Template:IPA is useful when there are multiple instances of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) on a page. It contains

<span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">{{{1}}}</span>

This means it specifies a class called "IPA" as a hook for CSS styling and DOM scripting. This allows for assigning specific fonts to display IPA characters. Registered Wikipedia users can specify their own fonts for IPA text by editing their user style sheet, e.g. Special:MyPage/common.css. Users can also edit their global stylesheet (meta:Special:MyPage/global.css), which works across all projects. MediaWiki:Common.css also ensures that links inside IPA transcriptions marked up with this template do not use underlines since these carry special semantics there. For instance, the following code would cause IPA to be displayed in the font Charis SIL:

.IPA
{ font-family: Charis SIL; }
This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; Italic textsee the monthly error report for this template.

TemplateData for IPA

This template ensures proper display of transcriptions using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), especially in older operating systems and browsers. There are related specialized templates that also semi-automatically generate the transcription itself.

Template parameters

ParameterDescriptionTypeStatus
transcription1

including square brackets [...] for phonetic transcriptions or enclosing forward slashes /.../ for phonemic ones

Stringrequired

Placing a phonemic rendering of the word characters in Template:IPA:

{{IPA|/ˈkærəktɚz/}}
{{IPA|/[[character|ˈkærəktɚz]]/}}

The result will be a span with a class attribute, like this:

<span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA">/ˈkærəktɚz/</span>

Which appears in your browser as:

/ˈkærəktɚz/
/ˈkærəktɚz/

Without template:IPA:

/ˈkærəktɚz/
/ˈkærəktɚz/

These sets may look different if you have a custom font defined for IPA text.

Please place all IPA text into the template, even if it doesn't have any special IPA characters, like this: /mi/. This will allow users to format all examples of IPA text consistently, with their choice of fonts, colours, etc.

Small text

Usage of IPA pronunciation templates

ᱥᱟᱯᱲᱟᱣ

Wikipedia offers several templates for proper display of IPA transcriptions.

In general, IPA symbols on a page should be enclosed in the {{IPA}} template, which formats the text in an IPA-producing font. If a substantial portion of a page uses IPA, it is customary to post notice of that fact with {{IPA notice}}, though each token still requires the {{IPA}} template for proper formatting.

If there are not enough occurrences to warrant a notice, then consider a template that links to an IPA key for the first instance of the IPA on a page or section.

For English words, in a broad, non-regional transcription, as when giving the pronunciation of a key word in an article, use {{IPAc-en}}, which links to Help:IPA/English, a chart of the subset of the IPA that is relevant to English, and automates the conversion to IPA, so that {{IPAc-en|'|w|3:r|d}} appears as /ˈwɜrd/. This provides mouse-over links to the symbols, and is now the preferred template.

For a specific transcription in a regional variety, use {{IPA-endia}} or {{IPA-all}}.

Non-English words

ᱥᱟᱯᱲᱟᱣ

For words that are not assimilated into English, regional pronunciations of English words, and non-standard English dialects, use templates linking to the more general Help:IPA chart, containing all major IPA symbols:

