History of the International Phonetic Alphabet
History of the IPA phonetic representation system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about IPA Kiel Convention?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The International Phonetic Alphabet was created soon after the International Phonetic Association was established in the late 19th century. It was intended as an international system of phonetic transcription for oral languages, originally for pedagogical purposes. The Association was established in Paris in 1886 by French and British language teachers led by Paul Passy. The prototype of the alphabet appeared in Phonetic Teachers' Association (1888b). The Association based their alphabet upon the Romic alphabet of Henry Sweet, which in turn was based on the Phonotypic Alphabet of Isaac Pitman and the Palæotype of Alexander John Ellis.[1]
The alphabet has undergone a number of revisions during its history, the most significant being the one put forth at the Kiel Convention in 1989. Changes to the alphabet are proposed and discussed in the Association's organ, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, previously known as Le Maître Phonétique and before that as The Phonetic Teacher, and then put to a vote by the Association's Council.
The extensions to the IPA for disordered speech were created in 1990, with a major revision in 2015.[2]
The International Phonetic Association was founded in Paris in 1886 under the name Dhi Fonètik Tîtcerz' Asóciécon (The Phonetic Teachers' Association), a development of L'Association phonétique des professeurs d'Anglais ("The English Teachers' Phonetic Association"), to promote an international phonetic alphabet, designed primarily for English, French, and German, for use in schools to facilitate acquiring foreign pronunciation.[3]
Originally the letters had different phonetic values from language to language. For example, English [ʃ] was transcribed with ⟨c⟩ and French [ʃ] with ⟨x⟩.[4]
As of May and November 1887, the alphabets were as follows:[5][6]
|
|
|
In the August–September 1888 issue of its journal, the Phonetic Teachers' Association published a standardized alphabet intended for transcription of multiple languages, reflecting its members' consensus that only one set of alphabet ought to be used for all languages,[7] along with a set of six principles:
- There should be a separate sign for each distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of a word.
- When any sound is found in several languages, the same sign should be used in all. This applies also to very similar shades of sound.
- The alphabet should consist as much as possible of the ordinary letters of the roman alphabet; as few new letters as possible being used.
- In assigning values to the roman letters, international usage should decide.
- The new letters should be suggestive of the sounds they represent, by their resemblance to the old ones.
- Diacritic marks should be avoided, being trying for the eyes and troublesome to write.[8]
The principles would govern all future development of the alphabet, with the exception of #5 and in some cases #2,[9] until they were revised drastically in 1989.[10] #6 has also been loosened, as diacritics have been admitted for limited purposes.[11]
The devised alphabet was as follows. The letters marked with an asterisk were "provisional shapes", which were meant to be replaced "when circumstances will allow".[8]
Shape | Value | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
English | French | German | Other languages | ||
p | as in | put | pas | pferd | |
b | but | bas | boot | ||
t | ten | tant | tot | ||
d | den | dent | da | ||
k | kind | képi | kuh | ||
g | good | gai | gut | ||
m | my | ma | mein | ||
n | no | non | nein | ||
ɴ | règne | Ital. regno | |||
*ɴ | thing | ding | Ital. anche | ||
l | lull | la | lang | ||
*ʎ | fille (in the south) | Sp. llano, Ital. gli | |||
r | red | rare | rot | (tongue-point r) | |
ʀ | rare | rot | (back r). – Dan. træ | ||
ᴜ | quer | Flem. wrocht, Span. bibir. | |||
ɥ | buis | ||||
w | wel | oui | Ital. questo | ||
f | full | fou | voll | ||
v | vain | vin | wein | ||
θ | thin | Span. razon | |||
ð | then | Dan. gade | |||
s | seal | sel | weiss | ||
z | zeal | zèle | weise | ||
*c | she | chat | fisch | Swed. skæl, Dan. sjæl, Ital. lascia | |
ʒ | leisure | jeu | genie | ||
ç | ich | ||||
j | you | yak | ja | Swed. ja, Ital. jena | |
x | ach | Span. jota | |||
q | wagen | ||||
h | high | (haut) | hoch | ||
u | full | cou | nuss | ||
o | soul | pot | soll | ||
ɔ | not | note | Ital. notte | ||
ᴀ | pas | vater | Swed. sal | ||
*a | father | Ital. mano, Swed. mann. | |||
a | eye, how | patte | mann | ||
æ | man | ||||
ɛ | air | air | bær | ||
e | men | né | nett | ||
i | pit | ni | mit | ||
*œ | but, fur | ||||
œ | seul | kœnnen | |||
*ɶ | peu | sœhne | |||
y | nu | dünn | |||
*ü | für | ||||
ə | never | je | gabe | ||
ʼ | Glottal catch | ||||
-u, u- | Weak stressed u | These modifications apply to all letters | |||
·u, u·, u̇ | Strong stressed u | ||||
u: | Long u | ||||
œ̃ | Nasal œ (or any other vowel) | ||||
û | Long and narrow u (or any other vowel) | ||||
hl, lh | Voiceless l (or any other consonant) | ||||
: | Mark of length |
During the 1890s, the alphabet was expanded to cover sounds of Arabic and other non-European languages which did not easily fit the Latin alphabet.[4]
Throughout the first half of the 1900s, the Association published a series of booklets outlining the specifications of the alphabet in several languages, the first being a French edition published in 1900.[12] In the book, the chart appeared as follows:[13]
Laryn- gales |
Guttu- rales |
Uvu- laires |
Vélaires | Palatales | Linguales | Labiales | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Consonnes |
Plosives | ʔ | q ɢ | k ɡ | c ɟ | t d | p b | |
Nasales | ŋ | ɲ | n | m | ||||
Latérales | ł | ʎ | l | |||||
Roulées | ꞯ | ᴙ ʀ | r | |||||
Fricatives | h | ʜ ɦ | ᴚ ʁ | (ʍ w) x ǥ[lower-alpha 2] | (ɥ) ç j | ɹ, θ ð, ʃ ʒ, s z
ᵷ ʒ [14] |
f v ꜰ ʋ
ʍ w ɥ | |
Voyelles |
Fermées | uɯüïyi
ᴜ ʏı
oⱯöëøe
ə
ɐæ
ɑa |
(u ü y)
(o ö ø)
(ɔ ɔ̈ œ) | |||||
Mi-fermées | ||||||||
Moyennes | ||||||||
Mi-ouvertes | ||||||||
Ouvertes |
Initially, the charts were arranged with laryngeal sounds on the left and labial ones on the right, following the convention of Alexander Melville Bell's Visible Speech.[16] Vowels and consonants were placed in a single chart, reflecting how sounds ranged in openness from stops (top) to open vowels (bottom). The voiced velar fricative was represented by ⟨⟩ (distinct from ⟨ɡ⟩, which represents a plosive) since 1895 until it was replaced by ⟨ǥ⟩ in 1900.[17][18] ⟨ǥ⟩ too would be replaced by ⟨ɣ⟩ in 1931.[19]
Not all letters, especially those in the fricatives row which included both fricatives in the modern sense and approximants, were self-explanatory and could only be discerned in the notes following the chart, which redefined letters using the orthographies of languages wherein the sounds they represent occur. For example:
(ꞯ) [is] the Arabic ain [modern ⟨ʕ⟩]. (ꜰ) (ʋ) is a simple bilabial fricative [modern ⟨ɸ β⟩] ... (θ) is the English hard th, Spanish z, Romaic [Greek] θ, Icelandic þ; (ð) the English soft th, Icelandic ð, Romaic δ. (ɹ) is the non-rolled r of Southern British, and can also be used for the simple r of Spanish and Portuguese [modern ⟨ɾ⟩] ... (x) is found in German in ach; (ǥ), in wagen, as often pronounced in the north of Germany [modern ⟨ɣ⟩]. (ᴚ) is the Arabic kh as in khalifa [modern ⟨χ⟩]; (ʁ) the Danish r; the Parisian r is intermediate between (ʀ) and (ʁ). — (ʜ) [modern ⟨ħ⟩] and (ɦ) are the ha and he in Arabic.[20] — (ᵷ) and (ʒ) are sounds in Circassian [approximately modern ⟨ɕ ʑ⟩[21]].[22]
Nasalized vowels were marked with a tilde: ⟨ã⟩, ⟨ẽ⟩, etc. It was noted that ⟨ə⟩ may be used for "any vowel of obscure and intermediate quality found in weak syllables".[22] A long sound was distinguished by trailing ⟨ː⟩. Stress may be marked by ⟨´⟩ before the stressed syllable, as necessary, and the Swedish and Norwegian 'compound tone' (double tone) with ⟨ˇ⟩ before the syllable.[22]
A voiced sound was marked by ⟨◌̬⟩ and a voiceless one by ⟨◌̥⟩. Retroflex consonants were marked by ⟨◌̣⟩, as in ⟨ṣ, ṭ, ṇ⟩. Arabic emphatic consonants were marked by ⟨◌̤⟩: ⟨s̤, t̤, d̤⟩. Consonants accompanied by a glottal stop (ejectives) were marked by ⟨ʼ⟩: ⟨kʼ, pʼ⟩. Tense and lax vowels were distinguished by acute and grave accents: naught [nɔ́ːt], not [nɔ̀t]. Non-syllabic vowels were marked by a breve, as in ⟨ŭ⟩, and syllabic consonants by an acute below, as in ⟨n̗⟩. Following letters, ⟨꭫⟩ stood for advanced tongue, ⟨꭪⟩ for retracted tongue, ⟨˕⟩ for more open, ⟨˔⟩ for more close, ⟨˒⟩ for more rounded, and ⟨˓⟩ for more spread. It was also noted that a superscript letter may be used to indicate a tinge of that sound in the sound represented by the preceding letter, as in ⟨ʃç⟩.[23]
It was emphasized, however, that such details need not usually be repeated in transcription.[23] The equivalent part of the 1904 English edition said:
[I]t must remain a general principle to leave out everything self-evident, and everything that can be explained once for all. This allows us to dispense almost completely with the modifiers, and with a good many other signs, except in scientific works and in introductory explanations. We write English fill and French fil the same way fil; yet the English vowel is 'wide' and the French 'narrow', and the English l is formed much further back than the French. If we wanted to mark these differences, we should write English fìl꭪, French fíl꭫. But we need not do so: we know, once for all, that English short i is always ì, and French i always í; that English l is always l꭪ and French l always l꭫.[24]
In the 1904 Aim and Principles of the International Phonetic Association, the first of its kind in English, the chart appeared as:[25]
Bronchs | Throat | Uvula | Back | Front | Tongue-point | Lip | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Consonants |
Stopped | ˀ | q ɢ | k ɡ | c ɟ | t d | p b | |
Nasal | ŋ | ɲ | n | m | ||||
Side | ɫ | ʎ | l | |||||
Trilled | ᴙ ʀ | r | ||||||
Squeezed | ʜ ꞯ | h ɦ | ᴚ ʁ | (ʍ w) x ǥ[lower-alpha 2] | (ɥ) ç j | ɹ, θ ð, ʃ ʒ, s z | f v ꜰ ʋ
ʍ w ɥ | |
Vowels |
Close | uɯüïyi
ʊ ʏı
oⱯöëøe
ə
ɔʌɔ̈äœɛ
ɐæ
ɑa |
(u ü y)
(ʊ ʏ)
(o ö ø)
(ɔ ɔ̈ œ) | |||||
Half-close | ||||||||
Mid | ||||||||
Half-open | ||||||||
Open |
In comparison to the 1900 chart, the glottal stop appeared as a modifier letter ⟨ˀ⟩ rather than a full letter ⟨ʔ⟩, ⟨ʊ⟩ replaced ⟨ᴜ⟩, and ⟨ɫ⟩ replaced ⟨ł⟩. ⟨ᵷ, ʒ⟩ were removed from the chart and instead only mentioned as having "been suggested for a Circassian dental hiss [sibilant] and its voiced correspondent".[24] ⟨σ⟩ is suggested for the Bantu labialized sibilant, and ⟨*⟩ as a diacritic to mark click consonants. It is noted that some prefer iconic ⟨ɵ ʚ⟩ to ⟨ø œ⟩, and that ⟨ı⟩ and ⟨ː⟩ are unsatisfactory letters.
Laryngeal consonants had also been moved around, reflecting little understanding about the mechanisms of laryngeal articulations at the time.[26] ⟨ʜ⟩ and ⟨ꞯ⟩ were defined as the Arabic ح and ع.[27]
In the notes, the half-length mark ⟨ˑ⟩ is now mentioned, and it is noted that whispered sounds may be marked with a diacritical comma, as in ⟨u̦, i̦⟩. A syllabic consonant is now marked by a vertical bar, as in ⟨n̩⟩, rather than ⟨n̗⟩.[28] It is noted, in this edition only, that "shifted vowels" may be indicated: ⟨꭪꭪⟩ for in-mixed or in-front, and ⟨꭫꭫⟩ for out-back.[29]
Following 1904, sets of specifications in French appeared in 1905 and 1908, with little to no changes.[30][31] In 1912, the second English booklet appeared. For the first time, labial sounds were shown on the left and laryngeal ones on the right:[32]
Lips | Lip-teeth | Point and Blade | Front | Back | Uvula | Throat | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Consonants |
Plosive | p b | t d | c ɟ | k ɡ | q ɢ | ˀ | |
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ɴ | |||
Lateral | l ɫ | ʎ | (ɫ) | |||||
Rolled | r ř | ʀ | ||||||
Fricative | ꜰ ʋ
ʍ w ɥ
σ ƍ |
f v | θ ð s z
σ ƍ ʃ ʒ ɹ |
ç j (ɥ) | (ʍ w) x ǥ[lower-alpha 2] | ᴚ ʁ | h ɦ | |
Vowels |
Front Mixed Back |
|||||||
Close | (u ü y)
(ʊ ʏ)
(o ö ø)
(ɔ ɔ̈ œ) |
i yï üɯ u
ɪ ʏʊ
e øë öⱯ o
ə
ɛ œɛ̈ ɔ̈ʌ ɔ
æɐ
aɑ | ||||||
Half-close | ||||||||
Half-open | ||||||||
Open |
⟨ř⟩ was added for the Czech fricative trill, ⟨ɛ̈⟩ replaced ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ɪ⟩ replaced ⟨ı⟩, following their approval in 1909.[33] Though not included in the chart, ⟨ɱ⟩ was mentioned as an optional letter for the labiodental nasal. ⟨ɹ⟩ was still designated as the "provisional" letter for the alveolar tap/flap. ⟨σ, ƍ⟩ were defined as the Bantu sounds with "tongue position of θ, ð, combined with strong lip-rounding". ⟨ʜ, ꞯ⟩ were still included though not in the chart.[34] ⟨ᴙ⟩ was removed entirely.
For the first time, affricates, or "'[a]ssibilated' consonant groups, i. e. groups in which the two elements are so closely connected that the whole might be treated as a single sound", were noted as able to be represented with a tie bar, as in ⟨t͡ʃ, d͜z⟩. Palatalized consonants could be marked by a dot above the letter, as in ⟨ṡ, ṅ, ṙ⟩, "suggesting the connexion with the sounds i and j".[35]
⟨꭫, ꭪⟩ were no longer mentioned.
The 1921 Écriture phonétique internationale introduced new letters, some of which were never to be seen in any other booklet:[36]
Laryn- gales |
Uvu- laires |
Vélaires | Palatales | Linguales | Labiales | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Consonnes |
Plosives | ʔ[37] | q ɢ | k ɡ | c ɟ | t d | p b |
Nasales | ɴ | ŋ | ɲ | n | m | ||
Latérales | ʎ | l | |||||
Roulées | ᴙ ʀ | r | |||||
Fricatives | h | χ ʁ | (ƕ w) x ǥ[lower-alpha 2] | ( ɥ)ç j | ʃ ʒ s z
ɹ θ ð |
f v ꜰ ʋ
| |
Voyelles |
Fermées | u ɯʉ ɨy i
ə
ɔ ʌʚ ᴈœ ɛ
ɐ
ɑa |
(u ʉ y)
(o ɵ ø)
(ɔ ʚ œ) | ||||
Mi-fermées | |||||||
Mi-ouvertes | |||||||
Ouvertes |
⟨χ⟩ replaced ⟨ᴚ⟩ and ⟨ɤ⟩ replaced ⟨Ɐ⟩, both of which would not officially be approved until 1928.[39] ⟨ƕ⟩ replaced ⟨ʍ⟩ and ⟨⟩ was added for a devoiced [ɥ], but neither has appeared in any other IPA chart and the latter is not supported by Unicode. Also added were dedicated letters for the central vowels, ⟨ɨ, ʉ, ɘ, ɵ, ᴈ, ʚ⟩, which appeared again in Trofimov & Jones (1923), p. 40 and in the chart in Le Maître Phonétique from 1926 to 1927, though without the Council's approval.[40][41] Of these, only ⟨ɨ, ʉ, ᴈ, ɵ⟩ were approved in the 1928 revision, with a different value for ⟨ᴈ⟩, until ⟨ɘ, ʚ⟩ were revived and ⟨ᴈ⟩ regained the 1921 value in 1993. The old convention of ⟨ï, ü, ë, ö, ɛ̈, ɔ̈⟩ was retained for where central vowels were not phonemically distinct. ⟨ə, ɐ⟩ were still for obscure or indeterminate vowels, as opposed to the others, which would indicate clear pronunciations.
The book also mentioned letters "already commonly used in special works", some of which had long been part of the IPA but others which "have not yet been definitively adopted":[42]
- ⟨ɾ⟩ for a single-tap r
- ⟨ř⟩ for the Czech fricative trill
- ⟨ɦ⟩ for a voiced [h]
- ⟨ħ, ʕ⟩ for the Arabic ح and ع, "whose formation we do not yet agree on"
- ⟨σ, ƍ⟩ (dental) and ⟨ƪ, ƺ⟩ (alveolar or palatal) for labialized sibilants found in South African languages
- As "suggested":
- ⟨ᵷ, ʒ⟩ for Circassian dental fricatives
- ⟨ɮ⟩ for fricative [l] of Bantu languages
- ⟨ɺ⟩ for a sound between [r] and [l] found in African languages and in Japanese
- Small j for palatalized consonants: ⟨ƫ, ᶎ⟩
- Overlaying tilde for velarized and Arabic emphatic consonants: ⟨ᵵ, ᵭ⟩
- ⟨ɕ, ʑ⟩ for "dentalized palatals"
- ⟨𝼪, 𝼥⟩, ⟨r⟩, etc. for retroflex consonants, previously represented by ⟨ṭ, ḍ, ṛ⟩ etc.[43]
- ⟨ʧ⟩, ⟨ʤ⟩, ⟨ʦ⟩, ⟨ʣ⟩, ⟨pf⟩, ⟨tl⟩, etc. for affricates
- ⟨ᴜ, ɪ, ʏ⟩ for the near-close equivalents of [o, e, ø]
- ⟨ɒ, æ⟩ for the near-open vowels in English not, man
- ⟨ʇ, ʖ, ʞ, ʗ⟩ for clicks, with ⟨ʞ⟩ for the common palatal click (this would be called "velar" in later editions of the IPA, following Jones' terminology)
It also introduced several new suprasegmental specifications:[44]
- ⟨ˎ⟩ for "half-accent"
- ⟨˝⟩ for "reinforced accent"
- Tones could be indicated either before the syllable or on the nuclear vowel: ⟨´◌, ◌́⟩ high rising, ⟨ˉ◌, ◌̄⟩ high level, ⟨ˋ◌, ◌̀⟩ high falling, ⟨ˏ◌, ◌̗⟩ low rising, ⟨ˍ◌, ◌̠⟩ low level, ⟨ˎ◌, ◌̖⟩ low falling, ⟨ˆ◌, ◌̂⟩ rise-fall, ⟨ˇ◌, ◌̌⟩ fall-rise
- Medium tones, as necessary: ⟨´◌⟩ mid rising, ⟨ˉ◌⟩ mid level, ⟨˴◌⟩ mid falling
It recommended the use of a circumflex for the Swedish grave accent, as in [ˆandən] ("the spirit").[44] It was mentioned that some authors prefer ⟨˖, ˗⟩ in place of ⟨꭫, ꭪⟩. Aspiration was marked as ⟨pʻ, tʻ, kʻ⟩ and stronger aspiration as ⟨ph, th, kh⟩.[45]
The click letters ⟨ʇ, ʖ, ʞ, ʗ⟩ were conceived by Daniel Jones. In 1960, A. C. Gimson wrote to a colleague:
Paul Passy recognized the need for letters for the various clicks in the July–August 1914 number of Le Maître Phonétique and asked for suggestions. This number, however, was the last for some years because of the war. During this interval, Professor Daniel Jones himself invented the four letters, in consultation with Paul Passy and they were all four printed in the pamphlet L'Écriture Phonétique Internationale published in 1921. The letters were thus introduced in a somewhat unusual way, without the explicit consent of the whole Council of the Association. They were, however, generally accepted from then on, and, as you say, were used by Professor Doke in 1923. I have consulted Professor Jones in this matter, and he accepts responsibility for their invention, during the period of the First World War.[46]
⟨ʇ, ʖ, ʗ⟩ would be approved by the Council in 1928.[39] ⟨ʞ⟩ would be included in all subsequent booklets,[47][48][49][50] but not in the single-page charts. They would be replaced with the Lepsius/Bleek letters in the 1989 Kiel revision.
The 1921 book was the first in the series to mention the word phoneme (phonème).[45]
In April 1925, 12 linguists led by Otto Jespersen, including IPA Secretary Daniel Jones, attended a conference in Copenhagen and proposed specifications for a standardized system of phonetic notation.[51] The proposals were largely dismissed by the members of the IPA Council.[52] Nonetheless, the following additions recommended by the Conference were approved in 1927:[53]
- ⟨ˑ⟩ could now indicate full length when there is no need to distinguish half and full length
- Straight ⟨ˈ⟩ for stress instead of the previous slanted ⟨´⟩, and ⟨ˌ⟩ for secondary stress
- ⟨◌̫⟩ (recalling a w) for labialized and ⟨◌̪⟩ (recalling a tooth) for dental
- ⟨ʈ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ, ɽ, ʂ, ʐ⟩, with the arm moved under the letter, for retroflex consonants
- ⟨ɸ, β⟩ for bilabial fricatives, replacing ⟨ꜰ, ʋ⟩ (⟨ʋ⟩ was repurposed for the labiodental approximant)
- ⟨◌̣⟩ for more close and ⟨◌᪷⟩ for more open
In 1928, the following letters were adopted:[39]
- ⟨ɬ, ɮ⟩ for lateral fricatives
- ⟨ᵭ⟩, ⟨ᵶ⟩, etc. for velarization or pharyngealization (by extension from ⟨ɫ⟩)
- ⟨ƫ⟩, ⟨ᶁ⟩, ⟨ᶇ⟩, etc. for palatalized consonants
- ⟨ɓ⟩, ⟨ɗ⟩, etc. for implosives
The following letters, which had appeared in earlier editions, were repeated or formalized:[39]
- ⟨ɕ, ʑ⟩
- ⟨ƪ, ƺ⟩
- ⟨χ⟩
- ⟨ħ, ʕ⟩
- ⟨ɨ, ʉ, ɵ⟩
- ⟨ɤ⟩
- ⟨ᴈ⟩
- ⟨ɒ⟩
- ⟨ɺ⟩
- ⟨ʇ, ʖ, ʗ⟩
Jones (1928) also included ⟨ɱ⟩ for a labiodental nasal, ⟨ɾ⟩ for a dental or alveolar tap, ⟨ʞ⟩ for a palatal ('velar') click, and the tonal notation system seen in Association phonétique internationale (1921), p. 9. For the Swedish and Norwegian compound tones he recommended "any arbitrarily chosen mark", with the illustration [˟andən] ("the spirit"). He used ⟨ᴜ⟩ in place of ⟨ʊ⟩.[54] Apart from ⟨ᴜ⟩ and ⟨ʞ⟩, these new specifications would be inherited in the subsequent charts and booklets. The diacritics for whispered, ⟨◌̦⟩, and for tense and lax, ⟨◌́, ◌̀⟩, were no longer mentioned.