Encyclopedia > SAMPA Chart

  Article Content

SAMPA Chart

SAMPA charts of consonants and vowels

See a concise version of SAMPA for English sounds. Note that you will need a font that supports the Unicode IPA Extensions (http://www.hclrss.demon.co.uk/unicode/ipa_extensions) to see the IPA characters.

SAMPA: simplified chart of consonants
(the paired signs are voiceless/voiced consonants)
  Bilabial Labiodentals Dentals Alveolars Postalveolars[?] Palatals Velars Uvulars Pharyngeals[?] Glottals
Stops
or affricates
pb
   
td
tSdZ
cJ\
kg
qG\
 
? 
Fricatives
PB
fv
TD
sz
SZ
Cj\
xG
XR
X\?\
hh\
Nasals m F   n   J N      
Laterals       l   L 5      
Rhotics (flaps or trills)      
4
r
r\`
      R    
Semivowels w
H
        j        

'Note': It is (specially in Spanish and Italian) common use to represent the alveolar trill with [rr] and the alveolar flap with [r]. In Spanish, too, [jj] is used to represent the palatal fricative against the semivowel [j]. It has been proposed to use [4] for the alveolar flap, in which case [r] can be used to represent the trill (as its equivalent in the IPA system), and [j\] for the palatal fricative, keeping in this way the policy of using one letter per one IPA symbol (The backslash is used to generate alternative symbols).

Consonant modifiers:

  • [ ` ] after a consonant indicates retroflex.
  • [ _a ] apical (IPA subscript inverted bridge): [s_a] apical 's'
  • [ _d ] dental (IPA subscript bridge)
  • [ _G ] velarized diacritic (IPA superscipt gamma)
  • [ _h ] aspirated diacritic (IPA superscript h)
  • [ _j, ' ] palatalized. (IPA superscript j)
  • [ _m ] laminal (IPA subscript box)
  • [ _w ] labialized diacritic (IPA superscript w)
  • [ _< ] implosive (voiced stops) (IPA hooktop)
  • [ _> ] ejective (voiceless stops)
  • [ _=, =] syllabic, as in bird [br\`=d], bottle ["bOtl=], button ["bVtn=]


SAMPA: simplified list of consonants
SAMPA IPA Description Examples
p p voiceless bilabial stop English pen
b b voiced bilabial stop English but
t t voiceless alveolar stop English two
d d voiced alveolar stop English do
tS ʧ voiceless postalveolar affricate English chair, picture, Spanish mucho, Italian cena, German Deutsche
dZ ʤ voiced postalveolar affricate English gin, joy, Italian giorno
c c voiceless palatal stop Greek [ce] 'and'
J\ j (overstroked j) voiced palatal stop ??
k k voiceless velar stop English cat, kill, queen
g g voiced velar stop English go, get
q q voiceless uvular stop Arabic qof
p\ φ (Greek phi) voiceless bilabial fricative Japanese fu
B β (Greek beta) voiced bilabial fricative Spanish cabo, calvo
f f voiceless labiodental fricative English fool, enough
v v voiced labiodental fricative English voice, German Welt, Italian vedere
T θ (Greek theta) voiceless dental fricative English thing, Castilian Spanish caza
D ð (Icelandic eth), or δ (Greek delta) voiced dental fricative English this, Castillian Spanish juzgado(*)
s s voiceless alveolar fricative English see, pass, city, Spanish sí, German Gross, Italian suono
z z voiced alveolar fricative English zoo, roses, German See, Spanish riesgo, Italian casa
S ʃ voiceless postalveolar fricative English she, sure, emotion, French chemin, Italian scendo, German Sprache
Z ʒ voiced postalveolar fricative French jour, English pleasure, Argentinian Spanish lluvia
C ç (cedilla) voiceless palatal fricative German Ich, Greek [Ceri] 'hand', some English pronunciations of human
j\ (jj) ʝ (j with crossed tail) voiced palatal fricative Spanish yate, hielo
x x voiceless velar fricative Scots loch, Castillian Spanish ajo, German Buch
G γ (Greek gamma) voiced velar fricative Spanish algo, agua
h h voiceless glottal fricative English ham, German Hand
h\ ɦ (h with upper tail to the right) voiced glottal fricative Some English pronunciations of aha
m m bilabial nasal English man
F ɱ (m with downward right tail) labiodental nasal Spanish infierno, enfermo
n n alveolar nasal English, Spanish and Italian no
J ɲ (n with downward left tail) palatal nasal US English canyon, Spanish año, French oignion, Italian gnocchi, Hungarian anyu
N ŋ (n with downward right tail) velar nasal English singer, ring
l l alveolar lateral English left
L ʎ turned down y, alt. λ (Greek lambda) palatal lateral Italian aglio, Catalan colla, Castillian Spanish cuello
5 ɫ (l with middle tilde) velarized dental lateral English milk (dark l), Catalan alga
4 (r) ɾ (r without upper-left serif) alveolar flap US English better, Spanish pero, Italian essere
r (rr) ɽ (r with serif) alveolar trill Spanish perro, rey, Italian arrivare
r\` ɻ (r rotate 180° with hook retroflexed alveolar approximant English run, very
R ʀ (small capital R) uvular trill French rue, standard German Reich, Farb
w w rounded back semivowel English we, Frech oui, Spanish hueso, Italian acqua
H ɥ (turned down h) rounded front semivowel French <i>huit
j j unrounded front semivowel English yes, Frech yeux, German ja, Italian occhio
(* Somebody help here: The d in spanish cada does not correspond to the ð, although many people believe it does. It is represented by đ, but I don't know if the SAMPA has a symbol for it.)


