X-SAMPA

The Extended SAM Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. It was designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet. The result is a SAMPA-inspired recasting of the IPA into 7-bit ASCII.

Summary

Notes

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 a following backslash as an escape character to create a new symbol. For example O is a distinct sound from O\, to which it bears no relation. (Note that it is a convention among some conlangers to use an asterisk (e.g., O*) instead of backslash).
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.
The numbers _1 to _6 are reserved diacritics as shorthand for language-specific tone numbers.

Lowercase symbols

|| open front unrounded vowel || French dame Spanish padre ["paD4e || voiced bilabial plosive || English bed French bon [bO~ || voiced bilabial implosive || || voiceless palatal plosive || Hungarian latyak " target="_blank" >^* || voiced alveolar plosive || English dig French doigt [dwa || voiced retroflex plosive || Swedish hord^* || voiced alveolar implosive || || close-mid front unrounded vowel || French ses ^* || voiceless labiodental fricative || English five French femme [fam || voiced velar plosive || English game French longue [lO~g || voiced velar implosive || || voiceless glottal fricative || English house ^* || voiced glottal fricative || || close front unrounded vowel || English beFrench oui ^* || palatal approximant || English yes French yeux [j2 || voiced palatal fricative || Greek γειά ^* || voiceless velar plosive || English cat Spanish carro ["kar:o || alveolar lateral approximant || English lay French mal [mal || retroflex lateral approximant || Svealand Swedish sorl^* || alveolar lateral flap || Japanese phoneme /r/ || bilabial nasal || English mouse French homme [Om || alveolar nasal || English nap French non [nO~ || retroflex nasal || Swedish hörn^* || close-mid back rounded vowel || French gros ^* || voiceless bilabial plosive || English leapFrench pose " target="_blank" >^* || voiceless bilabial fricative || Japanese fuku ^* || voiceless uvular plosive || Arabic qasbah " target="_blank" >^* || alveolar trill || Spanish perro " target="_blank" >^* || retroflex flap || || alveolar approximant || English red ^* || retroflex approximant || || voiceless alveolar fricative || English seem French session [se"sjO~ || voiceless retroflex fricative || Swedish mars^* || voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative || Polish świerszcz ^* || voiceless alveolar plosive || English too French raté , Spanish tuyo ["tujo" target="_blank" >^* || voiceless retroflex plosive || Swedish mört^* || close back rounded vowel || English boom Spanish su [su || voiced labiodental fricative || English vest French voix [vwa || labiodental approximant || Dutch west ^*/^* || labial-velar approximant || English west French oui [wi || voiceless velar fricative || Scots loch^* || voiceless palatal-velar fricative || Swedish sjal ^* || close front rounded vowel || French tuGerman über ["y:b6 || voiced alveolar fricative || English zoo French azote [a"zOt || voiced retroflex fricative || Mandarin Chinese rang ^* || voiced alveolo-palatal fricative || Polish źrebak " target="_blank" >^*