  • {{IPA-all}}, appearing as: IPA: [word]. Or:
  • For specific languages, there may be dedicated IPA keys for standardized transcription. There are several options for their display. The first cell includes the ISO code of the language; the second is the transcription; the third keys an introductory phrase; and the fourth is space for a sound file. Using the French word eau [o] as an example, we have the default format:
    • {{IPA-fr|o}}French pronunciation: ​[o]
  • Or the word "pronounced" can be used as the introduction:
    • {{IPA-fr|o|pron}}pronounced [o]
  • Language name only:
    • {{IPA-fr|o|lang}}French: [o]
  • "IPA" only:
    • {{IPA-fr|o|IPA}}IPA: [o]
  • Link only:
    • {{IPA-fr|o|}}[o]
  • Any of these may be combined with a sound file:
  • For the default introductory phrase, however, a placeholder such as “-” is required:
    • {{IPA-fr|o|-|Fr-eau.ogg}}French pronunciation: [o] (listen)
Supported languages and their templates
Key Language Template(s)
Help:IPA/Afrikaans Afrikaans {{IPA-af}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Albanian Albanian {{IPA-sq}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Alemannic German Alemannic German {{IPA-gsw}} (uses)
Colonia Tovar German {{IPA-gct}} (uses)
Swabian German {{IPA-swg}} (uses)
Walser German {{IPA-wae}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Amharic Amharic {{IPA-am}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Arabic Arabic {{IPA-ar}} (uses), {{IPAc-ar}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Armenian Armenian {{IPA-hy}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Assamese Assamese {{IPA-as}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Astur-Leonese Asturian {{IPA-ast}} (uses)
Extremaduran {{IPA-ext}} (uses)
Leonese {{IPA-le}} (uses)
Mirandese {{IPA-mwl}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Australian languages Australian Aboriginal languages {{IPA-aus}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Azerbaijani Azerbaijani {{IPA-az}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Basque Basque {{IPA-eu}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Belarusian Belarusian {{IPA-be}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Bengali Bengali {{IPA-bn}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Berber Berber {{IPA-tam}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Breton Breton {{IPA-br}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Bulgarian and Macedonian Bulgarian {{IPA-bg}} (uses)
Macedonian {{IPA-mk}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Burmese Burmese {{IPA-my}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Cantonese Cantonese {{IPA-yue}} (uses), {{IPAc-yue}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Catalan Catalan {{IPA-ca}} (uses)
Valencian {{IPA-va}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Colognian Colognian {{IPA-ksh}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Corsican Corsican {{IPA-co}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Czech Czech {{IPA-cs}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Danish Danish {{IPA-da}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Dutch Dutch {{IPA-nl}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic {{IPA-arz}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Emilian-Romagnol Emilian {{IPA-egl}} (uses)
Romagnol {{IPA-rgn}} (uses)
Help:IPA/English English {{IPAc-en}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Esperanto Esperanto {{IPA-eo}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Estonian Estonian {{IPA-et}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Fijian Fijian {{IPA-fj}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Finnish Finnish {{IPA-fi}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal {{IPA-frp}} (uses)
Help:IPA/French French {{IPA-fr}} (uses), {{IPAc-fr}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Galician Galician {{IPA-gl}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Georgian Georgian {{IPA-ka}} (uses), {{IPAc-ka}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Greek Greek {{IPA-el}} (uses), {{IPA-grc}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Gujarati Gujarati {{IPA-gu}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Haitian Creole Haitian Creole {{IPA-ht}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Hawaiian Hawaiian {{IPA-haw}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Hebrew Hebrew {{IPA-he}} (uses), {{IPAc-he}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Hejazi Arabic Hejazi Arabic {{IPA-acw}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu Hindustani {{IPA-hns}} (uses)
Hindi {{IPA-hi}} (uses)
Urdu {{IPA-ur}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Hungarian Hungarian {{IPA-hu}} (uses), {{IPAc-hu}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Icelandic Icelandic {{IPA-is}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Inuktitut Inuktitut {{IPA-iu}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Inupiaq Inupiaq {{IPA-ik}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Irish Irish {{IPA-ga}} (uses), {{IPAc-ga}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Italian Italian {{IPA-it}} (uses), {{IPAc-it}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Italian dialects Italian dialects {{IPA-itdia}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Japanese Japanese {{IPA-ja}} (uses), {{IPAc-ja}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Kazakh Kazakh {{IPA-kk}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Khmer Khmer {{IPA-km}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Korean Korean {{IPA-ko}} (uses), {{IPAc-ko}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Kurdish Kurdish {{IPA-ku}} (uses)
