Comparison of ASCII encodings of the International Phonetic Alphabet explained

pronounced as /notice/The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) consists of more than 100 letters and diacritics. Before Unicode became widely available, several ASCII-based encoding systems of the IPA were proposed. The alphabet went through a large revision at the Kiel Convention of 1989, and the vowel symbols again in 1993.[1] Systems devised before these revisions inevitably lack support for the additions they introduced.

Only language-neutral systems are discussed below because language-dependent ones (such as ARPABET) do not allow for a systematic comparison.

General information

SystemAuthor(s)CreatedLast
updated
Note
Branner David Prager Branner at the University of Washington1994[2]
Millar & Oasa J. Bruce Millar and Hiroaki Oasa at Australian National University19811981[3]
PHONASCIIGeorge D. Allen at Purdue University19881988Not a direct mapping of the IPA. Segments are separated by spaces, and diacritics by commas.[4]
PraatPaul Boersma and David Weenink at the University of Amsterdam19912021[5]
IPA (SIL) KeyboardSIL International19942021[6]
UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (UPSID)Ian Maddieson at the University of California, Los Angeles1984Presented here is the scheme used for representing phonemes in the database of phonological inventories. Consequently, it is not designed for transcription of multiple segments and does not have symbols for values not found phonemically in the languages sampled.[7]
Usenet IPA/ASCII transcriptionParticipants in sci.lang and alt.usage.english newsgroups (later maintained by Evan Kirshenbaum at HP Labs)19912011Also known variously as "ASCII-IPA", "Kirshenbaum", etc.[8] IETF language subtags register to identify text in this convention.[9] [10]
WorldbetJames L. Hieronymus at AT&T Bell Laboratories19941994Segments are separated by spaces.[11]
X-SAMPAJohn C. Wells at University College London19952000IETF language subtags register to identify text in this convention.[12]

Symbols

Only the symbols in the latest IPA chart are included. The numbers in the leftmost column, according to which the symbols are sorted, are the IPA Numbers. Some of the IPA symbols to which a system lacks a corresponding symbol may still be represented in that system by use of a modifier (diacritic), but such combinations are not included unless the documentation explicitly assigns one for the value.

Notes and References

  1. International Phonetic Association. 1993. Council actions on revisions of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23. 1. 32–34. 10.1017/S002510030000476X. 249420050 .
  2. Web site: Branner. David Prager. 1994. Proposal for an ASCII Version of the IPA. University of Washington. https://web.archive.org/web/19990209070257/http://weber.u.washington.edu/~yuenren/ASCII_IPA.html. 9 February 1999.
  3. Millar. J. B.. Oasa. H.. 1981. Proposal for ASCII coded phonetic script. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 11. 2. 62–74. 10.1017/S0025100300002279. 146352996 .
  4. Allen. George D.. 1988. The PHONASCII system. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 18. 1. 9–25. 10.1017/S0025100300003509. 143899772 .
  5. Web site: Boersma. Paul. Weenink. David. 4 August 2009. Phonetic symbols. Praat.
  6. Web site: IPA (SIL) Keyboard Help. Keyman Help. SIL International.
  7. Web site: Reetz. Henning. 23 May 2018. Simple UPSID interface. Universität Frankfurt.
  8. Book: Gómez-Vilda. Pedro. Ferrández-Vicente. José Manuel. Rodellar-Biarge. Victoria. Álvarez-Marquina. Agustín. Mazaira-Fernández. Luis Miguel. Martínez-Olalla. Rafael. Muñoz-Mulas. Cristina. 2009. Detection of Speech Dynamics by Neuromorphic Units. Mira. José. Ferrández. José Manuel. Álvarez. José R.. de la Paz. Félix. Toledo. F. Javier. Methods and Models in Artificial and Natural Computation: A Homage to Professor Mira's Scientific Legacy – Third International Work-Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2009, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, June 22-26, 2009, Proceedings, Part I. Springer. 67–78. 978-3-642-02263-0. 10.1007/978-3-642-02264-7_8. Page 74.
  9. Web site: Language Subtag Registry . IANA . 30 April 2021 . en . 2021-03-05.
  10. Web site: Kirshenbaum. Evan. 6 September 2011. Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII. https://web.archive.org/web/20160419125856/http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/ascii-ipa.pdf. 19 April 2016.
  11. Hieronymus. James L.. 1994. ASCII Phonetic Symbols for the World's Languages: Worldbet. AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Memorandum. 10.1.1.225.9914.
  12. Web site: Wells. John. 3 May 2000. Computer-coding the IPA: a proposed extension of SAMPA. University College London.