X-SAMPA
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The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London.[1] It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the 1993 version of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The result is a SAMPA-inspired remapping of the IPA into 7-bit ASCII.
SAMPA was devised as a hack to work around the inability of text encodings to represent IPA symbols. Later, as Unicode support for IPA symbols became more widespread, the necessity for a separate, computer-readable system for representing the IPA in ASCII decreased. However, X-SAMPA is still useful as the basis for an input method for true IPA.
Summary
[edit]Notes
[edit]- The IPA symbols that are ordinary lower case letters have the same value in X-SAMPA as they do in the IPA.
- X-SAMPA uses backslashes as modifying suffixes to create new symbols. For example,
O
is a distinct sound fromO\
, to which it bears no relation. Such use of the backslash character can be a problem, since many programs interpret it as an escape character for the character following it. For example, such X-SAMPA symbols do not work in EMU, so backslashes must be replaced with some other symbol (e.g., an asterisk: '*') when adding phonemic transcription to an EMU speech database. The backslash has no fixed meaning. - X-SAMPA diacritics follow the symbols they modify. Except for
~
for nasalization,=
for syllabicity, and`
for retroflexion and rhotacization, diacritics are joined to the character with the underscore character_
. - The underscore character is also used to encode the IPA tiebar:
k_p
codes for /k͡p/. - The numbers
_1
to_6
are reserved diacritics as shorthand for language-specific tone numbers. - The IETF language tags registry has assigned
fonxsamp
as the subtag for text transcribed in X-SAMPA.[2]
Lower-case symbols
[edit]X-SAMPA | IPA | IPA image | Description | Examples |
---|---|---|---|---|
a |
a | open front unrounded vowel | French dame [dam]
| |
b |
b | voiced bilabial plosive | English bed [bEd] , French bon [bO~]
| |
b_< |
ɓ | voiced bilabial implosive | Sindhi ɓarʊ [b_<arU ]
| |
c |
c | voiceless palatal plosive | Hungarian latyak ["lQcQk]
| |
d |
d | voiced alveolar plosive | English dig [dIg] , French doigt [dwa]
| |
d` |
ɖ | voiced retroflex plosive | Swedish hord [hu:d`]
| |
d_< |
ɗ | voiced alveolar implosive | Sindhi ɗarʊ [d_<arU ]
| |
e |
e | close-mid front unrounded vowel | French blé [ble]
| |
f |
f | voiceless labiodental fricative | English five [faIv] , French femme [fam]
| |
g |
ɡ | voiced velar plosive | English game [geIm] , French longue [lO~g]
| |
g_< |
ɠ | voiced velar implosive | Sindhi ɠəro [g_<@ro ]
| |
h |
h | voiceless glottal fricative | English house [haUs]
| |
h\ |
ɦ | voiced glottal fricative | Czech hrad [h\rat]
| |
i |
i | close front unrounded vowel | English be [bi:] , French oui [wi] , Spanish si [si]
| |
j |
j | palatal approximant | English yes [jEs] , French yeux [j2]
| |
j\ |
ʝ | voiced palatal fricative | Greek γειά [j\a]
| |
k |
k | voiceless velar plosive | English skip [skIp] , Spanish carro ["karo]