XS	IPA	IPA	Description	Examples

Uppercase symbols

|| open back unrounded vowel || English father (r\)" target="_blank" >^* (RP and Gen.Am.) || voiced bilabial fricative || Spanish lavar " target="_blank" >^* || bilabial trill || Reminiscent of shivering ("brrr") || voiceless palatal fricative || German ichEnglish human (broad transcription uses [hj-" target="_blank" >^*) || voiced dental fricative || English then ^* || open-mid front unrounded vowel || French même English met [mEt || labiodental nasal || English emphasis ]" target="_blank" >(spoken quickly, otherwise uses [Emf-) || voiced velar fricative || Greek γωνία ]," target="_blank" >Danish vælge ["vElG@ || voiced uvular plosive || Inuktitut nirivvik ^* || voiced uvular implosive || || labial-palatal approximant || French huit ^* || voiceless epiglottal fricative || || near-close near-front unrounded vowel || English kit ^* || central lax close unrounded vowel, not in IPA || || palatal nasal || Spanish año ]," target="_blank" >English canyon (broad transcription uses [-nj-" target="_blank" >^*) || voiced palatal plosive || Hungarian egy^* || voiced palatal implosive || || voiceless alveolar lateral fricative || Welsh llaw ^* || voiced alveolar lateral fricative || || palatal lateral approximant || Italian famiglia ]," target="_blank" >Castilian llamar , English million " target="_blank" >^*" target="_blank" >(broad transcription uses [-lj-) || velar lateral approximant || English phoneme /5/ || close back unrounded vowel || Korean 으 (eu) || velar approximant || Spanish fuego " target="_blank" >^* || velar nasal || English thing^* || uvular nasal || Japanese san^* || open-mid back rounded vowel || British English thought American English off [O:f || bilabial click || || labiodental approximant || Dutch west ^*/^*, allophone of English phoneme /r\/ || open back rounded vowel || British English lot ^* || voiced uvular fricative || French roi ^* || uvular trill || German phoneme /r/ || voiceless postalveolar fricative || English ship ^* || voiceless dental fricative || English thin ^* || near-close near-back rounded vowel || English foot ^* || central lax close rounded vowel, not in IPA || || open-mid back unrounded vowel || English strut ^* || voiceless labial-velar fricative || Scots when ^* || voiceless uvular fricative || Welsh bach^* || voiceless pharyngeal fricative || Arabic ha’ ^* || near-close near-front rounded vowel || German hübsch ^* || voiced postalveolar fricative || English vision " target="_blank" >^*

XS	IPA	IPA	Description	Example

Other symbols

|| syllable break || || primary stress || || secondary stress || || palatalized || || long || || half long || Estonian differentiates three vowel lengths || schwa || English arena" target="_blank" >^* || close-mid central unrounded vowel || || near-open front unrounded vowel || English trap ^* || close central rounded vowel || Swedish sjuAuE/NZE boot [b}:t || close central unrounded vowel || Welsh tuAmerican English rose's ["r\oUz1z || close-mid front rounded vowel || Danish købe ]," target="_blank" >French deux [d2 || open-mid central unrounded vowel || English nurse (RP) or [n3`s (Gen.Am.) || open-mid central rounded vowel || Dutch munt ^* || alveolar flap || Spanish pero ]," target="_blank" >American English better ["bE4@` || velarized alveolar lateral approximant; also see _e || English milk ^* || near-open central vowel || German besser]," target="_blank" >Australian English mud [m6d || close-mid back unrounded vowel || Estonian kõik ^*, Occurs in Vietnamese || close-mid central rounded vowel || Swedish buss ^* || open-mid front rounded vowel || French neuf Danish drømme [dR9m@ || open front rounded vowel || || glottal stop || Danish stødCockney English bottle ["bQ?l || voiced pharyngeal fricative || Arabic ‘ayn || voiced epiglottal fricative || || epiglottal plosive || || upstep || || downstep || || postalveolar click || || minor (foot) group || || dental click || || major (intonation) group || || lateral alveolar click || || palatal click || || linking mark ||

XS	IPA	IPA	Description	Example
`-`			separator
`*`			undefined escape character, SAMPA's "conjunctor", used by some conlangers instead of `\`
`/`			indeterminacy in French vowels
`<`			begin nonsegmental notation (e.g., SAMPROSA)
`>`			end nonsegmental notation

Diacritics

|| centralized || advanced || retracted || voiceless || syllabic || ejective || pharyngealized || non-syllabic || no audible release || rhotacization in vowels, retroflexion in consonants (IPA uses separate symbols for consonants, see t` for an example) || nasalization || advanced tongue root || apical || extra low tone || low rising tone || less rounded || dental || velarized or pharyngealized; also see 5 || global fall || falling tone || velarized || high tone || high rising tone || aspirated || palatalized || creaky voice || low tone || lateral release || mid tone || laminal || linguolabial || nasal release || more rounded || lowered || retracted tongue root || global rise || rising tone || rising falling tone || raised || extra high tone || breathy voice || voiced || labialized || extra-short || mid-centralized

XS	IPA	IPA	Description
`_/`			rising tone
`_<`			implosive (IPA uses separate symbols for implosives)
`_\`			falling tone

External links

Phonetic alphabets | Encodings

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