Po redaktohet International Phonetic Alphabet (paragraf)

== Description ==
[[File:IPA chart 2020.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The official summary chart of the IPA, revised in 2020]]
The general principle of the IPA is to provide one letter for each distinctive sound ([[phoneme]]).{{NoteTag|"From its earliest days [...] the International Phonetic Association has aimed to provide 'a separate sign for each distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of a word' [...] what became widely known in the twentieth century as the phoneme."<ref>{{harv|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=27}}</ref>}} This means that:
* It does not use [[multigraph (orthography)|combinations of letters]] to represent single sounds, the way English does with {{angbr|sh}} and {{angbr|ea}}, nor single letters to represent multiple sounds, the way {{angbr|x}} represents {{IPA|/ks/}} or {{IPA|/ɡz/}} in English.{{NoteTag|exceptions are [[affricate]]s and [[diphthong]]s, which may be written as either simple sequences, such as {{angbr|ts}} and {{angbr|au}}, or with tie bars or diacritics such as {{angbr|t͜s}} and {{angbr|au̯}} to clarify that they are single sounds.}}
* There are no letters that have context-dependent sound values, the way English {{angbr|[[hard and soft C|c]]}} and {{angbr|[[hard and soft G|g]]}} have a "hard" and "soft" pronunciation.
* The IPA does not generally have separate letters for two sounds if no known language makes a distinction between them, a property known as "selectiveness".<ref name="world" />{{NoteTag|For instance, [[flap consonant|flaps and taps]] are two different kinds of [[Manner of articulation|articulation]], but since no language has (yet) been found to make a distinction between, say, an [[alveolar flap]] and an alveolar tap, the IPA does not provide such sounds with dedicated letters. Instead, it provides a single letter{{snd}}in this case,&nbsp;{{IPA|[ɾ]}}{{snd}}for both. Strictly speaking, this makes the IPA a partially [[phonemic]] alphabet, not a purely [[phonetic]] one.}} However, if a large number of phonemically distinct letters can be derived with a single diacritic, that may be used instead.{{NoteTag|This exception to the rules was made primarily to explain why the IPA does not make a dental–alveolar distinction, despite one being phonemic in hundreds of languages, including most of the continent of Australia. [[Americanist Phonetic Notation]] makes (or at least made) a distinction between apical {{angbr|t d s z n l}} and laminal {{angbr|τ δ ς ζ ν λ}}, which is easily applicable to alveolar vs dental (when a language distinguishes apical alveolar from laminal dental, as in Australia), but despite several proposals to the Council, the IPA never voted to accept such a distinction.
There are however other common phonemic distinctions that are made with diacritics, such as {{angbr IPA|ʰ}} for aspirated consonants {{endash}} a phonemic distinction made by thousands of languages {{endash}} and {{angbr IPA|ʲ}} for [[palatalized]] consonants, which were once transcribed by distinct letters in the IPA until those letters were retired in favor of the diacritic.}}

The alphabet is designed for transcribing sounds (phones), not [[phoneme]]s, though it is used for phonemic transcription as well. A few letters that did not indicate specific sounds have been retired{{snd}}{{angbr IPA|ˇ}}, once used for the "compound" tone of Swedish and Norwegian, and {{angbr IPA|ƞ}}, once used for the [[moraic]] nasal of Japanese{{snd}}though one remains: {{angbr IPA|ɧ}}, used for the [[sj-sound]] of Swedish. When the IPA is used for broad phonetic or for phonemic transcription, the letter–sound correspondence can be rather loose. The IPA has recommended that more 'familiar' letters be used when that would not cause ambiguity.<ref>{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1949|p=7, 12}}</ref> For example, {{angbr IPA|e}} and {{angbr IPA|o}} for {{IPA|[ɛ]}} and {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, {{angbr IPA|t}} for {{IPA|[t̪]}} or {{IPA|[ʈ]}}, {{angbr IPA|f}} for {{IPA|[ɸ]}}, etc. Indeed, in the illustration of Hindi in the IPA ''Handbook'', the letters {{angbr IPA|c}} and {{angbr IPA|ɟ}} are used for {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}}.

