| Lepsius Standard Alphabet | |
| Type: | alphabet |
| Sample: | ǂKá̦gára in ǀXam language in W.H.I. Bleek and L. Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman folklore, 1911.png |
| Caption: | First line of ǂKá̦gára in ǀXam language in W.H.I. Bleek and L. Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman folklore, 1911 |
| Languages: | Egyptian language, languages of Africa |
| Creator: | Karl Richard Lepsius |
| Published: | 1849 |
| Time: | late 19th century |
| Fam1: | Egyptian hieroglyphics |
| Fam2: | Proto-Sinaitic |
| Fam3: | Phoenician |
| Fam4: | Greek |
| Fam5: | Latin |
| Children: | Paleotype |
The Standard Alphabet is a Latin-script alphabet developed by Karl Richard Lepsius. Lepsius initially used it to transcribe Egyptian hieroglyphs in his Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien[1] and extended it to write African languages, published in 1853, 1854[2] and 1855,[3] and in a revised edition in 1863.[4] The alphabet was comprehensive but was not used much as it contained a lot of diacritic marks and was difficult to read and typeset at that time. It was, however, influential in later projects such as Ellis's Paleotype, and diacritics such as the acute accent for palatalization, under-dot for retroflex, underline for Arabic emphatics, and the click letters continue in modern use.
Vowel length is indicated by a macron (ā) or a breve (ă) for long and short vowels, respectively. Open vowels are marked by a line under the letter (e̱), while a dot below the letter makes it a close vowel (ẹ). Rounded front vowels are written with an umlaut (ö pronounced as /[ø]/ and ü pronounced as /[y]/), either on top or below, when the space above the letter is needed for vowel length marks (thus ṳ̄ or ṳ̆). Unrounded back vowels are indicated by a 'hook' (ogonek) on ę or į. Central vowels may be written as one of these series, or as reduced vowels.
As in the International Phonetic Alphabet, nasal vowels get a tilde (ã).
A small circle below a letter is used to mark both the schwa (e̥, also ḁ etc. for other reduced vowels) and syllabic consonants (r̥ or l̥, for instance).
Diphthongs do not receive any special marking, they are simply juxtaposed (ai pronounced as /[ai̯]/). A short sign can be used to distinguish which element of the diphthong is the on- or off-glide (uĭ, ŭi) Vowels in hiatus can be indicated with a diaeresis when necessary (aï pronounced as /[a.i]/).
Other vowels are a with a subscript e for pronounced as /link/; a with a subscript o for pronounced as /link/, and o̩ for pronounced as /link/ or maybe pronounced as /link/. The English syllabic pronounced as /link/ is ṙ̥.
Word stress is marked with an acute accent on a long vowel (á) and with a grave accent on a short vowel (à).
Klemp (p. 56*-58*) interprets the values of Lepsius's vowels as follows:
| a [a ~ ɑ] | |
| ą [æ] o̗ [ʌ] ḁ [ɒ] | |
| e̠ [ɛ] o̤̠ [œ] o̠ [ɔ] | |
| e [e̞] ę [ɜ] o̤ [ø̞] o [o̞] | |
| ẹ [e] o̤̣ [ø] ọ [o] | |
| i [i] į [ɨ ~ ɯ] ṳ [y] u [u] |
The Lepsius letters without predictable diacritics are as follows:
| IPA | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʼ | pronounced as /link/ | glottal stop | |
| ꜣ | pronounced as /link/ | voiced pharyngeal fricative | |
| h | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless glottal fricative | |
| h̔ | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless pharyngeal fricative | |
| q | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless uvular plosive | |
| k | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless velar plosive | |
| g | pronounced as /link/ | voiced velar plosive | |
| ṅ | pronounced as /link/ | velar nasal | |
| χ | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless velar fricative | |
| γ | pronounced as /link/ | voiced velar fricative | |
| ṙ | pronounced as /link/ | uvular trill | |
| š | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless postalveolar fricative | |
| č | same as tš | ||
| c̀ | same as tš́ | ||
| ž | pronounced as /link/ | voiced postalveolar fricative | |
| ǰ | same as dž | ||
| j̀ | same as dž́ | ||
| y, j[5] | pronounced as /link/ | palatal approximant | |
| t | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless alveolar plosive | |
| ț | same as ts | ||
| d | pronounced as /link/ | voiced alveolar plosive | |
| d̦ | same as dz | ||
| n | pronounced as /link/ | alveolar nasal | |
| s | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless alveolar fricative | |
| z | pronounced as /link/ | voiced alveolar fricative | |
| θ | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless dental fricative | |
| δ | pronounced as /link/ | voiced dental fricative | |
| r | pronounced as /link/ | alveolar trill | |
| l | pronounced as /link/ | alveolar lateral approximant | |
| ł | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| p | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless bilabial plosive | |
| b | pronounced as /link/ | voiced bilabial plosive | |
| m | pronounced as /link/ | bilabial nasal | |
| f | pronounced as /link/ | voiceless bilabial fricative | |
| v | pronounced as /link/ | voiced bilabial fricative | |
| w | pronounced as /link/ | labial-velar approximant | |
| ı[6] | pronounced as /link/ | dental click | |
| ıı | pronounced as /link/ | lateral click | |
Other consonant sounds may be derived from these. For example, palatal and palatalized consonants are marked with an acute accent: ḱ pronounced as /link/, ǵ pronounced as /link/, ń pronounced as /link/, χ́ pronounced as /link/, š́ pronounced as /link/, γ́ pronounced as /link/, ž́ pronounced as /link/, ĺ pronounced as /link/, ‘ĺ pronounced as /link/, ı́ pronounced as /link/, ṕ pronounced as /[pʲ]/, etc. These can also be written ky, py etc.
