The BG Language Creation Guide

SAMPA Reference

Here in another form are the consonant and vowel segments of English along with a few example words.
Symbol Example Word Place/Manner/voicing Note
[p ] pie voiceless bilabial stop
[b ] buy voiced bilabial stop
[m ] my voiced bilabial nasal
[f ] fat voiceless labio-dental fricative
[v ] vat voiced labio-dental fricative
[T ] thigh, thick, breath voiceless interdental fricative Spelled in orthography with a th; written as a theta in IPA
[D ] thy, them, breathe voiced interdental fricative Spelled in orthography with a th; written as an ethe in IPA
[t ] tip voiceless alveolar stop
[d ] dip voiced alveolar stop
[s ] sip voiceless alveolar fricative
[z ] zip voiced alveolar fricative
[n ] nip voiced alveolar nasal Don't confuse this with [N] (below(.
[l ] lip voiced alveolar (lateral) liquid Some of you may notice your [l] segment is made without the tongue touching the alveolar ridge at least sometimes. We discussed these velarized or 'dark' [l] realizations in class.
[S ] ship, fresher, flash voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative Note this differs from [s] above. Written in IPA as a long 's'. Note there is no h' sound in the example words here. the [S] sound has nothing to do with an [h] sound.
[Z ] genre, measure, beige voiced alveolo-palatal fricative this is not a frequent sound in English and is often confused with [S]. We discussed with in class as the 'hover craft' sound.
[tS ] choke, church voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate Written as 'ch' in orthography. Often confused with [S] when transcribing. This is written as two symbols because it is two sounds pushed together: the stop [t] and the fricative [S]
[dZ ] joy, judge voiced alveolo-palatal affricate don't transcribe this as a j.
[r ] rip, dear voiced palatal or retroflex () liquid Do not confuse this with [r=]: a sound that is more a vowel than a consonant. contrast [fri] 'free' and [fr=i] 'furry'.
[j ] yellow, gray voiced palatal glide This is generally written in orthography as 'y'. Do not use [j] to represent the affricate in 'jelly' or 'judge'
[w ] wick, cow voiced labio-velar glide This is labio because the lips are rounded and velar because the back of the tongue raises toward the velum. ,/td>
[k ] coat voiceless velar stop
[g ] goat voiced velar stop
[N ] ping, rang voiced velar nasal this is written generally in orthography as a 'ng' but there is not [g] sound actually made. Don't confuse this with [n] (above).
[h ] hip voiceless glottal fricative
[? ] hu'u, o'oh glottal stop
[i ] beat high, front, tense vowel
[I ] bit high, front, lax vowel
[ej ] bate mid, front, tense vowel Without the [j], this ounds like the Canadian 'eh'?
[E ] bet mid front, lax vowel
[{ ] bat low, front, lax vowel Do not confuse this with [a]
[u ] boot high, back, tense vowel This is [u] as in [ful] 'fool', not [ju] as in [fju] 'few'.
[U ] put high, back, lax vowel this is [U] is in [lUk] 'look, not [lVk] 'luck' or [luk] 'Luke'.
[ow ] boat mid, back, tense vowel This is not the diphthong vowel in the word 'cow' or 'house'. without the [w] glide, this is the 'o' sound characteristic of Jamaica or some parts of the northern US.
[O ] caught mid, back, lax vowel Not all of you have a difference between this vowel and [a] (below). Pronounce the two names 'Dawn' and Don'. If they sound different, this is the one in 'dawn'. It is written in IPA as a backward c.
[a ] cot low, back vowel Not all of you have a difference between this vowel and [O] (above). Pronounce the two names 'Dawn' and Don'. If they sound different, this is the one in 'don'.
[ V ] and [ @ ] cut, above, luck mid lax central [V] is used in stressed and [@] in unstressed syllables. This sound is called schwa.
[aj] buy, pride diphthong This is frequently written in orthography as 'i, then a consonant then a silent 'e''
[aw] cow, loud diphthong This is frequently written in orthography as 'ow'
[Oj] soy, join diphthong This is frequently written in orthography as 'oy' or 'oi'.