| International Phonetic Alphabet |
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 "IPA" in IPA ([aɪ pʰiː eɪ]) |
| Type | Alphabet – partially featural |
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| Spoken languages | Used for phonetic and phonemic transcription of any language |
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| Time period | since 1888 |
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| Parent systems | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. |
The official chart of the IPA, revised in 2020
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system for writing down sounds. It was created by the International Phonetic Association in 1886, so that people could write down sounds of languages in a standard way.Linguists, language teachers, and translators use this system to show the pronunciation for words.
Wikipedia also uses the IPA to show how certain words are meant to be spoken. Most symbols are letters in the Latin alphabet, or variations of it. For example, the palatal approximant (the y in yesterday) is written with [j]. In IPA symbols can be written between slashes (called a broad transcription, e.g."little" can be written as /lɪtl/ ) or in square brackets (called a narrow transcription, e.g. "little" can be written [lɪɾɫ], which is how specific groups say it). Narrow translation is more precise than broad.
