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Kirshenbaum (ASCII-IPA) Transcription Scheme

The Kirshenbaum (ASCII-IPA) transcription scheme was created by Evan Kirshenbaum and others between 1991 and 1993 for use in Usenet and e-mail. Since then, the support for Unicode has greatly improved. An ASCII encoding of IPA is still useful as it is often easier to type.

The Kirshenbaum transcription scheme defines a set of phoneme features that are described in eSpeak NG in the phonemes document. The cainteoir and espeak-ng phoneme features defined in that document are not useable in transcriptions using the Kirshenbaum transcription scheme. They are used here where relevant to define the Kirshenbaum phonemes in a consistent way across the different transcription schemes.

Broad (phonemic) transcriptions are enclosed in / characters (/p/), while narrow (phonetic) transcriptions are wrapped in [ and ] characters ([p]).

A phoneme can be transcribed as a named phoneme (p), or as a set of features wrapped in { and } characters ({vls,blb,stp}). A feature (typically a diacritic) of a phoneme can be added or modified by wrapping the feature in < and > characters after the base phoneme (p<dnt>).

Phoneme Transcription Schemes

BCP47 Subtag Abbreviation Transcription Scheme Encoding
fonipa IPA International Phonetic Alphabet Unicode
fonxsamp X-SAMPA Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet ASCII
x-foncxs CXS Conlang X-SAMPA ASCII
x-fonkirsh Kirshenbaum (ASCII-IPA) ASCII
  1. foncxs and fonkirsh are private use extensions defined in the bcp47-extensions file, so have the x- private use specifier before their subtag names.

Consonants

blb lbd dnt alv pla rfx alp pal vel uvl phr glt
vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd
nas m M n[ n n. n^ N n"
stp p b t[ d[ t d t. d. c J k g q G ?
sib afr
afr
lat afr
sib frc s z S Z s. z.
frc P B f v T D C C<vcd> x Q X g" H H<vcd> h h<?>
lat frc s<lat> z<lat>
apr r<lbd> r[ r r. j j<vel> g"
lat apr l[ l l. l^ L
flp * *.
lat flp *<lat>
trl b<trl> r<trl> r"
clk p! t! c! c! k!
lat clk l!
imp b` d` d` J` g` G`
ejc p` t[` t` c` k` q`
ejc frc
lat ejc frc

  1. h is transcribed as {glt,apr} in ASCII-IPA. It is transcribed as {glt,frc} in this document to match the assignment used in the Wikipedia IPA table, and the placement in other documents in eSpeak NG. The IPA chart places them as being {frc} or {apr}, as does the main Wikipedia page for the [h] phoneme.

  2. The q` phoneme is incorrectly placed in the segment table (Appendix D) of the ASCII-IPA document. According to the diacritics list (Appendix C), the ` character denotes an {ejc} phoneme for a {vls} base phoneme, not {imp} which is used for {vcd} base phonemes. The table above uses the correct assignment.

  3. The L phoneme has an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.

Other Symbols

bld alv pla pal lbv vel
vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd vls vcd
nas n<lbv>
stp t<lbv> d<lbv>
afr
vzd frc
ptr apr w<vls> w
fzd lat apr
  1. The w phoneme is transcribed as being {vcd,lbv,frc} or {lbv,apr}, and w<vls> as {vls,lbv,frc} in ASCII-IPA. They are transcribed as {ptr,vel,apr} in this document to match their definition as labialized velar approximants in the IPA chart.

Vowels

fnt cnt bck
unr rnd unr rnd unr rnd
hgh i y i" u" u- u
smh I I. U
umd e Y @<umd> o- o
mid @ @.
lmd E W V" O" V O
sml &
low a a. A A.

  1. The & phoneme is transcribed as being {low,fnt,unr,vwl}, and a as {low,cnt,unr,vwl} in ASCII-IPA. This does not match their placement in the IPA chart according to the Unicode characters those ASCII-IPA phonemes map to. As such, the table above reflects their IPA chart positions.

  2. The &. phoneme is defined in the segment table (Appendix D) of the ASCII-IPA definition. According to the IPA charts, this is not a valid phoneme. As such, it is not listed in the table above.

  3. The W and Y phonemes have an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.

Other Symbols

Symbol Features
R unr mid cnt rzd vwl
R<umd> unr lmd cnt rzd vwl

  1. The R<umd> phoneme is transcribed as being {umd,cnt,unr,rzd,vwl} in ASCII-IPA. However, the IPA phoneme it is representing is based on the {lmd} vowel. The table above keeps the <umd> modifying feature to be compatible with ASCII-IPA, but assigns it to {lmd} in this case to be compatible with the IPA chart.

  2. The R phoneme has an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.

Diacritics

Symbol Feature
! {clk}
[ {dnt}
; {pzd}
^ {pal}
<H> {fzd}
<h> {asp}
<o> {unx}
<r> {rzd}
<w> {ptr}
<?> {brv}

  1. The <o> diacritic has an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.

  2. The {ptr} (protruded) feature is specified as {lzd} (labialized) in ASCII-IPA.

  3. The {brv} (breathy voice) feature is specified as {mrm} (murmured) in ASCII-IPA.

The ASCII-IPA transcription scheme defines several diacritics that vary in meaning depending on whether the base phoneme is a vowel or consonant.

Symbol Vowel Consonant
~ {nzd} {vzd}
- {unr} {syl}
. {rnd} {rfx}
" {cnt} {uvl}

The ASCII-IPA transcription scheme defines several diacritics that vary in meaning depending on the voicing of the base phoneme.

Symbol Voiceless Voiced
` {ejc} {imp}

Suprasegmentals

Stress

Symbol Name
' primary stress
, secondary stress

Length

Symbol Feature
: {lng}

References

  1. Kirshenbaum, Evan, Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII (HTML). 1993. Updated 2003.

  2. Kirshenbaum, Evan, Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII (PDF). 2001. Updated 2011.