Phonology

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Place of articulation Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal
Bi­la­bial La­bio­dental Den­tal Al­veo­lar Post­al­veo­lar Re­tro­flex Pa­la­tal Ve­lar Uvu­lar Pha­ryn­geal Epi­glot­tal
Manner of articulation
Nasal    m    ɱ    n    ɳ    ɲ    ŋ    ɴ  
Plosive p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ   ʡ ʔ  
Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ
Approximant    β̞    ʋ    ɹ    ɻ    j    ɰ      
Trill    ʙ    r        ʀ    я*  
Tap or Flap    ⱱ̟        ɾ    ɽ      ɢ̆      ʡ̯  
Lateral Fricative ɬ ɮ *    *    *       
Lateral Approx­imant    l    ɭ    ʎ    ʟ  
Lateral Flap      ɺ    *    ʎ̯    ʟ̆    
Notes
  • Asterisks (*) next to symbols mark reported sounds that do not (yet) have official IPA symbols. See the respective articles for ad hoc symbols found in the literature.
  • Daggers (†) mark IPA symbols that have recently been added to Unicode. As of Unicode 5.1.0, this is the case of the labiodental flap, symbolized by a right-hook v:  . These will display properly with a recent version of Charis SIL, Doulos SIL or DejaVu Sans fonts installed.
  • In rows where some symbols appear in pairs (the obstruents), the symbol to the right represents a voiced consonant (except breathy-voiced [ɦ]). However, [ʔ] cannot be voiced, and the voicing of [ʡ] is ambiguous.[1] In the other rows (the sonorants), the single symbol represents a voiced consonant.
  • Although there is a single symbol for the coronal places of articulation for all consonants but fricatives, when dealing with a particular language, the symbols may be treated as specifically dental, alveolar, or post-alveolar, as appropriate for that language, without diacritics.
  • Shaded areas indicate articulations judged to be impossible.
  • The symbols [ʁ, ʕ, ʢ] represent either voiced fricatives or approximants.
  • In many languages, such as English, [h] and [ɦ] are not actually glottal, fricatives, or approximants. Rather, they are bare phonation.[2]
  • It is primarily the shape of the tongue rather than its position that distinguishes the fricatives ʒ], ʑ], and ʐ].
  1. ^ Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, Sounds of the World's Languages, §2.1.
  2. ^ Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996, Sounds of the World's Languages, §9.3.