18 Other Symbols

The “Other Symbols” section of the ipa chart contains consonant symbols that don’t easily fit on a chart. Some of the symbols represent consonants that are articulated in two places simultaneously and so they don’t fit in with the pattern of the pulmonic consonant chart, where each place in the mouth occupies a column of the chart. For example, [w]—a symbol we’ve already tackled when we were learning about sounds whose symbol we already know—is used for the Voiced Labial-Velar Approximant. You’ll remember that we have bilabial consonants and velar ones, but [w] exists in both places at once, as does it voiceless partner, [ʍ]. Labial-velar consonants have the lips rounded, and the back of the tongue high, in a slightly more extreme position than the vowel [u]. Other symbols could be located on the chart, but would require a whole column or row (or both!) for a single symbol, and so they’re merely gathered in the Other Symbols area. Finally, Affricates, like the two we’ve learned already [tʃ] and [dʒ] are mentioned in the Other Symbols area, with the note that they can be represented as “two symbols joined by a tie bar if necessary.” As [tʃ] and [dʒ] donʼt bump into each other in English very frequently (e.g. batshit [bæt.ʃɪt]), I feel that it isn’t usually necessary to use a tie bar. However, when using other, non-English affricates, the tiebar is essential.

Voiceless Labio-Velar Fricative: Turned W [ʍ]

This can be heard here:

Voiced Labial-Velar Approximant: Lowercase W [w]

This can be heard here:

Voiced Labial-Palatal Approximant: Turned Lowercase H [ɥ]

This can be heard here:

Voiceless Epiglottal Fricative: Small Cap H [ʜ]

This can be heard here:

Voiced Epiglottal Fricative/Trill: Barred Dotless Flipped Question Mark [ʢ]

This can be heard here:

Epiglottal Plosive: Barred Dotless Question Mark [ʡ]

This can be heard here:

Voiceless Alveolo-Palatal Fricative: Curly Tail Lowercase C [ɕ]

This can be heard here:

Voiced Alveolo-Palatal Fricative: Curly Tail Lowercase Z [ʑ]

This can be heard here:

Voiced Alveolar Lateral Flap: Longtail Turned Lowercase R [ɺ]

This can be heard here:

Simultaneous ʃ and x: Hooktop Heng [ɧ]

This can be heard here:

Affricates

As we’ve already learned from the English sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ], affricates are consonants whose manner begin with a stop and release as a fricative, generally in the same place. They can be written merely as a pair of consonant symbols, or with a tie bar, either above or below (whichever works best for the pair), though the default seems to be above. As the tie bar can obscure the symbols, especially in a font, browser, or word processor that doesn’t handle them well, I will avoid using them in this section. Overall, Affricates feel more like stops than fricatives, and behave similarly. While the official chart only shows two Affricate pairs, [t͜s] and [k͡p], there are many pairs that exist in the world’s languages.

The following examples of possible pairs are taken from John Esling’s iPA Phonetics app; I’ve arranged them according the groupings on the Wikipedia Affricate page, which gives examples of languages where they occur.

Sibilant Affricates

In the Postalveolar place, there is a contrast between a retracted [t̠s̠], which uses the minus sign diacritic, and the curled [tʃ] that we’re familiar with from English.

Dental: t̪s̪, d̪z̪

Alveolar: ts, dz

Postalveolar: t̠s̠, d̠z̠; tʃ, dʒ

Retroflex: ʈʂ, ɖʐ

Alveolo-palatal: tɕ, dʑ

Non-Sibilant Affricates

Bilabial: pɸ, bβ

Labiodental: p̪f, bv

Linguolabial (tongue & upper lip): t̼θ̼, d̼ð

Dental: t̪θ, d̪ð

Retroflex: tɻ̝̊, dɻ̝

Palatal: cç̠, ɟʝ

Velar: kx, ɡɣ

Uvular: qχ, ɢʁ

Pharyngeal/Epiglottal: ʡħ, ʡʕ

Lateral Affricates

As there are no symbols for some of the voiceless versions of [ʎ] and [ʟ], we use the voiceless diacritic “ring” in those voiceless affricates.