| |
l |
l | alveolar lateral approximant | English lay [leI] , French mal [mal]
| |
l` |
ɭ | retroflex lateral approximant | Svealand Swedish sorl [so:l`]
| |
l\ |
ɺ | alveolar lateral flap | Wayuu püülükü [pM:l\MkM]
| |
m |
m | bilabial nasal | English mouse [maUs] , French homme [Om]
| |
n |
n | alveolar nasal | English nap [n{p] , French non [nO~]
| |
n` |
ɳ | retroflex nasal | Swedish hörn [h2:n`]
| |
o |
o | close-mid back rounded vowel | French veau [vo]
| |
p |
p | voiceless bilabial plosive | English speak [spik] , French pose [poz] , Spanish perro ["pero]
| |
p\ |
ɸ | voiceless bilabial fricative | Japanese fuku [p\M_0kM]
| |
q |
q | voiceless uvular plosive | Arabic qasbah ["qQs_Gba]
| |
r |
r | alveolar trill | Spanish perro ["pero]
| |
r` |
ɽ | retroflex flap | Bengali gari [gar`i:]
| |
r\ |
ɹ | alveolar approximant | English red [r\Ed]
| |
r\` |
ɻ | retroflex approximant | Malayalam വഴി ["v@r\`i]
| |
s |
s | voiceless alveolar fricative | English seem [si:m] , French session [sE"sjO~]
| |
s` |
ʂ | voiceless retroflex fricative | Swedish mars [mas`]
| |
s\ |
ɕ | voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative | Polish świerszcz [s\v'ers`ts`]
| |
t |
t | voiceless alveolar plosive | English stew [stju:] , French raté [Ra"te]
| |
t` |
ʈ | voiceless retroflex plosive | Swedish mört [m2t`]
| |
u |
u | close back rounded vowel | English boom [bu:m] , Spanish su [su]
| |
v |
v | voiced labiodental fricative | English vest [vEst] , French voix [vwa]
| |
v\ (or P ) |
ʋ | labiodental approximant | Dutch west [v\Est] /[PEst]
| |
w |
w | labial-velar approximant | English west [wEst] , French oui [wi]
| |
x |
x | voiceless velar fricative | Scots loch [lOx] or [5Ox] ; German Buch, Dach; Spanish caja, gestión
| |
x\ |
ɧ | voiceless palatal-velar fricative | Swedish sjal [x\A:l]
| |
y |
y | close front rounded vowel | French tu [ty] German über ["y:b6]
| |
z |
z | voiced alveolar fricative | English zoo [zu:] , French azote [a"zOt]
| |
z` |
ʐ | voiced retroflex fricative | Mandarin Chinese rang [z`aN]
| |
z\ |
ʑ | voiced alveolo-palatal fricative | Polish źrebak ["z\rEbak]
|
Capital symbols
[edit]X-SAMPA | IPA | IPA image | Description | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
A |
ɑ | open back unrounded vowel | English father ["fA:D@ (r\ )] (RP and Gen.Am.)
| |
B |
β | voiced bilabial fricative | Spanish lavar [la"Ba4]
| |
B\ |
ʙ | bilabial trill | Reminiscent of shivering ("brrr") | |
C |
ç | voiceless palatal fricative | German ich [IC] , English human ["Cjum@n] (broad transcription uses [hj -])
| |
D |
ð | voiced dental fricative | English then [DEn]
| |
E |
ɛ | open-mid front unrounded vowel | French même [mE:m] , English met [mEt] (RP and Gen.Am.)
| |
F |
ɱ | labiodental nasal | English emphasis ["EFf@sIs] (spoken quickly, otherwise uses [Emf -])
| |
G |
ɣ | voiced velar fricative | Greek γωνία [Go"nia]
| |
G\ |
ɢ | voiced uvular plosive | Inuktitut nirivvik [niG\ivvik]
| |
G\_< |
ʛ | voiced uvular implosive | Mam ʛa [G\_<a ]
| |
H |
ɥ | labial-palatal approximant | French huit [Hit]
| |
H\ |
