The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. It was designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The result is a SAMPA-inspired recasting of the IPA into 7-bit ASCII.

SAMPA was devised as a hack to work around the inability of text encodings to represent IPA symbols. However, as Unicode support for IPA symbols becomes more widespread, the necessity for a separate, computer-readable system for representing the IPA in ASCII decreases. On the other hand, X-SAMPA is still useful as the basis for an input method for true IPA.

Summary

Notes

• The IPA symbols that are ordinary lower-case letters have the same value in X-SAMPA as they do in the IPA.
• X-SAMPA uses backslashes as modifying suffixes to create new symbols. For example O is a distinct sound from O\, to which it bears no relation. Such use of the backslash character can be a problem, since many programs interpret it as an escape character for the character following it. For example, you cannot use such X-SAMPA symbols in EMU, therefore you need to replace backlash with some other symbol (e.g. an asterisk: '*') when adding phonemic transciption to an EMU speech database.
• X-SAMPA diacritics follow the symbols they modify. Except for ~ for nasalization, = for syllabicity, and ` for retroflexion and rhotacization, diacritics are joined to the character with the underscore character _.
• The underscore character is also used to encode the IPA tiebar.
• The numbers _1 to _6 are reserved diacritics as shorthand for language-specific tone numbers.

Lowercase symbols

X-SAMPA	IPA	IPA image	Description	Examples
a	a		open front unrounded vowel	French dame dam, Spanish padre "paD4e
b	b		voiced bilabial plosive	English bed bEd, French bon bO~
b_<	ɓ		voiced bilabial implosive	Sindhi ɓarʊ b_<arU
c	c		voiceless palatal plosive	Hungarian latyak "lQcQk
d	d		voiced alveolar plosive	English dig dIg, French doigt dwa
d`	ɖ		voiced retroflex plosive	Swedish hord hu:d`
d_<	ɗ		voiced alveolar implosive	Sindhi ɗarʊ d_<arU
e	e		close-mid front unrounded vowel	French ses se, English met met (AusE and NZE)
f	f		voiceless labiodental fricative	English five faIv, French femme fam
g	ɡ		voiced velar plosive	English game geIm, French longue lO~g
g_<	ɠ		voiced velar implosive	Sindhi ɠəro g_<@ro
h	h		voiceless glottal fricative	English house haUs
h\	ɦ		voiced glottal fricative	Czech hrad h\rat
i	i		close front unrounded vowel	English be bi:, French oui wi, Spanish si si
j	j		palatal approximant	English yes jEs, French yeux j2
j\	ʝ		voiced palatal fricative	Greek γειά j\a
k	k		voiceless velar plosive	English scat sk{t, Spanish carro "kar:o
l	l		alveolar lateral approximant	English lay leI, French mal mal
l`	ɭ		retroflex lateral approximant	Svealand Swedish sorl so:l`
l\	ɺ		alveolar lateral flap	Japanese phoneme /r/
m	m		bilabial nasal	English mouse maUs, French homme Om
n	n		alveolar nasal	English nap n{p, French non nO~
n`	ɳ		retroflex nasal	Swedish hörn h2:n`
o	o		close-mid back rounded vowel	French gros gRo
p	p		voiceless bilabial plosive	English speak spik, French pose poz, Spanish perro "per:o
p\	ɸ		voiceless bilabial fricative	Japanese fuku p\M_0kM
q	q		voiceless uvular plosive	Arabic qasbah "qQs_Gba
r	r		alveolar trill	Spanish perro "per:o
r`	ɽ		retroflex flap
r\	ɹ		alveolar approximant	English red r\Ed
r\`	ɻ		retroflex approximant	Malayalam വഴി "v6r\`i
s	s		voiceless alveolar fricative	English seem si:m, French session se"sjO~
s`	ʂ		voiceless retroflex fricative	Swedish mars mas`
s\	ɕ		voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative	Polish świerszcz s\v'erStS
t	t		voiceless alveolar plosive	English stew stju:, French raté Ra"te, Spanish tuyo "tujo
t`	ʈ		voiceless retroflex plosive	Swedish mört m2t`
u	u		close back rounded vowel	English boom bu:m, Spanish su su
v	v		voiced labiodental fricative	English vest vEst, French voix vwa
v\ (or P)	ʋ		labiodental approximant	Dutch west v\Est/PEst
w	w		labial-velar approximant	English west wEst, French oui wi
x	x		voiceless velar fricative	Scots loch lOx; German Buch, Dach; Spanish caja, gestión
x\	ɧ		voiceless palatal-velar fricative	Swedish sjal x\A:l
y	y		close front rounded vowel	French tu ty German über "y:b6
z	z		voiced alveolar fricative	English zoo zu:, French azote a"zOt
z`	ʐ		voiced retroflex fricative	Mandarin Chinese rang z`aN
z\	ʑ		voiced alveolo-palatal fricative	Polish źrebak "z\rEbak

