The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabet for representing the precise pronunciation of words in all languages.
There are around 120 distinct consonant and vowel sounds found in languages world-wide. However, the English alphabet only has 26 letters. And its spelling can be highly irregular. Consider the fact that the e in bed is different from the pronunciation in even. But that sound is the same as leave, seize and sleeve. So, clearly there is a need for a system that standardizes pronunciation.
The IPA has a unique symbols for every sound found around the world. This means it can represent any language, and even account for regional accents. It’s important to know that Vulgarlang bases everything on IPA: when you are choosing the sound of your language, you are choosing the IPA sounds; when you create custom words for your language, you are writing the words in their pronounced IPA form!
Vulgar does also create a “spelling convention” for the language (which is the bold blue text) which can be controlled in the Spelling options.
Consonants
Click IPA symbols for audio 
Coarticulated consonants
| ↓Manner/Place→ | Labiovelar | Velarized alveolar lateral |
Labialized palatal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approximant | ʍ English Welsh w English Arabic French Italian Japanese Korean Portuguese Tagalog Ukrainian |
ɫ Lithuanian Kurdish |
ɥ Iaai (New Caledonia) Kurdish Tibetan Upper Sorbian (Germany) |
Non-pulmonic consonants
Vowels
a vs. ä
Many well known languages, such as Spanish and Italian, have the vowel ä. However this vowel very is often simply written as a, so long as the language doesn’t have true a, and so long as it is specified that a represents a “central low” vowel for the purpose of the document. This is a fairly normal practice among linguists, to avoid excessive diacritic usage. It may happen with other vowels, and even consonants, although it more common with vowels, and particularly common with this vowel.
IPA for English
Note: Diphthongs (vowels that are made up of two different vowel sounds) do not have their own dedicated audio recordings.
| IPA | examples |
|---|---|
| b | but, web, rubble |
| ʧ | chat, teach, nature |
| d | dot, idea, nod |
| f | fan, left, enough, photo |
| g | get, bag |
| h | ham |
| ʤ | joy, agile, age |
| k | cat, tack |
| l | left |
| m | man, animal, him |
| n | note, ant, pan |
| ŋ | singer, ring |
| p | pen, spin, top, apple |
| ɹ | run, very |
| s | set, list, ice |
| ʃ | ash, sure, ration |
| t | ton, butt |
| θ | thin, nothing, moth |
| ð | this, father, clothe |
| v | voice, navel |
| w | wet |
| j | yes |
| z | zoo, quiz, rose |
| ʒ | vision, treasure |
| IPA | examples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| British | General American | Canadian | Australian | New Zealand | |
| ɑː | ɑ | ɒ | ɐː | father, palm | |
| æ, a | æ | ɛ | bad, cat, ran | ||
| æɹ | ɛɹ, æɹ | ɛɹ | æɹ | ɛɹ | carry |
| eɪ, ɛi | eɪ | æe | day, pain | ||
| ɑː | ɑɹ | ɐː | arm, bard | ||
| ɛə, ɛː | ɛɹ, eɹ | ɛɹ | eː | eə | hair, there |
| ɛ | e | bed | |||
| ɛɹ | eɹ | merry | |||
| iː | i | iː | ease, see | ||
| ɪ | ɪ, i | ɘ | sit, city, bit | ||
| ɪ | i | city, very, ready | |||
| ɪ̈, ɨ | ə | ɘ | roses | ||
| ɪə, ɪː | ɪɹ, iɹ | ɪə, ɪː | iə | near, here, serious | |
| aɪ, ɑi | aɪ | aɪ, ʌɪ | ɑe | my, rice | |
| ɒ, ɔ | ɑ | ɒ | ɔ | ɒ, ɔ | not, wasp |
| əʊ | oʊ | əʉ | ɐʉ | no, go, hope | |
| ɔə, ɔː, oː | oɹ, ɔɹ | ɔɹ | oː | hoarse | |
| ɔː, oː | ɔ | ɒ | oː | law, caught | |
| ɔː, oː | ɔɹ | oː | horse | ||
| ɔɪ, oi | ɔɪ | oe | boy, noise | ||
| ʊ | put, foot | ||||
| ʊə, ɵː | ʊɹ | ʊə | ʉə | tour, tourism | |
| uː | u | ʉː | lose, soon, through | ||
| aʊ | aʊ, ʌʊ | æo | house, now | ||
| ʌ | ɐː | run, enough, up | |||
| ɜː | ɝ, əɹ | ɝ | ɜː | ɵː | fur, bird |
| ə | ɘ | about | |||
| ə | ɚ | ə | ɘ | winner, enter | |