ʜ | voiceless epiglottal fricative | Agul мехӀ [mEH\]
| |
I |
ɪ | near-close front unrounded vowel | English kit [kIt]
| |
I\ |
ᵻ | near-close central unrounded vowel (non-IPA) | Polish ryba [rI\bA]
| |
J |
ɲ | palatal nasal | Spanish año ["aJo] , English canyon ["k{J@n] (broad transcription uses [-nj -])
| |
J\ |
ɟ | voiced palatal plosive | Hungarian egy [EJ\]
| |
J\_< |
ʄ | voiced palatal implosive | Sindhi ʄaro [J\_<aro ]
| |
K |
ɬ | voiceless alveolar lateral fricative | Welsh llaw [KaU]
| |
K\ |
ɮ | voiced alveolar lateral fricative | Mongolian долоо [tOK\O:]
| |
L |
ʎ | palatal lateral approximant | Italian famiglia [fa"miLLa] , Castilian: llamar [La"mar]
| |
L\ |
ʟ | velar lateral approximant | Korean 달구지 [t6L\gudz\i]
| |
M |
ɯ | close back unrounded vowel | Korean 음식 [M:ms\_hik_}]
| |
M\ |
ɰ | velar approximant | Spanish fuego ["fweM\o]
| |
N |
ŋ | velar nasal | English thing [TIN]
| |
N\ |
ɴ | uvular nasal | Japanese さん san [saN\]
| |
O |
ɔ | open-mid back rounded vowel | American English off [O:f]
| |
O\ |
ʘ | bilabial click | ||
P (or v\ ) |
ʋ | labiodental approximant | Dutch west [PEst] /[v\Est] , allophone of English phoneme /r\/
| |
Q |
ɒ | open back rounded vowel | RP lot [lQt]
| |
R |
ʁ | voiced uvular fricative | German rein [RaIn]
| |
R\ |
ʀ | uvular trill | French roi [R\wa]
| |
S |
ʃ | voiceless postalveolar fricative | English ship [SIp]
| |
T |
θ | voiceless dental fricative | English thin [TIn]
| |
U |
ʊ | near-close back rounded vowel | English foot [fUt]
| |
U\ |
ᵿ | near-close central rounded vowel (non-IPA) | English euphoria [jU\"fO@r\i@]
| |
V |
ʌ | open-mid back unrounded vowel | Scottish English strut [str\Vt]
| |
W |
ʍ | voiceless labial-velar fricative | Scots when [WEn]
| |
X |
χ | voiceless uvular fricative | Klallam sχaʔqʷaʔ [sXa?q_wa?]
| |
X\ |
ħ | voiceless pharyngeal fricative | Arabic ح ḥāʾ [X\A:]
| |
Y |
ʏ | near-close front rounded vowel | German hübsch [hYpS]
| |
Z |
ʒ | voiced postalveolar fricative | English vision ["vIZ@n]
|
Other symbols
[edit]X-SAMPA | IPA | IPA image | Description | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
. |
. | syllable break | ||
" |
ˈ | primary stress | ||
% |
ˌ | secondary stress | American English pronunciation [pr\@%nVn.si."eI.S@n]
| |
' (or _j ) |
ʲ | palatalized | Russian Земля (Earth) [z'I"ml'a] or [z_jI"ml_ja]
| |
: |
ː | long | ||
:\ |
ˑ | half long | Estonian differentiates three vowel lengths | |
- |
separator | Polish trzy [t-S1] vs. czy [tS1] (affricate)
| ||
@ |
ə | schwa | English arena [@"r\i:n@]
| |
@\ |
ɘ | close-mid central unrounded vowel | Paicĩ kɘ̄ɾɘ [k@\_M4@\_M]
| |
@` |
ɚ | r-coloured schwa | American English color ["kVl@`]
| |
{ |
æ | near-open front unrounded vowel | English trap [tr\{p]
| |
} |
ʉ | close central rounded vowel | Swedish sju [x\}:] ; AuE/NZE boot [b}:t]
| |
1 |
ɨ | close central unrounded vowel | Welsh tu [t1] , American English rose's ["r\oUz1z]
| |
2 |
ø | close-mid front rounded vowel | Danish købe ["k2:b@] , French deux [d2]
| |
3 |
ɜ | open-mid central unrounded vowel | English nurse [n3:s] (RP) or [n3`s] (Gen.Am.)