Labialized velars are written with an over-dot: ġ pronounced as /[ɡʷ]/, n̈ pronounced as /[ŋʷ]/, etc. (A dot on a non-velar letter, as in ṅ and ṙ in the table above, indicates a guttural articulation.)
Retroflex consonants are marked with an under-dot: ṭ pronounced as /link/, ḍ pronounced as /link/, ṇ pronounced as /link/, ṣ̌ pronounced as /link/, ẓ̌ pronounced as /link/, ṛ pronounced as /link/, ḷ pronounced as /link/, and ı̣ pronounced as /link/.
The Semitic "emphatic" consonants are marked with an underline: ṯ pronounced as /link/, ḏ pronounced as /link/, s̱ pronounced as /link/, ẕ pronounced as /link/, δ̱ pronounced as /link/, ḻ pronounced as /link/.
Aspiration is typically marked by h: kh pronounced as /link/, but a turned apostrophe (Greek spiritus asper) is also used: k̒ pronounced as /link/, ģ pronounced as /link/. Either convention may be used for voiceless sonorants: m̒ pronounced as /link/, ‘l pronounced as /link/.[7]
Affricates are generally written as sequences, e.g. tš for pronounced as /link/. But the single letters č pronounced as /link/, ǰ pronounced as /link/, c̀ pronounced as /link/, j̀ pronounced as /link/, ț pronounced as /link/, and d̦ pronounced as /link/ are also used.
Implosives are written with a macron: b̄ pronounced as /link/, d̄ pronounced as /link/, j̄ pronounced as /link/, ḡ pronounced as /link/. As with vowels, long (geminate) consonants may also be written with a macron, so this transcription can be ambiguous.
Lepsius typically characterized ejective consonants as tenuis, as they are completely unaspirated, and wrote them with the Greek spiritus lenis (p’, t’, etc.), which may be the source of the modern convention for ejectives in the IPA. However, when his sources made it clear that there was some activity in the throat, he transcribed them as emphatics.
When transcribing consonant letters which are pronounced the same but are etymologically distinct, as in Armenian, diacritics from the original alphabet or roman transliteration may be carried over. Similarly, unique sounds such as Czech ř may be carried over into Lepsius transcription. Lepsius used a diacritic r under t᷊ and d᷊ for some poorly described sounds in Dravidian languages.
Standard capitalization is used. For example, when written in all caps, γ becomes Γ (as in AFΓAN "Afghan").
Tones are marked with an acute and grave accents (backticks) to the right and near the top or the bottom of the corresponding vowel. The diacritic may be underlined for a lower pitch, distinguishing in all eight possible tones.
Tone is not written directly, but rather needs to be established separately for each language. For example, the acute accent may indicate a high tone, a rising tone, or, in the case of Chinese, any tone called "rising" (上) for historical reasons.
| S.A. | Level value | Contour value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ma´ [8] | [má] | [mǎ] | |
| ma | [mā] | ||
| ma` | [mà] | [mâ] |
Low rising and falling tones can be distinguished from high rising and falling tones by underlining the accent mark: (ma´̠, ma`̠). The underline also transcribes the Chinese yin tones, under the mistaken impression that these tones are actually lower. Two additional tone marks, without any defined phonetic value, are used for Chinese: "level" maˏ (平) and checked maˎ (入); these may also be underlined.