About

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a set of symbols that linguists use to describe the sounds of spoken languages. This page lets you hear the sounds that the symbols represent, but remember that it is only a rough guide. There is lots of variation in how these sounds are said depending on the language and context. For example, in English voiceless plosives usually end with a puff of air called aspiration, but the voiceless plosives on this page aren't aspirated.