Among the symbols of the IPA, 107 letters represent [[consonant]]s and [[vowel]]s, 31 [[diacritic]]s are used to modify these, and 17 additional signs indicate [[Segment (linguistics)|suprasegmental]] qualities such as [[length (phonetics)|length]], [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]], [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]], and [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]].{{NoteTag|There are three<!--dbl acute and grave are compounds--> basic tone diacritics and five basic tone letters, both sets of which may be compounded.}} These are organized into a chart; the chart displayed here is the official chart as posted at the website of the IPA.

=== Letter forms ===
[[File:LowercaseG.svg|right|thumb|Loop-tail {{angbr IPA|{{serif|g}}}} and open-tail {{angbr IPA|ɡ}} are graphic variants. Open-tail {{angbr IPA|ɡ}} was the original IPA symbol, but both are now considered correct. See [[history of the IPA]] for details.]]

The International Phonetic Alphabet is based on the [[Latin script]], and uses as few non-Latin letters as possible.<ref name = IPA194-196 /> The non-Latin letters are meant to harmonize with the Latin letters.{{NoteTag|"The non-roman letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet have been designed as far as possible to harmonize well with the roman letters. The Association does not recognize makeshift letters; It recognizes only letters which have been carefully cut so as to be in harmony with the other letters."<ref>{{harv|International Phonetic Association|1949}}</ref>}} For this reason, most letters are either Latin, [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], or modifications thereof. Some letters are neither: for example, the letter denoting the [[glottal stop]], {{angbr IPA|ʔ}}, originally had the form of a [[question mark]] with the dot removed. A few letters, such as that of the [[voiced pharyngeal fricative]], {{angbr IPA|ʕ}}, were inspired by other writing systems (in this case, the [[Arabic script|Arabic]] letter {{angbr|[[Ayin|ﻉ]]}}, ''{{transliteration|ar|ʿayn}}'', via the reversed apostrophe).<ref name=Pullum />
<!--clearly, ʔ and ʕ are not of independent origin and reflect the transliteration of alif vs. ayin in Semitic philology. Source needed-->

The Association created the IPA so that the sound values of most letters would correspond to "international usage" (approximately [[Classical Latin]]).<ref name=IPA194-196 /> Hence, the consonant letters {{angbr IPA|b}}, {{angbr IPA|d}}, {{angbr IPA|f}}, {{angbr IPA|ɡ}}, {{angbr IPA|h}}, {{angbr IPA|k}}, {{angbr IPA|l}}, {{angbr IPA|m}}, {{angbr IPA|n}}, {{angbr IPA|p}}, {{angbr IPA|s}}, {{angbr IPA|t}}, {{angbr IPA|v}}, {{angbr IPA|w}}, and {{angbr IPA|z}} have more or less their word-initial values in English (''g'' as in ''gill'', ''h'' as in ''hill'', though ''p t k'' are unaspirated as in ''spill, still, skill''); and the vowel letters {{angbr IPA|a}}, {{angbr IPA|e}}, {{angbr IPA|i}}, {{angbr IPA|o}}, {{angbr IPA|u}} correspond to the (long) sound values of Latin: {{IPA|[i]}} is like the vowel in ''mach{{strong|i}}ne'', {{IPA|[u]}} is as in ''r{{strong|u}}le'', etc. Other Latin letters, particularly {{angbr IPA|j}}, {{angbr IPA|r}} and {{angbr IPA|y}}, differ from English, but have their IPA values in Latin or other European languages.

Beyond the letters themselves, there are a variety of secondary symbols which aid in transcription. [[Diacritic]] marks can be combined with the letters to add tone and phonetic detail such as [[secondary articulation]]. There are also special symbols for prosodic features such as stress and intonation.

