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IPA subsets

The most prominent IPA alphabet is the SAM phonetic alphabet. For each language, a subset of the IPA characters is chosen so that it covers all relevant phonetic categories for that language, and fits into the US-ASCII code table.

SAMPA has been defined for all major European languages. The SAM phonetic alphabets are described in great detail in an appendix of their own (cf. Appendix B).

For American English, the oldest computer readable phonetic alphabet one is the ARPABET. A more detailed one was KLATTBET, used in the MITALK synthesiser (with a space between each phoneme symbol), see Table A.1.

 

Symbol Example Symbol Example Symbol Example
PP pet TT ten KK core
BB bet DD debt GG gore
KP keen DX butter GP give
TQ at Alan FF fin TH thin
HH hat VV vat DH that
SS sat SH shin CH chin
ZZ zoo ZH azure JJ gin
MM met NN net NG sing
EN button EM keep `em AXP (plosive release)
LL let RR rent WW wet
YY yet EL bottle RX fire
HX the hurrah WH which LX bill
AA Bob AX about (schwa) EXR bear
IY beet UW boot AE bat
AXR bar EY bait OW boat
UXR poor AH but AY bite
IH bit OXR boar YU beauty
AO bought EH bet IX impunity
OY boy AW bout ER bird
IXR beer UH book  Ê  
' or 1 primary lexical stress
" or 2 secondary lexical stress
- syllable boundary
tex2html_wrap_inline51377 morpheme boundary
Table A.1: The KLATTBET phonetic alphabet 

For British English (i.e. RP), the system in use at the CSTR in Edinburgh is the Machine Readable Phonetic Alphabet (MRPA), with a space between each phoneme symbol (see Table A.2).

 

Symbol Ex. Symbol Ex. Symbol Ex. Symbol Ex.
p pet b bet m met l let
t tap d dock n net r right
k cap g gap ng sing w wing
h hang f fit th thick s sat
sh ship ch chip v vote dh the
z zip zh measure jh judge y young
i bit e bet a bat o cot
uh cut u look @ around ii beet
aa cart oo bought uu boot @@ bird
ai byte ei make oi boy au cow
ou boat i@ beer e@ bear u@ poor
* primary lexical stress
tex2html_wrap_inline51379 secondary lexical stress
. syllable boundary
Table A.2: Machine Readable Phonetic Alphabet (MRPA) 

These coding systems both restrict the alphabet to a subset of the IPA and introduce a new nomenclature for the representation of the phonetic characters.



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