The

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

, or IPA, is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.International Phonetic Association. (1999). ''Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The following tables present pulmonic and non-pulmonic consonants. In the IPA, a pulmonic consonant is a consonant made by obstructing the

glottis The glottis (: glottises or glottides) is the opening between the vocal folds (the rima glottidis). The glottis is crucial in producing sound from the vocal folds. Etymology From Ancient Greek ''γλωττίς'' (glōttís), derived from ''γ ...

(the space between the vocal cords) or

oral cavity A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also the first part of the alime ...

(the mouth) and either simultaneously or subsequently letting out air from the lungs. Pulmonic consonants make up the majority of consonants in the IPA, as well as in human language. All consonants in the English language fall into this category. In the audio samples below, the consonants are pronounced with for demonstration.

Pulmonic consonants

Non-pulmonic consonants

The following are the non-pulmonic consonants. They are sounds whose airflow is not dependent on the lungs. These include clicks (found in the

Khoisan languages The Khoisan languages ( ; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of Languages of Africa, African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click languages, click consonant ...

and some neighboring

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...

of Africa), implosives (found in languages such as Sindhi, Hausa, Swahili and Vietnamese), and ejectives (found in many Amerindian and Caucasian languages). Ejectives occur in about 20% of the world's languages, implosives in roughly 13%, and clicks in very few.

References

{{IPA navigation Consonant chart with audio

Pulmonic consonants

Non-pulmonic consonants

See also

References