The UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (or UPSID) is a statistical survey of the

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

inventories in 451 of the world's

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

s. The database was created by American

phonetician Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

Ian Maddieson Ian Maddieson (born September 1, 1942 in Watford, United Kingdom) is British-American linguist and professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of New Mexico, in the United States. He has served as Vice-President of the International Phone ...

for the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(UCLA) in 1984 and has been updated several times.

Bibliography

* Maddieson, Ian. (1984). ''Patterns of sounds''. Cambridge studies in speech science and communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

External links

Simple interface to UPSID, including the list of languages and searches by selected criteria

Phonology Works on linguistic typology 1984 establishments in California Scientific databases {{phonology-stub