==== Typography ====
[[File:Turned small cap omega as a vowel.svg|thumb|An example of a font that uses turned small-capital omega {{angbr|ꭥ}} for the vowel letter {{angbr|ʊ}}. The glyph had originally been a small-capital {{angbr|ᴜ}}.]]

The basic Latin inventory was extended by adding small-capital and cursive forms, overlapping diacritics such as hooks, and rotation. The sound values of these letters are related to those of the original letters or to those of letters that they were modified to resemble.{{NoteTag|"The new letters should be suggestive of the sounds they represent, by their resemblance to the old ones."<ref>{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=196}}</ref>}} 
For example, [[rotated letter]]s were popular in the era of [[mechanical typesetting]], as they had the advantage of not requiring the casting of special type for IPA symbols, much as the sorts for {{angbr|b}} and {{angbr|q}}, {{angbr|d}} and {{angbr|p}}, {{angbr|n}} and {{angbr|u}}, and {{angbr|6}} and {{angbr|9}} had traditionally often pulled double duty to reduce printers' costs.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}} Thus rotated {{angbr IPA|ɐ ə ɹ ʍ}} recall ''a e r w'', while rotated {{angbr IPA|ɔ ɟ ɓ<!--e.g. the maidu specimen in Le Maître Phonétique 9 (46), no. 33 (janvier-mars, 1931) uses a turned ɡ for ɓ --> ɥ ɯ ʌ ʎ}} recall ''o j b y u/w ᴀ y/λ''.{{NoteTag|Originally, {{IPA|[ʊ]}} was written as a small capital U. However, this was not easy to read, and so it was replaced with a turned small capital omega. In modern typefaces, it often has its own design, called a "horseshoe".}}

There are several letters from the Greek alphabet, though their sound values may differ from Greek. For most Greek letters, subtly different [[glyph]] shapes have been devised for the IPA, specifically<!--{{angbr IPA|ɑ}} is script a, not a Greek alpha --> {{angbr IPA|ꞵ}}, {{angbr IPA|ɣ}}, {{angbr IPA|ɛ}}, {{angbr IPA|ɸ}}, {{angbr IPA|ꭓ}} and {{angbr IPA|ʋ}}, which are encoded in [[Unicode]] separately from their parent Greek letters. One, however – {{angbr IPA|θ}} – has only its Greek form, while for {{angbr IPA|ꞵ ~ β}} and {{angbr IPA|ꭓ ~ χ}}, both Greek and Latin forms are in common use.<ref>Cf. the notes at the [[Unicode]] [http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0250.pdf#3 IPA EXTENSIONS code chart] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805153401/http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0250.pdf#3 |date=5 August 2019 }} as well as blogs by [http://evertype.com/blog/blog/category/unicode/ Michael Everson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010200655/http://evertype.com/blog/blog/category/unicode/ |date=10 October 2017 }} and John Wells [http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/disunification-1.html here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602114843/http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/disunification-1.html |date=2 June 2019 }} and [http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/disunification-2.html here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602114835/http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/disunification-2.html |date=2 June 2019 }}.{{Clarify|reason=What exactly did this reference want to say? The blogs seem to be from before chi and beta were disunified.|date=May 2023}}</ref>