SAMPA: simplified chart of vowels
(the paired signs are unrounded/rounded vowels)
  Front Central Back
Closed or high
i
I
y
Y
1}
M
 
u
U
Half closed
e2
@\8

@
7o
Half open
E9
33\

6
VO
Open or low
{ 
a&
AQ

Vowel modifiers:

  • [ ~, _~ ] after a vowel indicates that it is nasalised (e.g. French bon [bO~] ).
  • [ : ] after a vowel indicates that it is lengthened (e.g. Japanese shōshō [So:So:], English see [si:] ).
  • [ ` ] after a vowel indicates rhoticity (e.g. US English bird [b3`d] ).
  • [ _^ ] non syllabic vowel (IPA subscript arch)

SAMPA: simplified list of vowels
SAMPA IPA Description Examples
i i front closed unrounded vowel English see, Spanish , French vite, German mieten, Italian visto
I small capital I front closed unrounded vowel, but somewhat more centralised and relaxed English city, German mit
e e front half closed unrounded vowel US English bear, Spanish él, French année, German mehr, Italian rete, Catalan més
E ε (Greek epsilon) front half open unrounded vowel English bed, French même, German Herr, Italian ferro, Catalan mes, Spanish perro
{ ae ligature, æ front open unrounded vowel English cat
y y front closed rounded vowel French du, German Tür
2 slashed o, ø front half closed rounded vowel French deux (hence '2'), German Höhle
9 oe ligature, œ front half open rounded vowel French neuf (hence '9'), German Hölle
1 overstroked i, i central closed unrounded vowel Russian [m1s] 'mouse'
@ ə (turned down e) schwa central neutral unrounded vowel English about, winner, German bitte
6 ɐ (turned down a) open schwa central neutral unrounded vowel German besser
3 ɜ (Greek epsilon mirrored to the left) front half open unrounded vowel, but somewhat more centralised and relaxed English bird
a a central open vowel Spanish da, barra, French bateau, lac, German Haar, Italian pazzo
} overstroked u, u central closed rounded vowel Scottish English pool, Swedish sju
8 overstroked o, o central neutral rounded vowel Swedish kust
& small capital OE ligature, ɶ front open rounded vowel ??
M ɯ (upside-down m) back closed unrounded vowel Japanese fuji, Vietnamese ư Korean 으
7 ɤ (squeezed Greek gamma) back half closed unrounded vowel Vietnamese ơ Korean 어
V ʌ (turned down v) back half open unrounded vowel RP and US English run, enough
A ɑ ('d' with no upper tail) back open unrounded vowel English arm, US English law, standard French âme
u u back closed rounded vowel English soon, Spanish , French gt, German Hut, Mutter, Italian azzurro, tutto
U ʊ (turned down small capital Greek omega) back closed rounded vowel somewhat more centralised and relaxed English put, Buddhist
o o back half closed rounded vowel US English sore, Scottish English boat, Spanish yo, French beau, German Sohle, Italian dove, Catalan ona
O ɔ (c mirrored to the left) back half open rounded vowel English law, caught, Italian uomo, Catalan dona, Spanish gorra
Q ɒ ('b' with no upper tail) back open rounded vowel British English not, cough, German Toll



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Lake Ronkonkoma, New York

... who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.86 and the average family size is 3.32. In the town the population is spread out with 24.7% under the age ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 33.4 ms