Comparison of ASCII encodings of the International Phonetic Alphabet

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The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) consists of more than 100 letters and diacritics. Before Unicode became widely available, several ASCII-based encoding systems of the IPA were proposed. The alphabet went through a large revision at the Kiel Convention of 1989, and the vowel symbols again in 1993.[1] Systems devised before these revisions inevitably lack support for the additions they introduced.

Only language-neutral systems are discussed below because language-dependent ones (such as ARPABET) do not allow for a systematic comparison.

General information

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System Author(s) Created Last
updated
Note Ref
Branner (unnamed) David Prager Branner at the University of Washington 1994 ? [2]
Millar & Oasa (unnamed) J. Bruce Millar and Hiroaki Oasa at Australian National University 1981 1981 [3]
PHONASCII George D. Allen at Purdue University 1988 1988 Not a direct mapping of the IPA. Segments are separated by spaces, and diacritics by commas. [4]
Praat Paul Boersma and David Weenink at the University of Amsterdam 1991 2021 [5]
IPA (SIL) Keyboard SIL International 1994 2021 [6]
UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (UPSID) Ian Maddieson at the University of California, Los Angeles 1984 ? Presented here is the scheme used for representing phonemes in the database of phonological inventories. Consequently, it is not designed for transcription of multiple segments and does not have symbols for values not found phonemically in the languages sampled. [7]
Usenet IPA/ASCII transcription Participants in sci.lang and alt.usage.english newsgroups (later maintained by Evan Kirshenbaum at HP Labs) 1991 2011 Also known variously as "ASCII-IPA", "Kirshenbaum", etc.[8] IETF language subtags register fonkirsh to identify text in this convention.[9] [10]
Worldbet James L. Hieronymus at AT&T Bell Laboratories 1994 1994 Segments are separated by spaces. [11]
X-SAMPA John C. Wells at University College London 1995 2000 IETF language subtags register fonxsamp to identify text in this convention.[9] [12]

Symbols

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Only the symbols in the latest IPA chart are included. The numbers in the leftmost column, according to which the symbols are sorted, are the IPA Numbers. Some of the IPA symbols to which a system lacks a corresponding symbol may still be represented in that system by use of a modifier (diacritic), but such combinations are not included unless the documentation explicitly assigns one for the value.

Coverage

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Scope Branner Millar & Oasa PHONASCII Praat SIL UPSID Usenet Worldbet X-SAMPA
Consonants (80) 79 (99%) 69 (86%) 67 (84%) 79 (99%) 80 (100%) 75 (94%) 73 (91%) 73 (91%) 79 (99%)
Vowels (29) 29 (100%) 27 (93%) 26 (90%) 29 (100%) 28 (97%) 28 (97%) 28 (97%) 26 (90%) 29 (100%)
Diacritics (35) 34 (97%) 15 (43%) 25 (71%) 30 (86%) 34 (97%) 12 (34%) 17 (49%) 25 (71%) 26 (74%)
Suprasegmentals (28) 28 (100%) 20 (71%) 21 (75%) 14 (50%) 28 (100%) 2 (7%) 4 (14%) 11 (39%) 28 (100%)
Total (172) 170 (99%) 131 (76%) 139 (81%) 152 (88%) 170 (99%) 117 (68%) 122 (71%) 135 (78%) 162 (94%)

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l In Worldbet, these combinations are given as merely proposed for values "for which no machine-readable coding has yet been proposed".
  2. ^ The uvular approximant is represented by R in PHONASCII.
  3. ^ a b c L represents either a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative, a velar approximant, or a velarized alveolar lateral approximant in the Usenet IPA/ASCII transcription.
  4. ^ a b c! represents either an alveolar or palatal click in the Usenet IPA/ASCII transcription.
  5. ^ a b - represents either retracted or "velarized or pharyngealized" in Millar & Oasa's system.
  6. ^ a b ¿ and ¡ are not part of ASCII, but are nonetheless proposed as encoding advanced and retracted tongue root, respectively, in Worldbet.
  7. ^ . represents either raised or palatalized in Millar & Oasa's system.
  8. ^ a b * represents either non-syllabic or extra-short in Millar & Oasa's system.
  9. ^ )) representing a tie bar is placed after both segments, as in ts)), in Branner's system.

References

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  1. ^ International Phonetic Association (1993). "Council actions on revisions of the IPA". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 32–34. doi:10.1017/S002510030000476X. S2CID 249420050.
  2. ^ Branner, David Prager (1994). "Proposal for an ASCII Version of the IPA". University of Washington. Archived from the original on 9 February 1999.
  3. ^ Millar, J. B.; Oasa, H. (1981). "Proposal for ASCII coded phonetic script". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 11 (2): 62–74. doi:10.1017/S0025100300002279. S2CID 146352996.
  4. ^ Allen, George D. (1988). "The PHONASCII system". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 18 (1): 9–25. doi:10.1017/S0025100300003509. S2CID 143899772.
  5. ^ Boersma, Paul; Weenink, David (4 August 2009). "Phonetic symbols". Praat.
  6. ^ "IPA (SIL) Keyboard Help". Keyman Help. SIL International.
  7. ^ Reetz, Henning (23 May 2018). "Simple UPSID interface". Universität Frankfurt.
  8. ^ Gómez-Vilda, Pedro; Ferrández-Vicente, José Manuel; Rodellar-Biarge, Victoria; Álvarez-Marquina, Agustín; Mazaira-Fernández, Luis Miguel; Martínez-Olalla, Rafael; Muñoz-Mulas, Cristina (2009). "Detection of Speech Dynamics by Neuromorphic Units". In Mira, José; Ferrández, José Manuel; Álvarez, José R.; de la Paz, Félix; Toledo, F. Javier (eds.). Methods and Models in Artificial and Natural Computation: A Homage to Professor Mira's Scientific Legacy – Third International Work-Conference on the Interplay Between Natural and Artificial Computation, IWINAC 2009, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, June 22-26, 2009, Proceedings, Part I. Springer. pp. 67–78. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02264-7_8. ISBN 978-3-642-02263-0. Page 74.
  9. ^ a b "Language Subtag Registry". IANA. 2021-03-05. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  10. ^ Kirshenbaum, Evan (6 September 2011). "Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2016.
  11. ^ Hieronymus, James L. (1994). "ASCII Phonetic Symbols for the World's Languages: Worldbet". AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Memorandum. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.225.9914.
  12. ^ Wells, John (3 May 2000). "Computer-coding the IPA: a proposed extension of SAMPA". University College London.
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