==== Iconicity ====
The graphic derivation of letters and diacritics may be iconic
:
* A rightward-facing hooked tail, as in {{angbr IPA|ʈ ɖ ɳ ɽ ʂ ʐ ɻ ɭ&thinsp;}}, indicates [[retroflex]] articulation. It originates from the hooked arm of an ''r''.
* The top hook, as in {{angbr IPA|ɠ ɗ ɓ}}, indicates [[glottalic ingressive|implosion]].
* Several [[nasal consonant]]s are based on the form {{angbr IPA|n}}: {{angbr IPA|n ɲ ɳ ŋ}}. {{angbr IPA|ɲ}} and {{angbr IPA|ŋ}} derive from [[Typographic ligature|ligatures]] of ''gn'' and ''ng,'' and {{angbr IPA|ɱ}} is an ''ad hoc'' imitation of {{angbr IPA|ŋ}}.
* Among consonant letters, the [[small capital]] letters {{angbr IPA|ɢ ʜ ʟ ɴ ʀ ʁ}}, and also {{angbr IPA|ꞯ}} in [[extIPA]], indicate more [[guttural]] sounds than their base letters{{snd}}{{angbr IPA|ʙ}}<!--for the bilabial trill--> is a late exception. Among vowel letters, the small capitals {{angbr IPA|ɪ ʏ ʊ}} indicate what had originally been considered more [[lax vowel|lax]] articulations than their base letters; {{angbr IPA|ʊ}} had originally been {{angbr IPA|ᴜ}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|International Phonetic Association|1899|p=38}}</ref> Again, small-cap {{angbr IPA|ɶ}} is a late exception.
* The [[tone letter#IPA|tone letters]] derive from a [[Tone (linguistics)|pitch trace]] on a [[musical scale]].

=== Brackets and transcription delimiters<span class="anchor" id="Delimiters"></span> ===
There are two principal types of [[bracket]]s used to set off (delimit) IPA transcriptions:
{| class="wikitable"
! | Symbol !! Use
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[&nbsp;...&nbsp;]}} || [[Square brackets]] are used with [[phonetic]] notation, whether broad or narrow<ref name="IPA175">{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=175}}</ref> – that is, for actual pronunciation, possibly including details of the pronunciation that may not be used for distinguishing words in the language being transcribed, but which the author nonetheless wishes to document. Such phonetic notation is the primary function of the IPA.
|-
| style="text-align: center" | {{IPA|/&nbsp;...&nbsp;/}} || [[Slash (punctuation)|Slashes]]{{NoteTag|For example, [[Merriam-Webster]] dictionaries use [[backslash]]es {{IPA|\&nbsp;...&nbsp;\}} to demarcate their in-house diaphonemic transcription system. This contrasts with the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', which transcribes a specific target accent.<!--the IPA influence in the MW system is rather minimal, being limited to the IPA stress marks and schwa, but the pronunciation data collected for MW's Third New International was in IPA and the IPA was seriously considered for its transcription system in publication.-->|name=MW}} are used for abstract [[phonemic]] notation,<ref name=IPA175 /> which note only features that are distinctive in the language, without any extraneous detail. For example, while the 'p' sounds of English ''pin'' and ''spin'' are pronounced differently (and this difference would be meaningful in some languages), the difference is not meaningful in English. Thus, ''phonemically'' the words are usually<!--could also be analyzed /pin/ and /sbin/--> analyzed as {{IPA|/ˈpɪn/}} and {{IPA|/ˈspɪn/}}, with the same phoneme {{IPA|/p/}}. To capture the difference between them{{snd}}the [[allophone]]s of {{IPA|/p/}}{{snd}}they can be transcribed phonetically as {{IPA|[pʰɪn]}} and {{IPA|[spɪn]}}. Phonemic notation commonly uses IPA symbols that are rather close to the default pronunciation of a phoneme, but for legibility often uses simple and 'familiar' letters rather than precise notation, for example {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} for the English {{IPA|[ɹʷ]}} and {{IPA|[əʊ̯]}} sounds, or {{IPA|/c, ɟ/}} for {{IPA|[t͜ʃ, d͜ʒ]}} as mentioned above.{{clarify|reason=Where is this mentioned above? A) In the lead? The lead is just a summary, so it doesn't contain citations and that means ideally, text in the body shouldn't depend on the lead. B) Or in § Description? That only talks about Hindi, not English. <!-- At the time of writing: "Indeed, in the illustration of Hindi in the IPA Handbook, the letters ⟨c⟩ and ⟨ɟ⟩ are used for /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/." --> Possible rewrite: "rather than precise notation (as mentioned above in {{slink||Description}}), for example ..."|date=July 2025}}
|}