Northern Kurdish {{IPA-kmr}} (uses)
Central Kurdish {{IPA-ckb}} (uses)
Southern Kurdish {{IPA-sdh}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Latin Latin {{IPA-la}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Latvian Latvian {{IPA-lv}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Ligurian Ligurian {{IPA-lij}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Lithuanian Lithuanian {{IPA-lt}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Lombard Lombard {{IPA-lmo}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Luxembourgish Luxembourgish {{IPA-lb}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Malagasy Malagasy {{IPA-mg}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Malay Malay {{IPA-ms}} (uses)
Indonesian {{IPA-id}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Malayalam Malayalam {{IPA-ml}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Maltese Maltese {{IPA-mt}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Mandarin Standard Chinese {{IPA-cmn}} (uses), {{IPAc-cmn}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Manx Manx {{IPA-gv}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Māori Māori {{IPA-mi}} (uses), {{IPAc-mi}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Marshallese Marshallese {{IPA-mh}} (uses), {{IPAc-mh}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Mayan Mayan {{IPA-myn}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Mongolian Mongolian {{IPA-mn}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Nahuatl Nahuatl {{IPA-nah}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Navajo Navajo {{IPA-nv}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Neapolitan Neapolitan {{IPA-nap}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Nguni Swazi {{IPA-ss}} (uses)
Xhosa {{IPA-xh}} (uses)
Zulu {{IPA-zu}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Northern Thai Northern Thai {{IPA-nod}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Norwegian Norwegian {{IPA-no}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Occitan Occitan {{IPA-oc}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Odia Odia {{IPA-or}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Old English Old English {{IPA-ang}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Persian Persian {{IPA-fa}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Piedmontese Piedmontese {{IPA-pms}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Polish Polish {{IPA-pl}} (uses), {{IPAc-pl}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Portuguese Portuguese {{IPA-pt}} (uses), {{IPAc-pt}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Punjabi Punjabi {{IPA-pa}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Quechua Quechua {{IPA-qu}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Romanian Romanian {{IPA-ro}} (uses), {{IPAc-ro}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Romansh Romansh {{IPA-rm}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Russian Russian {{IPA-ru}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Sanskrit Sanskrit {{IPA-sa}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Sardinian Sardinian {{IPA-sc}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic {{IPA-gd}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian {{IPA-sh}} (uses)
Croatian {{IPA-hr}} (uses)
Serbian {{IPA-sr}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Shan and Tai Lue Shan {{IPA-shn}} (uses)
Tai Lue {{IPA-khb}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Sicilian Sicilian {{IPA-scn}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Slovak Slovak {{IPA-sk}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Slovene Slovene {{IPA-sl}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Spanish Spanish {{IPA-es}} (uses), {{IPAc-es}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Standard German German {{IPA-de}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Swahili Swahili {{IPA-sw}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Swedish Swedish {{IPA-sv}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien {{IPA-taiwan}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Tagalog Tagalog {{IPA-tl}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Tamil Tamil {{IPA-ta}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Tatar Tatar {{IPA-tt}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Thai and Lao Thai {{IPA-th}} (uses)
Lao {{IPA-lo}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Tibetan Tibetan {{IPA-bo}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Tigrinya Tigrinya {{IPA-ti}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic {{IPA-aeb}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Turkish Turkish {{IPA-tr}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Turkmen Turkmen {{IPA-tk}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Ukrainian Ukrainian {{IPA-uk}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Uzbek Uzbek {{IPA-uz}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Venetian Venetian {{IPA-vec}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Vietnamese Vietnamese {{IPA-vi}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Walloon Walloon {{IPA-wa}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Welsh Welsh {{IPA-cy}} (uses)
Help:IPA/West Frisian West Frisian {{IPA-fy}} (uses)
Help:IPA/Yiddish Yiddish {{IPA-yi}} (uses)

