Table of vowels

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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This table lists the vowel letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

IPA: Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y	ɨ ʉ	ɯ u
Near-close	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
Close-mid	e ø	ɘ ɵ	ɤ o
Mid	e̞ ø̞	ə	ɤ̞ o̞
Open-mid	ɛ œ	ɜ ɞ	ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ	ɐ
Open	a ɶ	ä	ɑ ɒ

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Legend: unrounded • rounded

name	height	backness	roundness	IPA number	IPA text	Entity	X-SAMPA	Sound sample
Close front unrounded vowel	close	front	unrounded	301	i	i	i	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close front rounded vowel	close	front	rounded	309	y	y	y	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close central unrounded vowel	close	central	unrounded	317	ɨ	ɨ	1	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close central rounded vowel	close	central	rounded	318	ʉ	ʉ	}	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close back unrounded vowel	close	back	unrounded	316	ɯ	ɯ	M	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close back rounded vowel	close	back	rounded	308	u	u	u	Sound sample^ⓘ
Near-close front unrounded vowel	near-close	front	unrounded	319	ɪ	ɪ	I	Sound sample^ⓘ
Near-close front rounded vowel	near-close	front	rounded	320	ʏ	ʏ	Y	Sound sample^ⓘ
Near-close back rounded vowel	near-close	back	rounded	321	ʊ	ʊ	U	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close-mid front unrounded vowel	close-mid	front	unrounded	302	e	e	e	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close-mid front rounded vowel	close-mid	front	rounded	310	ø	ø	2	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close-mid central unrounded vowel	close-mid	central	unrounded	397	ɘ	ɘ	@\	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close-mid central rounded vowel	close-mid	central	rounded	323	ɵ	ɵ	8	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close-mid back unrounded vowel	close-mid	back	unrounded	315	ɤ	ɤ	7	Sound sample^ⓘ
Close-mid back rounded vowel	close-mid	back	rounded	307	o	o	o	Sound sample^ⓘ
Mid central vowel	mid	central	undefined	322	ə	ə	@	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open-mid front unrounded vowel	open-mid	front	unrounded	303	ɛ	ɛ	E	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open-mid front rounded vowel	open-mid	front	rounded	311	œ	œ	9	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open-mid central unrounded vowel	open-mid	central	unrounded	326	ɜ	ɜ	3	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open-mid central rounded vowel	open-mid	central	rounded	395	ɞ	ɞ	3\	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open-mid back unrounded vowel	open-mid	back	unrounded	314	ʌ	ʌ	V	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open-mid back rounded vowel	open-mid	back	rounded	306	ɔ	ɔ	O	Sound sample^ⓘ
Near-open front unrounded vowel	near-open	front	unrounded	325	æ	æ	{	Sound sample^ⓘ
Near-open central vowel	near-open	central	undefined	324	ɐ	ɐ	6	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open front unrounded vowel	open	front	unrounded	304	a	a	a	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open front rounded vowel	open	front	rounded	312	ɶ	ɶ	&	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open back unrounded vowel	open	back	unrounded	305	ɑ	ɑ	A	Sound sample^ⓘ
Open back rounded vowel	open	back	rounded	313	ɒ	ɒ	Q	Sound sample^ⓘ

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

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Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ		kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

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Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

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Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]