| |
3\ |
ɞ | open-mid central rounded vowel | Irish tomhail [t3\:l']
| |
4 |
ɾ | alveolar flap | Spanish pero ["pe4o] , American English better ["bE4@`]
| |
5 |
ɫ | velarized alveolar lateral approximant; also see _e |
English milk [mI5k] , Portuguese livro ["5iv4u]
| |
6 |
ɐ | near-open central vowel | German besser ["bEs6] , Australian English mud [m6d]
| |
7 |
ɤ | close-mid back unrounded vowel | Estonian kõik [k7ik] , Vietnamese mơ [m7_M]
| |
8 |
ɵ | close-mid central rounded vowel | Swedish buss [b8s]
| |
9 |
œ | open-mid front rounded vowel | French neuf [n9f] , Danish drømme [dR9m@]
| |
& |
ɶ | open front rounded vowel | Swedish skörd [x\&d`]
| |
? |
ʔ | glottal stop | Cockney English bottle ["bQ?o]
| |
?\ |
ʕ | voiced pharyngeal fricative | Arabic ع ʿayn [?\Ajn]
| |
* |
undefined escape character, SAMPA's "conjunctor" | |||
/ |
/ | (a) French vowel archiphonemes or indeterminacies (b) delimiter of phonemic transcriptions |
maison /mE/zO~/
| |
< |
⟨ | begin nonsegmental notation, e.g., SAMPROSA[3] | ||
<\ |
ʢ | voiced epiglottal fricative | Siwi arˤbˤəʢa (four) [ar_?\b_?\@<\a]
| |
> |
⟩ | end nonsegmental notation | ||
>\ |
ʡ | epiglottal plosive | Archi гӀарз (complaint) [>\arz]
| |
^ |
ꜛ | upstep | ||
! |
ꜜ | downstep | ||
!\ |
ǃ | postalveolar click | Zulu iqaqa (polecat) [i:!\a:!\a]
| |
| |
| | minor (foot) group | ||
|\ |
ǀ | dental click | Zulu icici (earring) [i:|\i:|\i]
| |
|| |
‖ | major (intonation) group | ||
|\|\ |
ǁ | alveolar lateral click | Zulu xoxa (to converse) [|\|\O:|\|\a]
| |
=\ |
ǂ | palatal click | ||
-\ |
‿ | linking mark |
Diacritics
[edit]X-SAMPA | IPA | IPA image | Description |
---|---|---|---|
_" |
̈ | centralized | |
_+ |
̟ | advanced | |
_- |
̠ | retracted | |
_/ |
̌ | rising tone | |
_0 |
̥ | voiceless | |
_< |
implosive (IPA uses separate symbols for implosives) | ||
= (or _= ) |
̩ | syllabic | |
_> |
ʼ | ejective | |
_?\ |
ˤ | pharyngealized | |
_\ |
̂ | falling tone | |
_^ |
̯ | non-syllabic | |
_} |
̚ | no audible release | |
` |
˞ | rhotacization in vowels, retroflexion in consonants (IPA uses separate symbols for consonants, see t` for an example)
| |
~ (or _~ ) |
̃ | nasalization | |
_A |
̘ | advanced tongue root | |
_a |
̺ | apical | |
_B |
̏ | extra low tone | |
_B_L |
᷅ | low rising tone | |
_c |
̜ | less rounded | |
_d |
̪ | dental | |
_e |
̴ | velarized or pharyngealized; also see 5
| |
<F> |
↘ | global fall | |
_F |
̂ | falling tone | |
_G |
ˠ | velarized | |
_H |
́ | high tone | |
_H_T |
᷄ | high rising tone | |
_h |
ʰ | aspirated | |
_j (or ' ) |
ʲ | palatalized | |
_k |
̰ | creaky voice | |
_L |
̀ | low tone | |
_l |
ˡ | lateral release | |
_M |
̄ | mid tone | |
_m |
̻ | laminal | |
_N |
̼ | linguolabial | |
_n |
ⁿ | nasal release | |
_O |
̹ | more rounded | |
_o |
̞ | lowered | |
_q |
̙ | retracted tongue root | |
<R> |
↗ | global rise | |
_R |
̌ | rising tone | |
_R_F |
᷈ | rising falling tone | |
_r |
̝ | raised | |
_T |
̋ | extra high tone | |
_t |
̤ | breathy voice | |
_v |
̬ | voiced | |
_w |
ʷ | labialized | |
_X |
̆ | extra-short | |
_x |
̽ | mid-centralized |
Charts
[edit]Consonants
[edit]Consonants (pulmonic) | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Place of articulation → | Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Laryngeal | |||||||||||||
Manner of articulation ↓ | Bilabial | Labio‐ dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post‐ alveolar |
Retro‐ flex |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn‐ geal |
Epi‐ glottal |
Glottal | |||||
Nasal | m
|
F
|
n
|
n`
|
J
|
N
|
N\
|
||||||||||
Plosive | p b
|
p_d b_d
|
t d
|
t` d`
|
c J\
|
k g
|
q G\
|
>\
|
?