Less common conventions include:
{| class="wikitable"
! | Symbol !! Use
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|&#x007B;&nbsp;...&nbsp;&#x007D;}} || [[Bracket#Curly brackets|Braces]] ("curly brackets") are used for [[prosodic]] notation.<ref name="IPA176">{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=176}}</ref> See [[Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet]] for examples in this system.
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|(&nbsp;...&nbsp;)}} || [[Parentheses]] are used for indistinguishable<ref name=IPA175 /> or unidentified utterances. They are also seen for silent articulation (mouthing),<ref name="IPA191">{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=191}}</ref> where the expected phonetic transcription is derived from lip-reading, and with periods to indicate silent pauses, for example {{IPA|(…)}} or {{IPA|(2 sec)}}. The latter usage is made official in the [[extIPA]], with unidentified segments circled instead.<ref>{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|pp=188, 192}}</ref>

In inventory charts, parentheses may indicate that a sound is a marginal phoneme (occurs in only a few morphemes), is only found in loanwords, or is not a phoneme but a notable allophone.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
|-
| style="text-align: center; | {{IPA|⸨&nbsp;...&nbsp;⸩}} || [[Parenthesis|Double parentheses]] indicate either a transcription of obscured speech or a description of the obscuring noise. The IPA specifies that they mark the obscured sound,<ref name=IPA176 /> as in {{IPA|⸨2σ⸩}}, two audible syllables obscured by another sound. The current extIPA specifications prescribe double parentheses for the extraneous noise, such as ⸨cough⸩ for a cough by another person (not the speaker) or ⸨knock⸩ for a knock on a door, but the IPA ''Handbook'' identifies IPA and extIPA usage as equivalent.<ref>{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|pp=176, 192}}</ref> Early publications of the extIPA explain double parentheses as marking "uncertainty because of noise which obscures the recording", and that within them "may be indicated as much detail as the transcriber can detect."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Duckworth |first1=Martin |last2=Allen |first2=George |last3=Hardcastle |first3=William |last4=Ball |first4=Martin |date=1990 |title=Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech |journal=Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics |volume=4 |issue=4 |page=278 |doi=10.3109/02699209008985489 |issn=0269-9206}}</ref>
|}

All three of the above are provided by the IPA ''Handbook''. The following are not, but may be seen in IPA transcription or in associated material (especially angle brackets):
{| class="wikitable"
! scope="col" | Symbol !! scope="col" | Field !! scope="col" | Description
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|⟦&nbsp;...&nbsp;⟧}} || Phonetics
| [[Square bracket|Double square brackets]] are used for especially precise phonetic transcription, often finer than is normally practicable.<ref>Charles-James Bailey (1985: 3) ''English phonetic transcription''. SIL.</ref> This is consistent with the IPA convention of doubling a symbol to indicate greater degree. Double brackets may indicate that a letter has its cardinal IPA value. For example, {{IPA|⟦a⟧}} is an open front vowel, rather than the perhaps slightly different value (such as open central) that "{{IPA|[a]}}" may be used to transcribe in a particular language. Thus, two vowels transcribed for easy legibility as {{IPA|[e]}} and {{IPA|[ɛ]}} may be clarified as actually being {{IPA|⟦e̝⟧}} and {{IPA|⟦e⟧}}; {{IPA|[ð]}} may be more precisely {{IPA|⟦ð̠̞ˠ⟧}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Basbøll |first=Hans |title=The Phonology of Danish |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-824268-0 |series=The Phonology of the World's Languages |location=New York |pages=45, 59}}</ref> Double brackets may also be used for a specific token or speaker; for example, the pronunciation of a particular child as opposed to the adult pronunciation that is their target.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Karlsson |title=/sP/ consonant clusters in Swedish: Acoustic measurements of phonological development |year=2005 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/208033488 |last2=Sullivan}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{ubc|{{IPA|⫽&nbsp;...&nbsp;⫽}}|{{IPA|&#x007B;&nbsp;...&nbsp;&#x007D;}}|{{IPA|&#x007C;&nbsp;...&nbsp;&#x007C;}}|{{IPA|‖&nbsp;...&nbsp;‖}}}} || [[Morphophonology]]
| [[Slash (punctuation)|Double slashes]] are used for [[morphophonemic]] transcription. This is also consistent with the IPA convention of doubling a symbol to indicate greater degree – in this case, more abstract than phonemic transcription.

Also commonly seen are the braces of [[set theory]], especially when enclosing the set of phonemes that constitute the morphophoneme, e.g. {{IPA|&#x007B;t&nbsp;d&#x007D;}} or {{IPA|&#x007B;t&#x007C;d&#x007D;}} or {{IPA|&#x007B;/t/,&nbsp;/d/&#x007D;}} for a conflated {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}}. Braces have a conflicting use to delimit prosodic transcription within the [[Voice Quality Symbols]], which are an extension of IPA used in extIPA, but are not otherwise used in IPA proper.

Other delimiters sometimes seen are [[vertical bar|pipes]] and double pipes taken from [[Americanist phonetic notation]]. However, these conflict with the pipes used in basic IPA prosodic transcription.{{NoteTag|For example, single and double pipe symbols are used for minor and major prosodic breaks. Although the ''Handbook'' specifies the prosodic symbols as being "thick" vertical lines, which would in theory be distinct from simple ASCII pipes used as delimiters (and similar to [[Dania transcription|Dania]] transcription), this was an idea to keep them distinct from the otherwise similar pipes used as [[click letter]]s, and is almost never found in practice.{{sfn|Roach|1989|p=75}} The ''Handbook'' assigns the prosodic pipe the Unicode encodings U+007C, which is the simple ASCII symbol, and the double pipe U+2016.<ref name="auto">{{harvnb|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=174}}</ref>}}
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{ubc|{{IPA|\&nbsp;...&nbsp;\}}|{{IPA|⫽&nbsp;...&nbsp;⫽}}|{{IPA|&#x007C;&nbsp;...&nbsp;&#x007C;}}|{{IPA|!&nbsp;...&nbsp;!}}}} || [[Diaphonology]]
| [[Backslash]]es are used for [[diaphonemic]] transcription, for example setting off pronunciations in dictionaries that do not target a specific preferred dialect.{{NoteTag|name=MW}}

Other delimiters are double slashes, – the same notation as for morphophonology, – exclamation marks, and pipes.
|-
| style="text-align:center" | {{ubc|{{angbr IPA|&nbsp;...&nbsp;}}|{{IPA|⟪&nbsp;...&nbsp;⟫}}|{{IPA|&#x007C;&nbsp;...&nbsp;&#x007C;}}}} || [[Graphemics]]
| [[Angle bracket]]s{{NoteTag|The proper angle brackets in Unicode are the mathematical symbols (U+27E8 and U+27E9). Chevrons ‹...› (U+2039, U+203A) are sometimes substituted, as in Americanist phonetic notation, as are the less-than and greater-than signs <...> (U+003C, U+003E) found on ASCII keyboards.}} are used to mark both original Latin orthography and [[transliteration]] from another script;<!--including e.g. Arabic and Chinese characters used to transcribe Latin script--> they are also used to identify individual [[grapheme]]s of any script.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sproat |first=Richard William |title=A Computational Theory of Writing Systems |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-521-66340-3 |series=Studies in Natural Language Processing |pages=26}}</ref>{{sfn|Heselwood|2013|pp=8 ff, 29 ff}} In IPA literature, they are used to indicate the IPA letters themselves rather than the sound values that they carry.
For example, {{angbr IPA|cot}} would be used for the orthography of the English word ''cot'', as opposed to its pronunciation {{IPA|/ˈkɒt/}}. Italics are usual when words are written as themselves (as with ''cot'' in the previous sentence) rather than to specifically note their orthography. However, italics are sometimes ambiguous, and italic markup is not always accessible to sight-impaired readers who rely on [[screen reader]] technology.

