International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Standardized alphabetic system representing all human speech sounds since 1888.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Devised in 1888 by a group of language teachers led by French phonetician Paul Passy.
• Uses one symbol per sound so any language can be transcribed unambiguously.
• Its most recent symbol addition, the labiodental flap ⟨ⱱ⟩, was approved in 2005.