Naming conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet

Letters

The traditional names of the Latin and Greek letters are used for unmodified symbols. In Unicode, some of the symbols of Greek origin have Latin forms for use in IPA; the others use the symbols from the Greek section.

Examples:

Note

The IPA standard includes some small capital letters, such as and , although it is common to refer to these symbols as simply "capital" or "cap" letters, because the IPA standard does not include any full-size capital letters.

Cursive-based letters

A few letters have the forms of cursive or script letters. Examples:

Note

Ligatures

Ligatures are called precisely that, although Unicode often mistakenly calls them "digraphs". Examples:

Note that "œ" can alternatively be called ethel, and similarly "æ" can be called ash.

Rotated letters

Main article: rotated letters

Many letters are turned, or rotated 180 degrees. Examples:

;Notes

A few letters are reversed (flipped on a vertical axis):

;Notes:

A couple letters are inverted (flipped on a horizontal axis): **** inverted small capital R and the obsolete **** inverted glottal stop. (**** could also be called an inverted w, but turned w is more common.)

Letters with extra lines, curls and serifs

When a horizontal stroke is added, it is called a crossbar, as in **** barred h, **** barred o, **** reversed barred glottal stop or barred ayin, and **** barred dotless j or barred gelded j (apparently never 'turned f').

One letter instead has a slash through it: **** slashed o.

The implosives have hook tops: **** hook-top b, **** hook-top d, etc., as does **** hook-top h.

Such an extension at the bottom of a letter is called a tail. It may be specified as left or right depending on which direction it turns, as in **** right-tail n, **** right-tail turned r, **** left-tail n, **** tail z (or just retroflex z), etc. Note that **** is called eng or engma, **** meng, and **** heng.

When the tail loops over itself, it's called curly: **** curly-tail j, **** curly-tail c.

There are also a few unique modifications: **** belted l, **** closed reversed epsilon (there was once also a **** closed omega), **** right-leg turned m, **** turned long-leg r (there was once also a long-leg r), **** double pipe, and the obsolete **** stretched c.

Several non-English letters have traditional names: **** c cedilla, **** eth (also spelled edh), **** engma or eng, **** schwa (also spelled shwa), **** exclamation mark, **** pipe.

Other symbols are unique to the IPA, and have developed their own quirky names: **** fish-hook r, **** ram's horns, **** bull's eye, **** esh (apparently never 'stretched s'), **** ezh (sometimes confused with yogh), **** hook-top heng.

The **** is usually called by the sound it represents, glottal stop. This is not normally a problem, because this symbol is seldom used to represent anything else. However, to specify the symbol itself, it is sometimes unofficially called a gelded question mark. This latter name is derived from its original form as a dotless question mark in a fashion reminiscent of gelding.

Diacritic marks

Traditionally named diacritics

:**** acute, **** macron, **** grave, **** circumflex, **** wedge or háček, **** diaeresis or umlaut, **** breve, **** (superscript) tilde, plus variants such as **** subscript tilde, **** superimposed tilde, etc.

Non-traditionally named diacritics

:**** seagull, **** hook, **** over-cross, **** corner, **** bridge, **** inverted bridge, **** square, **** under-ring, **** over-ring, **** left half-ring, **** right half-ring, **** plus, **** under-bar, **** arch, **** subscript wedge, **** up tack, **** down tack, **** left tack, **** right tack, **** tie bar, **** under-dot, **** under-stroke.

Diacritics are alternately named after their function. This would mean that the bridge is called the dental sign, the under-stroke is the syllabicity sign, and the up tack is the raising sign.

References

• Pullum, Geoffrey K., and William A. Ladusaw. 1996. Phonetic Symbol Guide, 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

References

1. The Latin phi; the old-style or Greek phi (φ) is used in linguistics to mark prosodic units ([[Foot (prosody). foot]]).
2. The Latin [[upsilon]] is frequently called "[[horseshoe. horseshoe u]]" in order to distinguish it from the Greek upsilon (υ). Historically, it derives from a Latin small capital {{mono. U. Greek upsilon is also an IPA symbol, called "Cursive V" in the ''Handbook''.