Double angle brackets may occasionally be useful to distinguish original orthography from transliteration, or the idiosyncratic spelling of a manuscript from the normalized orthography of the language.

Pipes are sometimes used instead of double angle brackets to denote the distinct [[allograph]]s of a grapheme that are known as ''[[glyphs]]''. For example, print {{IPA|{{gph|g}}}} and script {{IPA|{{gph|ɡ}}}} are two glyph variants of the grapheme {{angbr|[[g]]}} of Latin script.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Meletis |first1=Dimitrios |title=Writing Systems and Their Use: An Overview of Grapholinguistics |last2=Dürscheid |first2=Christa |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-11-075777-4 |page=64}}</ref>
|}

Some examples of contrasting brackets in the literature:
{{blockquote|In some English accents, the phoneme {{IPA|/l/}}, which is usually spelled as {{angbr|l}} or {{angbr|ll}}, is articulated as two distinct allophones: the clear {{IPA|[l]}} occurs before vowels and the consonant {{IPA|/j/}}, whereas the dark {{IPA|[ɫ]}}/{{IPA|[lˠ]}} occurs before consonants, except {{IPA|/j/}}, and at the end of words.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tench |first=Paul |title=Transcribing the Sound of English: A Phonetics Workbook for Words and Discourse |date=2011-08-11 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00019-3 |pages=61 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511698361}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|the alternations {{IPA|/f/}}{{snd}}{{IPA|/v/}} in plural formation in one class of nouns, as in ''knife'' {{IPA|/naɪf/}}{{snd}}''knives'' {{IPA|/naɪvz/}}, which can be represented morphophonemically as {{IPA|{naɪV}}}{{snd}}{{IPA|{naɪV+z}}}. The morphophoneme {{IPA|{V}}} stands for the phoneme set {{IPA|{/f/, /v/}}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gibbon |first1=Dafydd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8cxtWcsAk5MC&pg=PA61 |title=Handbook of Standards and Resources for Spoken Language Systems: Spoken language characterisation |last2=Moore |first2=Roger |last3=Winski |first3=Richard |date=1998 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-015734-5 |pages=61}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|{{IPA|[ˈf\faɪnəlz ˈhɛld ɪn (.) ⸨knock on door⸩ bɑɹsə{<sub>𝑝</sub>ˈloʊnə and ˈmədɹɪd<sub> 𝑝</sub>}]}} — ''f-finals held in Barcelona and Madrid.''<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ball |first1=Martin J. |author-link1=Martin J. Ball |title=Methods in Clinical Phonetics |last2=Lowry |first2=Orla M. |date=2001 |publisher=Whurr |isbn=978-1-86156-184-8 |location=London |pages=80 |chapter=Transcribing Disordered Speech |doi=10.1002/9780470777879.ch3 |s2cid=58518097}}</ref>}}

=== Other representations ===
{{Main|Cursive forms of the International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA Braille}}
IPA letters have [[cursive]] forms designed for use in manuscripts and when taking field notes, but the ''Handbook'' recommended against their use, as cursive IPA is "harder for most people to decipher".{{sfn|International Phonetic Association|1999|p=31}} A [[braille]] representation of the IPA for blind or visually impaired professionals and students has also been developed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Englebretson |first=Robert |date=2009 |title=An overview of IPA Braille: an updated tactile representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet |url=http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~reng/englebretson2009.pdf |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |volume=39 |issue=1 |page=67 |access-date=5 April 2014 |doi=10.1017/s0025100308003691 |citeseerx=10.1.1.501.366 |s2cid=36426880 |archive-date=8 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908105731/http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~reng/englebretson2009.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>