Resources
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a set of phonetic symbols designed to represent pronunciation of the world’s languages in a unified way.
This website assumes a working knowledge of IPA but provides this section as a reference that can be used as needed. Below is included a sound inventory of all the sounds found in “standard” American English as well as a second sound inventory that also includes sounds found in other world Englishes.
Standard American English Phonemic Inventory
Standard American English Consonants
Standard American English Consonants
Additional resources
Useful website for exploring all sounds in Standard American English (not just phonemes):
Interactive overview of the British sound inventory:
All sounds and symbols in the IPA with audio samples:
Online IPA keyboard:
References
- Walter F. Edwards in A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool, eds. Edgar W. Schneider et al., vol. 1, Phonology (Mouton De Gruyter, 2004), 383.
- Edgar W. Schneider, Varieties of English: The Americas and the Caribbean (Mouton de Gruyter, 2008), https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208405.
- Edgar W. Schneider, “Documenting the History of African American Vernacular English: A Survey and Assessment of Sources and Results,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press, 2015), 136.
- Schneider, “Documenting the History of African American Vernacular English,” 136; and Walt Wolfram and Mary E. Kohn, “Regionality in the Development of African American English,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press, 2015), 143.