The Ipa Chart: English Phonology

Philippine Christian University
Emilio Aguinaldo Highway, Dasmariñas, Cavite
English Phonology
THE IPA
CHART
Master of Arts in Education Major in English
Submitted to: Dr. Priscilla R. Moriones

Submitted by: Ma. Mickaela Mirasol M. Dimaano
July 29, 2021
THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET
THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), an alphabet developed in the 19th century to accurately
represent the pronunciation of languages. One aim of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was to provide a
unique symbol for each distinctive sound in a language—that is, every sound, or phoneme, that serves to
distinguish one word from another.

1. CONSONANTS (PULMONIC)
Pulmonic constants constitute the majority of consonants produced by speakers when

air is expelled from the lungs when articulated. On the IPA chart, pulmonic consonants are well
organized concerning the absence or presence of voicing and the place of articulation and
manner (how the consonant is articulated). Across the English language are nine different
places of articulation that include: glottal, bilabial, velar, labiodental, palatal, labial-velar,
postalveolar, dental, and alveolar. Twenty-one of the twenty-four English consonants are
included on the pulmonic consonants chart. Additionally, there are eight different manners of
articulation including six in English labeled as affricate, approximant, plosive, nasal, fricative,
and lateral. The remaining three are on the other symbols chart as /w, ʧ, ʤ/.
2. CONSONANTS (NON- PULMONIC)
Five kinds of clicks are listed: bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal, and lateral.
Many of these clicks are found in English speech, but as sound effects or
signals, not as linguistic units. A bilabial click is similar to a “fake-kiss” you
might make by pressing your lips together. Alveolar clicks are sometimes
used to imitate the sound of a horse walking.
he articulation of a click is actually very complicated. Clicks don’t really
have just one place of articulation, but two. In addition to the anterior
closure listed on the IPA chart, all clicks have another constriction further
back as well. Research by Amanda Miller, using specialized ultrasound
technology, has found that the posterior constrictions differ as well, and this
can even explain certain phonological patterns.
Although your larynx probably feels like a stiff and awkward thing, you can,
with only a little practice, learn to move it up and down. This is necessary
to produce implosives, which use a “glottalic ingressive” airstream
mechanism. These sounds are produced by closing off the vocal tract
somewhere above the larynx (just like for a normal plosive), and then
pulling your larynx downward. The downward movement causes the air
trapped in your vocal tract to move through the glottis, producing sound.
To get a feel for how this works, you can try making a drinking/swallowing
sound effect, *glug glug*.
There is a common misunderstanding that implosives involve sucking air

inwards. This is incorrect. An implosive is still a plosive. Air comes up and
out of the lungs like normal, and is stopped somewhere like normal.
The final column in the non-pulmonic consonant chart is labelled “ejective”.
The airstream mechanism for these sounds is called “glottic egressive”
and they are, in a sense, the opposite of implosives. For an ejective, air is
pushed out of the lungs, and then stopped somewhere in the oral tract.
This is exactly the same thing as a “normal” plosive, like /p/ or /t/. What
makes ejectives different is that there is a secondary closure at the glottis.
This means that air is now trapped in the oral tract, between the glottis and
some other closure “up stream”. Once the closure is complete, the larynx
moves upwards, which compresses the trapped air. When the closure is
released, the compressed air escapes. This creates a burst which sounds
quite different than a plain stop. The release burst is sometimes described
as a popping or clicking noise, although these are just casual terms and
you shouldn’t confuse ejectives with clicks.
Ejectives are symbolized in the IPA by adding an apostrophe to an existing

symbol. You may notice that all of the ejectives use symbols for voiceless
stops: you can see /p’/ and /k’/ for example, but not /b’/ or /g’/. In fact, a
voiced ejective are impossible. In order for voicing to happen, your vocal
folds must be able to vibrate, but to make an ejective you have to close
your glottis, which prevents any vocal fold vibration.
3. VOWELS
The IPA symbol [i] represents the vowel in American English
“feet.” This vowel is pronounced with the tongue high and toward
the front. The IPA symbol [ɑ], the vowel in “father,” has the
tongue low and to the back. And the IPA symbol [u] (the vowel in
American English “goose“) has the tongue high in the mouth and
pulled toward the back. Each of these symbols appear on the chart
beside in about the position that you have to move your
tongue to produce them.
/y/, /u/, /o/ and /ɒ/ are all examples of rounded vowels.

/i/, /ɛ/, /ɑ/, and /a/ are all examples of unrounded
vowels.
To clarify, a rounded vowel is a vowel like the “oo” in
“room,” while an unrounded vowel might be the “ee” in
“fee.” It’s pretty simple principle, really: you will notice that
your lips round slightly as you make some vowel sounds, and
stay unrounded while making others.
4. SUPRASEGMENTALS
Suprasegmental, also called prosodic feature, in
phonetics, a speech feature such as stress, tone, or word
juncture that accompanies or is added over consonants and
vowels; these features are not limited to single sounds but
often extend over syllables, words, or phrases.
In Spanish the stress accent is often used to distinguish
between otherwise identical words: término means
“term,” termíno means “I terminate,” and terminó means “he
terminated.” In Mandarin Chinese, tone is a distinctive
suprasegmental: shih pronounced on a high, level note
means “to lose”; on a slight rising note means “ten”; on a
falling note means “city, market”; and on a falling–rising note
means “history.” English “beer dripped” and “beard ripped”
are distinguished by word juncture.
5. OTHER SYMBOLS
6. DIACRITICS
In phonetics, a diacritical mark is a glyph—or symbol—added to a letter that alters its

sense, function, or pronunciation. It is also known as a diacritic or an accent mark.
A diacritical mark is a point, sign, or squiggle added or attached to a letter or character
to indicate appropriate stress, special pronunciation, or unusual sounds not common in
the Roman alphabet, according to L. Kip Wheeler, a professor at Carson-Newman
University in Tennessee.

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Philippine Christian University

Emilio Aguinaldo Highway, Dasmariñas, Cavite

Submitted to: Dr. Priscilla R. Moriones

THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), an alphabet developed in the 19th century to accurately

distinguish one word from another.

Pulmonic constants constitute the majority of consonants produced by speakers when

There is a common misunderstanding that implosives involve sucking air

Ejectives are symbolized in the IPA by adding an apostrophe to an existing

/y/, /u/, /o/ and /ɒ/ are all examples of rounded vowels.

In phonetics, a diacritical mark is a glyph—or symbol—added to a letter that alters its

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