Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet chart

SAMPA charts of consonants and vowels

Note that a font supporting the Unicode IPA Extensions is needed to see the IPA characters.

Note that SAMPA is not a universal system; it varies from language to language. This chart shows the typical symbols used. For a universal system, see X-SAMPA; For use specific to English, see SAMPA chart for English.

Consonants

(the paired signs are voiceless/voiced consonants)
		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		m	F		n		J	N
Stop Plosive and affricate		p b		t d ts dz		tS dZ	c J\	k g	q G\		?
Fricative		p\ B	f v	T D	s z	S Z	C j\	x G	X R	X\ ?\	h h\
Approximant	central	H	P		r\		j	w
	Lateral				l		L	5
Rhotic					4 r				R\

Note: It is common, especially in Spanish and Italian, to represent the alveolar trill with [rr] and the alveolar flap with [r]. In Spanish, too, [jj] is used to represent the palatal fricative against the semivowel [j]. It has been proposed to use [4] for the alveolar flap, in which case [r] can be used to represent the trill (as its equivalent in the IPA system), and [j\] for the palatal fricative, keeping in this way the policy of using one letter per one IPA symbol (and a backslash for alternative symbols).

Consonant modifiers:

• [ ` ] after a consonant indicates retroflex.
• [ _a ] apical (IPA subscript inverted bridge): [s_a] apical 's'
• [ _d ] dental (IPA subscript bridge)
• [ _G ] velarized diacritic (IPA superscript gamma)
• [ _h ] aspirated diacritic (IPA superscript h)
• [ _j, ' ] palatalized. (IPA superscript j)
• [ _m ] laminal (IPA subscript box)
• [ _w ] labialized diacritic (IPA superscript w)
• [ _< ] implosive (voiced stops) (IPA hooktop)
• [ _> ] ejective (voiceless stops)
• [ _=, = ] syllabic, as in US bird [br\=d] (also written [b3`d]), bottle ["bOtl=], button ["bVtn=]

Simplified list of consonants

SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
p	p	voiceless bilabial plosive	English pen, Croatian pas ('dog')
b	b	voiced bilabial plosive	English but, Polish brat ('brother')
t	t	voiceless alveolar plosive	English two, Spanish tomar ('capture')
d	d	voiced alveolar plosive	English do, Polish dom ('house')
ts	ts	voiceless alveolar affricate	Italian calza ('sock'), German Zeit ('time')
dz	dz	voiced alveolar affricate	Italian zona ('zone'), Canadian French dur ('hard')
tS	tʃ	voiceless postalveolar affricate	English chair, Spanish mucho ('many')
dZ	dʒ	voiced postalveolar affricate	English gin, Italian giorno ('day')
c	c	voiceless palatal plosive	Hungarian tyúk ('hen'), Dutch schatje ('darling')
J\	ɟ	voiced palatal plosive	Hungarian egy ('one'), Czech dítě ('child')
k	k	voiceless velar plosive	English skill, Spanish casa ('house')
g	ɡ	voiced velar plosive	English go, Hungarian gép ('machine')
q	q	voiceless uvular plosive	Arabic qof, Somali qaab
p\	ɸ	voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese fu, Ainu fuchi
B	β	voiced bilabial fricative	Catalan roba 'clothes', Spanish huevo 'egg'
f	f	voiceless labiodental fricative	English fool, Spanish fama ('fame')
v	v	voiced labiodental fricative	English voice, German Welt 'world'
T	θ	voiceless dental fricative	English thing, Castilian Spanish caza 'hunt'
D	ð	voiced dental fricative	English this, Icelandic fræði 'science'
s	s	voiceless alveolar fricative	English see, Spanish sí ('yes')
z	z	voiced alveolar fricative	English zoo, German sein 'to be'
S	ʃ	voiceless postalveolar fricative	English she, French chou 'cabbage'
Z	ʒ	voiced postalveolar fricative	French jour 'day', English pleasure
C	ç	voiceless palatal fricative	Standard German ich 'I', Icelandic hjá 'next to'
j\ (jj)	ʝ	voiced palatal fricative	Standard Spanish ayuda
x	ɸ	voiceless velar fricative	Scots loch, Spanish ajo
G	c	voiced velar fricative	Greek γάλα ('milk'), Icelandic saga ('story')
	p	velar approximant	Spanish algo
X\	ħ	voiceless pharyngeal fricative	Arabic h.â
?\	ʕ	voiced pharyngeal fricative	Arabic 'ayn
h	h	voiceless glottal fricative	English ham, German Hand
h\	f	voiced glottal fricative	Hungarian lehet 'it can be'
m	m	bilabial nasal	English man, French main 'hand'
F	q	labiodental nasal	Spanish infierno, Hungarian kámfor
n	n	alveolar nasal	English, Spanish and Italian no
J	ɲ	palatal nasal	Spanish año, French oignon, Hungarian lány
N	ŋ	velar nasal	English ring, Tagalog ngayón
l	l	alveolar lateral approximant	English left, Spanish largo
L	ʎ	palatal lateral approximant	Italian aglio, Catalan colla
5	k	velarized dental lateral	English meal Catalan alga
4 (r)	ɾ	alveolar tap	Spanish pero, Italian essere
r (rr)	ɲ	alveolar trill	Spanish perro, Italian terra
r\	ɹ	alveolar approximant	English run
R	ʀ	uvular trill	Standard German Reich
P	ʋ	labiodental approximant	Dutch Waar, Finnish vesi
w	w	labial-velar approximant	English we, French oui
H	ɥ	labial-palatal approximant	French nuit
j	j	palatal approximant	English yes, Polish już