Uppercase symbols

X-SAMPA	IPA	IPA image	Description	Example
A	ɑ		open back unrounded vowel	English father "fA:D@(r\)] (RP and Gen.Am.)
B	β		voiced bilabial fricative	Spanish lavar la"Ba4
B\	ʙ		bilabial trill	Reminiscent of shivering ("brrr")
C	ç		voiceless palatal fricative	German ich IC, English human "Cjum@n (broad transcription uses hj-])
D	ð		voiced dental fricative	English then DEn
E	ɛ		open-mid front unrounded vowel	French même mEm, English met mEt (RP and Gen.Am.)
F	ɱ		labiodental nasal	English emphasis "EFf@sIs (spoken quickly, otherwise uses Emf-])
G	ɣ		voiced velar fricative	Greek γωνία Go"nia, Danish vælge "vElG@
G\	ɢ		voiced uvular plosive	Inuktitut nirivvik niG\ivvik]
G\_<	ʛ		voiced uvular implosive	Mam ʛa G\_<a
H	ɥ		labial-palatal approximant	French huit Hit
H\	ʜ		voiceless epiglottal fricative
I	ɪ		near-close near-front unrounded vowel	English kit kIt
I\	ᵻ or ɪ̈		near-close central unrounded vowel	Polish ryba rI\bA
J	ɲ		palatal nasal	Spanish año "aJo, English canyon "k{J@n (broad transcription uses [-nj-])
J\	ɟ		voiced palatal plosive	Hungarian egy EJ\
J\_<	ʄ		voiced palatal implosive	Sindhi ʄaro J\_<aro
K	ɬ		voiceless alveolar lateral fricative	Welsh llaw KaU
K\	ɮ		voiced alveolar lateral fricative
L	ʎ		palatal lateral approximant	Italian famiglia fa"miLa, Castilian llamar La"mar, English million "mIL@n (broad transcription uses [-lj-])
L\	ʟ		velar lateral approximant
M	ɯ		close back unrounded vowel	Korean 으 (eu)
M\	ɰ		velar approximant	Spanish fuego "fweM\o
N	ŋ		velar nasal	English thing TIN
N\	ɴ		uvular nasal	Japanese san saN\
O	ɔ		open-mid back rounded vowel	RP thought TO:t, American English off O:f
O\	ʘ		bilabial click
P (or v\)	ʋ		labiodental approximant	Dutch west PEst/v\Est, allophone of English phoneme /r\/
Q	ɒ		open back rounded vowel	RP lot lQt
R	ʁ		voiced uvular fricative	German rein RaIn
R\	ʀ		uvular trill	French roi R\wa
S	ʃ		voiceless postalveolar fricative	English ship SIp
T	θ		voiceless dental fricative	English thin TIn
U	ʊ		near-close near-back rounded vowel	English foot fUt
U\	ᵿ or ʊ̈		near-close central rounded vowel	English euphoria jU\"fO@r\i@
V	ʌ		open-mid back unrounded vowel	RP English strut str\Vt
W	ʍ		voiceless labial-velar fricative	Scots when WEn
X	χ		voiceless uvular fricative	Klallam sχaʔqʷaʔ sXa?q_wa?
X\	ħ		voiceless pharyngeal fricative	Arabic <ح>ha’ X\A:
Y	ʏ		near-close near-front rounded vowel	German hübsch hYpS
Z	ʒ		voiced postalveolar fricative	English vision "vIZ@n