Languages without dedicated keys

ᱥᱟᱯᱲᱟᱣ

Templates have been created for languages which do not yet have dedicated key pages. Transcriptions which use these templates will link to Help:IPA for the time being; when a language-specific key is created the templates will be linked accordingly. For example, you can use {{IPA-jv|word}} for Javanese, but for the moment it will link to Help:IPA, producing Javanese pronunciation: [word].

Languages and language extensions (IPA-xx) with links to Help:IPA

Conversion to IPA

ᱥᱟᱯᱲᱟᱣ

The template {{x2i}} takes X-SAMPA symbols (ASCII equivalents of IPA symbols) and converts them to IPA.

Other language-specific templates allow you to enter ordinary letters (or conventional ASCII equivalents) in place of IPA characters, and they will be automatically converted to the phonetic symbols that are used to transcribe the language. The templates that are currently available are shown below, with examples:

Arabic, {{IPAc-ar}} {{IPAc-ar|2|a|l|l|u|gh|a|t_|a|l|3|a|r|a|b|i|y|y|a}}[[Help:IPA/Arabic|[[[:ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-ar]]ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-arᱞᱩᱣ ᱦᱩᱲᱟᱹᱜ: expandTemplate: template "C-ar" does not exist]]]
Cantonese, {{IPAc-yue}} {{IPAc-yue|h|ung|2|.|z|i|2}}[[Help:IPA/Cantonese|[[[:ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-yue]]ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-yueᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-yueᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-yueᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-yue]]]
English, {{IPAc-en}} {{IPAc-en|,|{|l|@|'|b|{|m|@}} /ˌæləˈbæmə/
French, {{IPAc-fr}} {{IPAc-fr|j|@|-|s|U|i|s_|a|m|é|r|i|c|ain}}[ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-frᱞᱩᱣ ᱦᱩᱲᱟᱹᱜ: expandTemplate: template "c-fr" does not exist]
Georgian, {{IPAc-ka}} {{IPAc-ka|dz|a|l|a|_|e|r|t|o|b|a|sh|i|a}}[d͡zɑlɑ ɛrɔbɑʃiɑ]
Hebrew, {{IPAc-he}} {{IPAc-he|y|a|ʿ|a|k|o|v}}ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:IPAc-he
Hungarian, {{IPAc-hu}} {{IPAc-hu|'|m|a|gy|a|r}}[[Help:IPA/Hungarian|[[[:ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-hu]]ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-huᱞᱩᱣ ᱦᱩᱲᱟᱹᱜ: expandTemplate: template "c-hu" does not exist]]]
Irish, {{IPAc-ga}} {{IPAc-ga|'|b|ai|l'|@|-|'|á|th|@|-|'|c'|l'|ia|th}}ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:IPAc-ga
Italian, {{IPAc-it}} {{IPAc-it|'|ì|o|_|'|s|o|:|n|o|_|a|m|e|r|i|'|c|a|:|n|o}}[ˈio ˈsoːno ameriˈkaːno]
Japanese, {{IPAc-ja}} {{IPAc-ja|ku|ro|si|o}}[[Help:IPA/Japanese|[[[:ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-ja]]ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-jaᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-jaᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-ja]]]
Korean, {{IPAc-ko}} {{IPAc-ko|h|a|ng|eo}}[[Help:IPA/Korean|[[[:ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-ko]]ᱞᱩᱣ ᱦᱩᱲᱟᱹᱜ: expandTemplate: template "C-ko" does not exist]]]
Mandarin, {{IPAc-cmn}} {{IPAc-cmn|zh|ong|1|h|ua|2|-|r|en|2|m|in|2|-|g|ong|4|h|e|2|g|uo|2}}[ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ ɻə̌nmǐn kʊ̂ŋxɤ̌kwǒ]
Māori, {{IPAc-mi}} {{IPAc-mi|ng|ā|r|u|a|'|w|ā|h|i|a}}[ŋɾʉaˈwhia]
Marshallese, {{IPAc-mh}} {{IPAc-mh|m|yay|J|^yeh|r|how|ow}}[Script error: No such module "IPAc2-mh".]
Polish, {{IPAc-pl}} {{IPAc-pl|'|sz|cz|e|ć|i|n}}[[Help:IPA/Polish|[[[:ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pl]]ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-plᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-plᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-plᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-plᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-plᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pl]]]
Portuguese, {{IPAc-pt}} {{IPAc-pt|p|o|<|r|t|u|'|g|a|l|lang=pt}} and {{IPAc-pt|b|r|a|'|S|i|l|lang=br}}[ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-ptᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-pt] and [ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-brᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-brᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-brᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-brᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-brᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-brᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-pt-br]
Romanian, {{IPAc-ro}} {{IPAc-ro|ˈ|m|U|n|ț|ii|_|f|ă|G|ă|ˈ|r|a|ș|U|l|U|i}}[ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-roᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-ro]
Spanish, {{IPAc-es}} {{IPAc-es|m|i|'|gu|e|l|_|d|e|_|c|e|r|'|v|a|n|t|e|s|_|s|aa|'|v|e|d|r|a}}[ᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-esᱪᱷᱟᱸᱪ:C-es]

The following templates have also been created, but they haven't been vetted by the community and may not work properly: