SAMPA chart

The following show the typical symbols for consonants and vowels used in SAMPA, an ASCII-based system based on the International Phonetic Alphabet. SAMPA is not a universal system as it varies from language to language.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m	F		n		J	N
Stop plosive and affricate		p b		t d ts dz		tS dZ	c J\	k g	q G\		?
Fricative		p\ B	f v	T D	s z	S Z	C j\[a]	x G	X R	X\ ?\	h h\
Approximant	central		P		r\[b]		j[a] H	w
	lateral				l		L	5
Rhotic					4[b] r[b]				R\

1. Also in Spanish, [jj] is used to represent the palatal fricative against the semivowel [j].
2. It is common, especially in Spanish and Italian, to represent the alveolar trill with [rr] and the alveolar flap with [r]. It has been proposed to use [4] for the alveolar flap, in which case [r] can be used to represent the trill (as its equivalent in the IPA system), and [j\] for the palatal fricative, keeping in this way the policy of using one letter per one IPA symbol (and a backslash for alternative symbols).

Consonant modifiers

SAMPA	IPA	Description
`		retroflex consonant (e.g. d` = /ɖ/)
_a	◌̺	apical consonant
_d	◌̪	dental consonant
_G	◌ˠ	velarized consonant
_h	◌ʰ	aspirated consonant
_j, '	◌ʲ	palatalized consonant
_m	◌̻	laminal consonant
_w	◌ʷ	labialized consonant
_<		implosive consonant (e.g. b_< = /ɓ/)
_>	ʼ	ejective consonant
_=, =	◌̩	syllabic consonant

Simplified list of consonants

SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
p	p	voiceless bilabial plosive	English pen, Croatian pas 'dog'
b	b	voiced bilabial plosive	English but, Polish brat 'brother'
t	t	voiceless alveolar plosive	English two, Spanish tomar 'to take'
d	d	voiced alveolar plosive	English do, Polish dom 'house'
ts	ts	voiceless alveolar affricate	Italian calza 'sock', German Zeit 'time'
dz	dz	voiced alveolar affricate	Italian zona 'zone', Canadian French dur 'hard'
tS	tʃ	voiceless postalveolar affricate	English chair, Spanish mucho 'many'
dZ	dʒ	voiced postalveolar affricate	English gin, Italian giorno 'day'
c	c	voiceless palatal plosive	Hungarian tyúk 'hen', Dutch schatje 'darling'
J\	ɟ	voiced palatal plosive	Hungarian egy 'one', Czech dítě 'child'
k	k	voiceless velar plosive	English skill, Spanish casa 'house'
g	ɡ	voiced velar plosive	English go, Hungarian gép 'machine'
q	q	voiceless uvular plosive	Arabic qof, Somali qaab
p\	ɸ	voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese fu, Ainu fuchi
B	β	voiced bilabial fricative	Catalan roba 'clothes', Spanish huevo 'egg'
f	f	voiceless labiodental fricative	English fool, Spanish fama 'fame'
v	v	voiced labiodental fricative	English voice, German Welt 'world'
T	θ	voiceless dental fricative	English thing, Castilian Spanish caza 'hunt'
D	ð	voiced dental fricative	English this, Icelandic fræði 'science'
s	s	voiceless alveolar fricative	English see, Spanish sí 'yes'
z	z	voiced alveolar fricative	English zoo, German sein 'to be'
S	ʃ	voiceless postalveolar fricative	English she, French chou 'cabbage'
Z	ʒ	voiced postalveolar fricative	French jour 'day', English pleasure
C	ç	voiceless palatal fricative	Standard German ich 'I', Icelandic hjá 'next to'
j\ (jj)	ʝ	voiced palatal fricative	Standard Spanish ayuda 'help'
x	x	voiceless velar fricative	Scots loch, Spanish ajo 'garlic'
G	ɣ	voiced velar fricative	Greek γάλα 'milk', Icelandic saga 'story'
	ɰ	velar approximant	Spanish algo 'something'
X\	ħ	voiceless pharyngeal fricative	Arabic h.â
?\	ʕ	voiced pharyngeal fricative	Arabic 'ayn
h	h	voiceless glottal fricative	English ham, German Hand
h\	ɦ	voiced glottal fricative	Hungarian lehet 'it can be'
m	m	bilabial nasal	English man, French main 'hand'
F	ɱ	labiodental nasal	Spanish infierno 'hell', Hungarian kámfor
n	n	alveolar nasal	English, Spanish and Italian no
J	ɲ	palatal nasal	Spanish año 'year', French oignon, Hungarian lány
N	ŋ	velar nasal	English ring, Tagalog ngayón
l	l	alveolar lateral approximant	English left, Spanish largo
L	ʎ	palatal lateral approximant	Italian aglio, Standard Catalan colla
5	ɫ	velarized dental lateral	English meal Standard Catalan alga
4 (r)	ɾ	alveolar tap	Spanish pero 'but', Italian essere
r (rr)	r	alveolar trill	Spanish pe'rro 'dog, Italian terra
r\	ɹ	alveolar approximant	English run
R	ʀ	uvular trill	Standard German Reich
P	ʋ	labiodental approximant	Dutch Waar, Finnish vesi
w	w	labial-velar approximant	English we, French oui
H	ɥ	labial-palatal approximant	French nuit
j	j	palatal approximant	English yes, Polish już

Vowels

Vowels
	front	central	back
close	i • y	1 • }	M • u
near-close	I • Y		• U
close-mid	e • 2	@\ • 8	7 • o
mid		@
open-mid	E • 9	3 • 3\	V • O
near-open	{ •	6
open	a • &		A • Q

Vowel modifiers

SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
~, _~	◌̃	nasalized vowel	French bon [bO~], Portuguese sim [si~]
:	ː	long vowel	English see [si:] )
`[a]	◌˞	r-colored vowel	US English bird [b3`d]
_^	◌̯	non-syllabic vowel
"	ˈ	primary stress
%	ˌ	secondary stress

1. This symbol is also used for retroflex consonants (see above), but denotes rhoticity after vowel symbols.

Simplified list of vowels

SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
i	i	close front unrounded vowel	English see, Spanish sí, French vie, German wie, Italian visto
I	ɪ	near-close front unrounded vowel	English city, German mit, Canadian French vite
e	e	close-mid front unrounded vowel	US English bear, Spanish él, French année, German mehr, Italian rete, Catalan més
E	ɛ	open-mid front unrounded vowel	English bed, French même, German Männer, Italian ferro, Catalan mes, Spanish perro
{	æ	near-open front unrounded vowel	English cat, Finnish mäki
y	y	close front rounded vowel	French du, German Tür, Finnish hyvä
Y	ʏ	near-close front rounded vowel	German hübsch, Swedish ylle
2	ø	close-mid front rounded vowel	French deux (hence '2'), German Höhle, Danish købe
9	œ	open-mid front rounded vowel	French neuf (hence '9'), German Hölle
1	ɨ	close central unrounded vowel	Polish mysz
@	ə	mid central vowel	English about, German bitte, Swedish beredd
6	ɐ	near-open central unrounded vowel	German besser, Catalan mare
3	ɜ	open-mid central unrounded vowel	English bird
a	a~ä	open front unrounded vowel/ open central unrounded vowel	Spanish barra, French bateau, German Haar, Italian pazzo
}	ʉ	close central rounded vowel	Scottish English pool, Swedish sju
8	ɵ	close-mid central rounded vowel	Swedish kust
&	ɶ	open front rounded vowel	Swedish öra
M	ɯ	close back unrounded vowel	Japanese fuji, Korean geu
7	ɤ	close-mid back unrounded vowel	Korean eoreum, Estonian kõrv
V	ʌ	open-mid back unrounded vowel	RP and US English run, enough
A	ɑ	open back unrounded vowel	English arm, US English law, Canadian French âme, Finnish alku
u	u	close back rounded vowel	English soon, Spanish tú, French goût, German Hut, Italian tutto
U	ʊ	near-close back rounded vowel	English put, (non-US)Buddhist, German Mutter
o	o	close-mid back rounded vowel	US English sore, Scottish English boat, Spanish yo, French beau, German Sohle, Italian dove, Catalan ona
O	ɔ	open-mid back rounded vowel	British English law, caught, Italian cosa, Catalan dona, Spanish ojo, German Wort
Q	ɒ	open back rounded vowel	British English not, cough, Hungarian kar

See also

• SAMPA chart for English
• X-SAMPA

References

• Wells, John C. (2005). "SAMPA computer readable phonetic alphabet". Resources and Tools in Speech, Hearing and Phonetics (www.phon.ucl.ac.uk). University College London. Archived from the original on 2025-04-26.