|
||||||||
Fricative | p\ B
|
f v
|
T D
|
s z
|
S Z
|
s` z`
|
C j\
|
x G
|
X
|
R
|
X\
|
?\
|
H\
|
<\
|
h h\
| ||
Approximant | B_o
|
v\
|
r\
|
r\`
|
j
|
M\
|
|||||||||||
Trill | B\
|
r
|
* | R\
|
* | ||||||||||||
Tap or Flap | *† | *† | 4
|
r`
|
* | ||||||||||||
Lateral Fricative | K K\
|
* | * | * | |||||||||||||
Lateral Approximant | l
|
l`
|
L
|
L\
|
|||||||||||||
Lateral Flap | l\
|
* | * | * |
- Asterisks (*) mark sounds that do not have X-SAMPA symbols. Daggers (†) mark IPA symbols that have recently been added to Unicode. Since April 2008, the latter is the case of the labiodental flap, symbolized by a right-hook v in the IPA:
. A convention for the labiodental flap does not yet exist in X-SAMPA.
Coarticulated | |
---|---|
W
|
Voiceless labialized velar approximant |
w
|
Voiced labialized velar approximant |
H
|
Voiced labialized palatal approximant |
s\
|
Voiceless palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) fricative |
z\
|
Voiced palatalized postalveolar (alveolo-palatal) fricative |
x\
|
Voiceless "palatal-velar" fricative |
Affricates and double articulation | |
---|---|
ts
|
voiceless alveolar affricate |
dz
|
voiced alveolar affricate |
tS
|
voiceless postalveolar affricate |
dZ
|
voiced postalveolar affricate |
ts\
|
voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate |
dz\
|
voiced alveolo-palatal affricate |
tK
|
voiceless alveolar lateral affricate |
kp
|
voiceless labial-velar plosive |
gb
|
voiced labial-velar plosive |
Nm
|
labial-velar nasal stop |
Consonants (non-pulmonic) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Clicks | Implosives | Ejectives | |||
O\
|
Bilabial | b_<
|
Bilabial | _>
|
For example: |
|\
|
Laminal alveolar ("dental") | d_<
|
Alveolar | p_>
|
Bilabial |
!\
|
Apical (post-) alveolar ("retroflex") | J\_<
|
Palatal | t_>
|
Alveolar |
=\
|
Laminal postalveolar ("palatal") | g_<
|
Velar | k_>
|
Velar |
|\|\
|
Lateral coronal ("lateral") | G\_<
|
Uvular | s_>
|
Alveolar fricative |
Vowels
[edit]See also
[edit]- Comparison of ASCII encodings of the International Phonetic Alphabet
- List of phonetics topics
- SAMPA, a language-specific predecessor of X-SAMPA
- SAMPA chart for English
References
[edit]- ^ Wells, J.C. "Computer-coding the IPA: a proposed extension of SAMPA" (PDF). UCL Phonetics and Linguistics. University College London. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ^ "Language Subtag Registry" (text). IETF. 2022-08-08. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
- ^ For a summary of SAMPROSA, see Wells, J.C. (19 September 1995). "SAMPROSA (SAM Prosodic Transcription)". UCL Phonetics and Linguistics. University College London. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
External links
[edit]- Computer-coding the IPA: A proposed extension of SAMPA
- X-SAMPA to IPA to CXS converter
- Web-based translator for X-SAMPA documents. Produces Unicode text, XML text, PostScript, PDF, or LaTeX TIPA.
- Z-SAMPA, a backward-compatible extension of X-SAMPA sometimes used for conlangs