Vowels

Vowels
	front	near-front	central	near-back	back
close	i • y		1 • }		M • u
near-close		I • Y		U
close-mid	e • 2		@\ • 8		7 • o
mid			@
open-mid	E • 9		3 • 3\		V • O
near-open	{		6
open	a • &				A • Q

Vowel modifiers:

• [ ~, _~ ] after a vowel indicates that it is nasalised (e.g. French bon [bO~], Portuguese sim [si~] ).
• [ : ] after a vowel indicates that it is lengthened (e.g. Japanese shōshō [So:So:], English see [si:] ).
• [ ` ] after a vowel indicates rhoticity (e.g. US English bird [b3`d] ).
• [ _^ ] non syllabic vowel (IPA subscript arch)

SAMPA: simplified list of vowels
SAMPA	IPA	Description	Examples
i	i	front closed unrounded vowel	English see, Spanish sí, French vie, German wie, Italian visto
I	ɪ (small capital I)	front closed unrounded vowel, but somewhat more centralised and relaxed	English city, German mit, Canadian French vite
e	e	front half closed unrounded vowel	US English bear, Spanish él, French année, German mehr, Italian rete, Catalan més
E	ɛ	front half open unrounded vowel	English bed, French même, German Männer, Italian ferro, Catalan mes, Spanish perro
{	ae ligature, æ	front open unrounded vowel	English cat, Finnish mäki
y	y	front closed rounded vowel	French du, German Tür, Hungarian fül, Finnish hyvä
2	slashed o, ø	front half closed rounded vowel	French deux (hence '2'), German Höhle, Danish købe
9	oe ligature, œ	front half open rounded vowel	French neuf (hence '9'), German Hölle
1	overstroked i, i	central closed unrounded vowel	Polish mysz
@	ə (turned down e) schwa	central neutral unrounded vowel	English about, German bitte, Swedish beredd
6	ɐ (turned down a) open schwa	central neutral unrounded vowel	German besser, Catalan mare
3	ɜ (Greek epsilon mirrored to the left)	front half open unrounded vowel, but somewhat more centralised and relaxed	English bird
a	a	central open vowel	Spanish barra, French bateau, German Haar, Italian pazzo
}	overstroked u, ʉ	central closed rounded vowel	Scottish English pool, Swedish sju
8	overstroked o, ɵ	central neutral rounded vowel	Swedish kust
&	small capital OE ligature, ɶ	front open rounded vowel	Swedish öra
M	ɯ (upside-down m)	back closed unrounded vowel	Japanese fuji, Korean geu
7	ɤ (squeezed Greek gamma)	back half closed unrounded vowel	Korean eoreum, Estonian kõrv
V	ʌ (turned down v)	back half open unrounded vowel	RP and US English run, enough
A	ɑ ('d' with no upper tail)	back open unrounded vowel	English arm, US English law, Canadian French âme, Finnish alku
u	u	back closed rounded vowel	English soon, Spanish tú, French goût, German Hut, Italian tutto
U	ʊ (turned down small capital Greek omega)	back closed rounded vowel somewhat more centralised and relaxed	English put, (non-US)Buddhist, German Mutter
o	o	back half closed rounded vowel	US English sore, Scottish English boat, Spanish yo, French beau, German Sohle, Italian dove, Catalan ona
O	ɔ (c mirrored to the left)	back half open rounded vowel	British English law, caught, Italian cosa, Catalan dona, Spanish ojo, German Wort
Q	ɒ ('b' with no upper tail)	back open rounded vowel	British English not, cough, Hungarian kar

Stress is indicated by ["] for primary stress, and [%] for secondary stress, placed before the stressed syllable.

SAMPA charts for specific languages

• SAMPA chart for English sounds
• SAMPA chart for Hungarian sounds (in the Hungarian Wikipedia)