Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet

The extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet, also extIPA symbols for disordered speech or simply the extIPA (Ext-IPA), are a set of letters and diacritics designed to augment the International Phonetic Alphabet for the phonetic transcription of disordered speech. Some of the symbols are occasionally used for transcribing features of normal speech.

Many sounds found only in disordered speech are indicated with diacritics, though an increasing number of dedicated letters are used as well. Special letters are included to transcribe the speech of people with lisps and cleft palates. The extIPA repeats several standard-IPA diacritics that are unfamiliar to most people but transcribe features that are common in disordered speech. These include preaspiration ⟨ʰ◌⟩, linguolabial ⟨◌̼⟩, laminal fricatives [s̻, z̻] and ⟨*⟩ for a sound (segment or feature) with no available symbol (letter or diacritic). The novel transcription ⟨ɹ̈⟩ is used for an English molar-r, as opposed to ⟨ɹ̺⟩ for an apical r; these articulations are indistinguishable in sound and so are rarely identified in non-disordered speech.

Sounds not found in non-disordered speech include fricative nasals (a.k.a. nareal fricatives) and percussive consonants. Sounds sometimes found in the world's languages that do not have symbols in the IPA include denasals and fricatives that are simultaneously lateral and sibilant.

Letters

The full letters added by the extIPA are the following:

The symbol ⟨¡⟩ is used with the alveolar click for [ǃ¡], an alveolar click with percussive release, a "cluck".

Diacritics

The ExtIPA has widened the use of some of the regular IPA symbols, such as ʰp for pre-aspiration, tʶ for uvularization, or s̼ for a linguolabial sibilant, as well as adding some new ones. Some of the ExtIPA diacritics are occasionally used for non-disordered speech, for example for the unusual airstream mechanisms of Damin.

One modification is the use of subscript parentheses around the phonation diacritics to indicate partial phonation; a single parenthesis at the left or right of the voicing indicates that it is partially phonated at the beginning or end of the segment. These conventions may be convenient for representing various voice onset times. Phonation diacritics may also be prefixed or suffixed rather than placed directly under the segment to represent relative timing.

The transcriptions for partial voicing and devoicing may be used in either the sense of degrees of voicing or in the sense that the voicing is discontinuous. For the former, both parentheses indicate the sound is mildly (partially) voiced throughout, and single parentheses mean a partial degree of voicing at the beginning or end of the sound. For the latter, both parentheses mean the sound is (de)voiced in the middle, while the single parentheses mean complete (de)voicing at the beginning or end of the sound.

Altering the position of a diacritic relative to the letter indicates that the phonation begins before the consonant or vowel does or continues beyond it. The voiceless ring and other phonation diacritics can be used in the same way if needed. For example, ⟨p˳a⟩ indicates that voicelessness continues past the [p], equivalent to ⟨pʰa⟩.

Other ExtIPA diacritics are:

The VoQS voice-quality symbols take IPA and extended-IPA diacritics, and also several additional diacritics that are potentially available for the extIPA. At least the subscript dot for 'whisper' is sometimes found in IPA transcription.^[6]

Prosodic notation

The Extended IPA has adopted bracket notation from conventions transcribing discourse. Parentheses are used to indicate mouthing (silent articulation), as in (ʃːː), a silent sign to hush. Parentheses are also used to indicate silent pauses, for example (...). Double parentheses indicate extraneous, obscured or unintelligible sound, as in ((2 syll.)), two audible but unidentifiable syllables. [These have dedicated characters in Unicode: ⸨2 syll.⸩.] A empty circle is used for an indeterminate segment; Ⓒ is identified only as a consonant, Ⓕ as a fricative, ⓟ as probably a [p], etc.^[7] Curly brackets with Italian musical terms are used for phonation and prosodic notation, such as and terms for the tempo and dynamics of connected speech. These are subscripted within a {curly brace} notation to indicate that they are comments on the intervening text.

The VoQS conventions use similar notation for voice quality.

Chart

Integrating the extIPA with the standard IPA, the following distinctions of place are made (illustrated with fricatives):

Notes

References

• Martin Ball, John Esling & B Craig Dickson (1995) "The VoQS system for the transcription of voice quality", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 71–80.
• M Duckworth, G Allen, W Hardcastle & M Ball (1990) "Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech", Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 4: 273–280.
• Barry Hesselwood & Sara Howard (2008) "Clinical Phonetic Transcription". In Ball et al. (eds.) The Handbook of Clinical Linguistics. Blackwell.
• Martin Ball & Orla Lowry (2001, 2008) Methods in Clinical Phonetics, "Transcribing Disordered Speech".

External links

• Chart of extended IPA symbols for disordered speech (PDF, revised to 2008)
• Pronunciation videos of consonants in the main extIPA chart as of 2008