Letters of The International Phonetic Alphabet

The letters chosen for the IPA conform with the Latin alphabet, and most were either Latin or Greek modifications. Other characters were needed for additional sounds, such as a dotless question mark denoting the glottal stop ⟨ʔ⟩. Other writing systems, such as Arabic and Greek, inspired different sounds. 

The letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet are organized into categories: 

• Consonants
  • Pulmonic Consonants
  • Non-Pulmonic Consonants
  • Affricates
  • Co-Articulated Consonants
• Vowels
  • Diphthongs 

Pulmonic Consonants

All consonants in the English language, and many others, are pulmonic consonants, and they make up most of the IPA consonants. A pulmonic consonant is made by obstructing the space between the vocal cords (the glottis) and releasing air from the lungs. They can also be described as the speech sound resulting from partial or complete closure of the vocal tract. 

On the IPA chart, the pulmonic consonant table is arranged in rows designating how they are produced, and columns showing where they are articulated in the vocal tract. Only consonants articulated in a single spot are included in the main chart. 

Non-Pulmonic Consonants

When the airflow creating the sounds does not depend on the lungs, the sound is a non-pulmonic consonant. This includes clicks, ejectives, and implosives in specific languages such as Amerindian, Swahili, and Vietnamese. 

Affricates

A consonant beginning as a stop and then releasing as a fricative is an affricate. They are usually represented by a tie bar that joins the two letters. Even on the IPA content, palatal plosive letters are similar and must be interpreted carefully. 

Co-Articulated Consonants

Sounds made using two parts of the vocal tract are co-articulated consonants. The English “w,” as in “went,” is pronounced by raising the back of the tongue and rounding the lips. 

Vowels and Diphthongs

Consonants and vowels are both parts of a syllable. The part that is in the middle and easy to sing (syllabic) is a vowel, and the other is the consonant (non-syllabic). This pattern is found in almost every language, but distinguishing between the two is challenging in some languages. 

In addition to the contradictory existence of non-syllabic vowels and syllabic consonants in many languages, there are also semiconsonants, semivowels, and glides. When there are vowel-like segments that are not syllabic, they form diphthongs, such as the “i” in “boil” (semivowels). And consonants that are articulated like vowels (semiconsonants).