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>
).
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 |
foncxs
and fonkirsh
are private use extensions defined in the bcp47-extensions file, so have the x-
private use specifier before their subtag names.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 |
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.
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.
The L
phoneme has an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.
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 |
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.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. |
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.
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.
The W
and Y
phonemes have an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.
Symbol | Features |
---|---|
R | unr mid cnt rzd vwl |
R<umd> | unr lmd cnt rzd vwl |
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.
The R
phoneme has an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.
Symbol | Feature |
---|---|
! | {clk} |
[ | {dnt} |
; | {pzd} |
^ | {pal} |
<H> | {fzd} |
<h> | {asp} |
<o> | {unx} |
<r> | {rzd} |
<w> | {ptr} |
<?> | {brv} |
The <o>
diacritic has an alternate meaning in ASCII-IPA. This document only describes the variant preferred by Evan Kirshenbaum.
The {ptr}
(protruded) feature is specified as {lzd}
(labialized) in ASCII-IPA.
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} |
Symbol | Name |
---|---|
' | primary stress |
, | secondary stress |
Symbol | Feature |
---|---|
: | {lng} |
Kirshenbaum, Evan, Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII (HTML). 1993. Updated 2003.
Kirshenbaum, Evan, Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII (PDF). 2001. Updated 2011.