General phonetics

This is an article on general phonetics intended as an easy way of finding samples of specific sounds.

See also: International Phonetic Alphabet

Consonants (pulmonic)

	Blab.		Ldent.		Dent.		Alv.		Palv.		Ret.		Pal.		Velar		Uvular		Phar.		Glot.
Nasal	m		ɱ				n				ɳ		ɲ		ŋ		ɴ
Plosive	p	b					t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	g	q	ɢ			ʔ
Fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant			ʋ				ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ
Trill	ʙ						r										ʀ
Tap or Flap							ɾ				ɽ
Lateral Fricative							ɬ	ɮ
Lateral Approximant							l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ
Lateral flap							ɺ				ɺ̢		ʎ̯

• Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
• Shaded areas indicate articulations judged impossible.

Consonants (non-pulmonic)

	Blab.		Ldent.		Dent.		Alv.		Palv.		Ret.		Pal.		Velar		Uvular
Implosives	ƥ	ɓ					ƭ	ɗ					ƈ	ʄ	ƙ	ɠ	ʠ	ʛ
Ejective plosives	pʼ						tʼ				ʈʼ		cʼ		kʼ		qʼ
Ejective fricatives	ɸʼ		fʼ		θʼ		sʼ		ʃʼ		ʂʼ		çʼ		xʼ		χʼ
Central clicks	ʘ				ǀ				ǃ				ǂ
Lateral clicks							ǁ

Vowels

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ʊ e · ø ɘ · ɵ ɤ · o ə ɛ · œ ɜ · ɞ ʌ · ɔ æ ɐ a · ɶ ɑ · ɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel.

Other symbols

ʍ	Voiceless labial-velar fricative
w	Voiced labial-velar approximant
ɥ	Voiced labial-palatal approximant
ɫ	Velarized alveolar lateral approximant
ʜ	Voiceless epiglottal fricative
ʢ	Voiced epiglottal fricative
ʡ	Epiglottal plosive
ɕ ʑ	Alveolo-palatal fricatives
ɧ	Simultaneous ʃ and x

Affricates and double articulations can be represented by two symbols joined by a tie bar if necessary, or represented by a ligature in the case of the eight most common affricates:

Ligature	Tie bar	Description
ʦ	t͡s	voiceless alveolar affricate
ʧ	t͡ʃ	voiceless palato-alveolar affricate
ʨ	t͡ɕ	voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate
tʂ	ʈ͡ʂ	voiceless retroflex affricate
ʣ	d͡z	voiced alveolar affricate
ʤ	d͡ʒ	voiced post-alveolar affricate
ʥ	d͡ʑ	voiced alveolo-palatal affricate
ɖʐ	ɖ͡ʐ	voiced retroflex affricate

Due to a bug in the font Arial Unicode MS, these incorrectly formed character combinations may look better in your browser: ts͡ tʃ͡ tɕ͡ dz͡ dʒ͡ dʑ͡ kp͡ .