Other symbols

X-SAMPA	IPA	IPA image	Description	Example
.	.		syllable break
"	ˈ		primary stress
%	ˌ		secondary stress
' (or _j)	ʲ		palatalized
:	ː		long
:\	ˑ		half long	Estonian differentiates three vowel lengths
-			separator
@	ə		schwa	English arena @"r\i:n@
@\	ɘ		close-mid central unrounded vowel	Paicĩ kɘ̄ɾɘ k@\_M4@\_M
{	æ		near-open front unrounded vowel	English trap tr\{p
}	ʉ		close central rounded vowel	Swedish sju x\}:; AuE/NZE boot b}:t
1	ɨ		close central unrounded vowel	Welsh tu t1, American English rose's "r\oUz1z
2	ø		close-mid front rounded vowel	Danish købe "k2:b@, French deux d2
3	ɜ		open-mid central unrounded vowel	English nurse n3:s (RP) or n3`s (Gen.Am.)
3\	ɞ		open-mid central rounded vowel	Irish tomhailt3\:l'
4	ɾ		alveolar flap	Spanish pero "pe4o, American English better "bE4@`
5	ɫ		velarized alveolar lateral approximant; also see _e	English milk mI5k
6	ɐ		near-open central vowel	German besser "bEs6, Australian English mud m6d
7	ɤ		close-mid back unrounded vowel	Estonian kõik k7ik, Vietnamese mơ m7_M
8	ɵ		close-mid central rounded vowel	Swedish buss b8s
9	œ		open-mid front rounded vowel	French neuf n9f, Danish drømme dR9m@
&	ɶ		open front rounded vowel	Swedish skörd x\&d`
?	ʔ		glottal stop	Danish stød sd2?, Cockney English bottle "bQ?l
?\	ʕ		voiced pharyngeal fricative	Arabic ع‎ (`ayn) ?\Ajn
*			undefined escape character, SAMPA's "conjunctor"
/			indeterminacy in French vowels
<			begin nonsegmental notation (e.g., SAMPROSA)
<\	ʢ		voiced epiglottal fricative
>			end nonsegmental notation
>\	ʡ		epiglottal plosive
^	↑		upstep
!	↓		downstep
!\	ǃ		postalveolar click
|	|		minor (foot) group
|\	ǀ		dental click
||	‖		major (intonation) group
|\|\	ǁ		alveolar lateral click
=\	ǂ		palatal click
-\	‿		linking mark

Diacritics

X-SAMPA	IPA	IPA image	Description
_"	̈		centralized
_+	̟		advanced
_-	̠		retracted
_/	ˇ		rising tone
_0	̥		voiceless
_<			implosive (IPA uses separate symbols for implosives)
= (or _=)	̩		syllabic
_>	ʼ		ejective
_?\	ˤ		pharyngealized
_\	ˆ		falling tone
_^	̯		non-syllabic
_}	̚		no audible release
`	˞		rhotacization in vowels, retroflexion in consonants (IPA uses separate symbols for consonants, see t` for an example)
~ (or _~)	̃		nasalization
_A	̘		advanced tongue root
_a	̺		apical
_B	̏		extra low tone
_B_L	᷅		low rising tone
_c	̜		less rounded
_d	̪		dental
_e	̴		velarized or pharyngealized; also see 5
<F>			global fall
_F	̂		falling tone
_G	ˠ		velarized
_H	́		high tone
_H_T	᷄		high rising tone
_h	ʰ		aspirated
_j (or ')	ʲ		palatalized
_k	̰		creaky voice
_L	̀		low tone
_l	ˡ		lateral release
_M	̄		mid tone
_m	̻		laminal
_N	̼		linguolabial
_n	ⁿ		nasal release
_O	̹		more rounded
_o	̞		lowered
_q	̙		retracted tongue root
<R>			global rise
_R	̌		rising tone
_R_F	᷈		rising falling tone
_r	̝		raised
_T	̋		extra high tone
_t	̤		breathy voice
_v	̬		voiced
_w	ʷ		labialized
_X	̆		extra-short
_x	̽		mid-centralized

Charts

Consonants

• Daggers (†) mark IPA symbols that have recently been added to Unicode. Since April 2008, this is the case of the labiodental flap, symbolized by a right-hook v in the IPA: A dedicated symbol for the labiodental flap does not yet exist in X-SAMPA.

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i • y 1 • } M • u I • Y I\ • U\ • U e • 2 @\ • 8 7 • o @ E • 9 3 • 3\ V • O { • 6 a • & A • Q
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open

See also

• CXS, an unofficial, extended version of X-SAMPA used for language construction
• International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
• International Phonetic Alphabet for English
• Kirshenbaum and WorldBet, similar systems.
• List of phonetics topics
• SAMPA, a language-specific predecessor of X-SAMPA.
• SAMPA chart for English
• X-sampa charts

References

External links

• Computer-coding the IPA: A proposed extension of SAMPA
• Translate English texts into IPA phonetics with PhoTransEdit. This free software tool allows to export transcriptions to X-SAMPA.
• Online converter between IPA and X-Sampa
• Web-based translator for X-SAMPA documents. Produces Unicode text, XML text, PostScript, PDF, or LaTeX TIPA.