semi-low)
low	low	open (low)

Vowel Backness

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
fnt	fnt	front
cnt	cnt	center
bck	bck	back

Rounding

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
unr	unr	unrounded
rnd	rnd	rounded

Diacritics

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
asp	asp	aspirated
unx	unx	unexploded
syl	syl	syllabic
mrm	mrm	murmured
vzd	vzd	velarized
lzd	lzd	labialized
pzd	pzd	palatalized
rzd	rzd	rhoticized
nzd	nzd	nasalized
fzd	fzd	pharyngealized

Suprasegmentals

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
lng	lng	long

Unused

These feature abbreviations specified by Evan Kirshenbaum in Appendix A of his ASCII/IPA transcription are not used in that specification.

Feature	Kirshenbaum	Name
	orl	oral
	ctl	central

References

1. Kirshenbaum, Evan, [http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/faq.html](Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII) (HTML). 1993.

2. Kirshenbaum, Evan, [http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/ascii-ipa.pdf](Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII) (PDF). 2001.

3. International Phonetic Association, [https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart](The International Phonetic Alphabet and the IPA Chart). 2015. Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).

4. Wikipedia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet](International Phonetic Alphabet). 2017. Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).