History of the IPA

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The International Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
Extended IPA
Naming conventions
IPA for English

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system used for describing the sounds of spoken language, and has a long history originating with the International Phonetic Association. It was originally developed by French and British language teachers (led by Paul Passy) under the auspices of the International Phonetic Association, established in Paris in 1886 (both the organisation and the phonetic script are best known as IPA). The first official version of the alphabet appears in Passy (1888). These teachers based the IPA upon the Romic alphabet of Henry Sweet (1880–1881, 1971), which was formed from the Phonotypic Alphabet of Isaac Pitman and Alexander John Ellis (Kelly 1981).

The alphabet has undergone a number of revisions during its history, including some major ones codified by the IPA Kiel Convention (1989); the most recent revision was in 1993, updated again in 1996. The extIPA was first created in 1991, revised to 1997; the VoQS (Voice Quality Symbols) was proposed in 1995 to provide a system for more detailed transcription of voice production (Ball et al. 1995).

Contents 1 History 1.1 1887 1.1.1 Diacritics 1.2 1900 1.3 1932 2 1989 Version 3 References

[edit] History

The International Phonetic Association was founded in Paris in 1886 under the name Dhi Fonètik Tîcerz' Asóciécon (The Phonetic Teachers' Association), a development of L'Association Phonétique des Professeurs d'Anglais (The English Teachers' Phonetic Association), to create an international phonetic alphabet. The sources for many of the symbols was Henry Sweet's Revised Romic system, which was in turn based on Pitman and Alexander Ellis's Phonotypic Alphabet. Several of the symbols, such as [ŋ] and [ʇ], had been used since the early 17th century.

[edit] 1887

Note: this early version of the IPA was presented as a list (with examples from European languages) instead of the now common articulatory chart used today.

	Blab.		Ldent.		Dent.		Alv.		Palv.		Pal.		Velar		Uvular		Glot.
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g			'
Nasal	m						n				ɴ		ɴ
Lateral							l				ʎ
Rhotic							r								ʀ
Semivowel	w	ɥ	U								j
Fricative			f	v	θ	ð	s	z	c	ʒ	ç		x	q			h

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i • y				u
Close-mid	e • ɶ				o
			ə
Open-mid	ɛ • œ				ɔ
	æ
Open	a				A

[edit] Diacritics

hl, lh	voiceless l
u:	long u
ã	nasal a
û	long and narrow u
-u, u-	weak stressed u
·u, u·, ù	strong stressed u

[edit] 1900

		Laryn- gales	Gutturales	Uvulaires	Vélaires	Palatales	Linguales	Labiales
C O N S O N N E S	Plosives	ʔ		q ɢ	k ɡ	c ɟ	t d	p b
	Nasales				ŋ	ɲ	n	m
	Latérales				ɫ	ʎ	l
	Roulées		Q	ᴙ ʀ			r
	Fricatives	h	ʜ ɦ	ᴚ ʁ	(ʍ w) x ǥ	(ɥ)  ç j	ɹ, θ; ð, ʃ ʒ, s z, * *	f v       F ʋ  ʍ w   ɥ
V O Y E L L E S	Fermées                        Mi-fermées Moyennes Mi-ouvertes Ouvertes				u   ɯ    ü       ï    y   i   ɷ                  ʏ   ɩ     o   ∀   ö   ë   ø   e                 ə;       ɔ     ʌ ɔ̈    ä œ   ɛ                 ɐ      æ           ɑ        a			(u ü y) (o ö ø) (ɔ ɔ̈ œ)

* no Unicode character (?)

[edit] 1932

	Bi-labial		Labio- dental		Dental and Alveolar					Retroflex		Palato- alveolar		Alveolo- palatal		Palatal							Velar							Uvular		Pharyngal [sic]		Glottal
Plosive	p b				t d					ʈ ɖ						c ɟ							k g							q ɢ				ʔ
Nasal	m		ɱ		n					ɳ						ɲ							ŋ							ɴ
Lateral Fricative					ɬ ɮ
Lateral Non-Fricative					l					ɭ						ʎ
Rolled					r																									ʀ
Flapped					ɾ					ɽ																				ʀ
Fricative	ɸ β		f v		θ ð		s z		ɹ	ʂ ʐ		ʃ ʒ		ɕ ʑ		ç ʝ							x ɣ							χ ʁ		ħ ʕ		h ɦ
Frictionless Continuants	w	ɥ	ʋ		ɹ											j (ɥ)							(w)							ʁ
																Front						Central						Back
Close	(y ʉ u)															i y						ɨ ʉ						ɯ u
	(ʏ ɷ)																	ɩ ʏ										ɷ
Half-close	(ø ɵ o)																			e ø				ɵ				ɤ o
																									ə/ɜ
Half-open	(œ ɔ)																							ɛ œ				ʌ ɔ
																									æ		ɐ
Open	(ɒ)																									a		ɑ ɒ

Other sounds (to be written) pʻ ƪ ƺ ř ƫ ż = z̢ σ ƍ ọ ǫ k̫ o͆ ʓ ʆ ʇ ʖ ʗ

[edit] 1989 Version

The 1989 version of the IPA differed from the current (1993) version in only two respects:

• There was still only a single pair of mid central vowels, ə, ɵ, with ɜ provided as an "additional" mid central vowel (as in 1932);
• The voiceless implosives were recognized with their own symbols, ƥ, ƭ, ƈ, ƙ, ʠ.

[edit] References

• Albright, Robert W. (1958). The International Phonetic Alphabet: Its background and development. International journal of American linguistics (Vol. 24, No. 1, Part 3); Indiana University research center in anthropology, folklore, and linguistics, publ. 7. Baltimore. (Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 1953).
• Ellis, Alexander J. (1869-1889). On early English pronunciation (Parts 1 & 5). London: Philological Society by Asher & Co.; London: Trübner & Co.
• Hultzen, Lee S. (1958). [Review of The International Phonetic Alphabet: Its backgrounds and development by R. W. Albright]. Language, 34 (3), 438-442.
• Kelly, John. (1981). The 1847 alphabet: An episode of phonotypy. In R. E. Asher & E. J. A. Henderson (Eds.), Towards a history of phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Kemp, J. Alan. (1994). Phonetic transcription: History. In R. E. Asher & J. M. Y. Simpson (Eds.), The encyclopedia of language and linguistics (Vol. 6, pp. 3040-3051). Oxford: Pergamon.
• Passy, Paul. (1888). Our revised alphabet. The Phonetic Teacher, 57-60.
• Pullum, Geoffrey K., and William A. Ladusaw (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide, 2nd edition. Chicago: Chicago University Press. ISBN 0-226-68536-5.
• Sweet, Henry. (1880-1881). Sound notation. Transactions of the Philological Society, 177-235.
• Sweet, Henry. (1971). The indispensable foundation: A selection from the writings of Henry Sweet. Henderson, Eugénie J. A. (Ed.). Language and language learning 28. London: Oxford University Press.