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Easily confused phonetic symbols

Be careful not to confuse

• θ and ɵ
  voiceless dental fricative (U+03B8); rounded schwa (U+0275)
  The first (the theta symbol) is in the Basic Greek block
• ɣ and ɤ
  voiced velar fricative (U+0263); close-mid back unrounded vowel, cardinal 15 (U+0264)
• ɑ and a
  back open vowel, cardinal 5 (U+0251); front open vowel, cardinal 4 (ASCII)
• ə and ɘ
  schwa (U+0259); close-mid central unrounded vowel (U+0258)
• ɫ and ɬ
  voiced velarized alveolar lateral, dark l (U+026B); voiceless alveolar lateral fricative (U+026C)
• ŋ and ɧ
  voiced velar nasal (U+014B); voiceless post-alveolar-velar fricative (U+0267)

The velar nasal symbol is in the Latin Extended-A block

Do not use capitals (upper-case) instead of small (lower-case). Be careful to write

• ɪ not I
  lax close front unrounded vowel (U+026A); (ASCII)
• ʊ not Ʊ
  lax close back rounded vowel (U+028A); (U+01B1)
• ɛ not Ɛ
  open-mid front unrounded vowel, cardinal 3 (U+025B); (U+0190)
• ɔ not Ɔ
  open-mid back rounded vowel, cardinal 6 (U+0254); (U+0186)
• ə not Ə
  schwa (U+0259); (U+018F)
• ʒ not Ʒ
  voiced post-alveolar fric. (U+0292); (U+01B7)
• θ not Θ or Ɵ
  voiceless dental fric. (U+03B8); (U+0398, U+019F)

Except for the theta (which is in the Greek block), the correct symbols are in the IPA Extensions block.

Do not use Greek letters instead of IPA symbols

• voiced bilabial fricative = beta β U+03B2,
• voiceless dental fricative = theta θ U+03B8
• voiceless uvular fricative = chi χ U+03C7).

Be careful to write

• ɑ not α
  unrounded back open vowel (U+0251); alpha (U+03B1)
• ɣ not γ
  voiced velar fricative (U+0263); gamma (U+03B3)
• ð not δ
  voiced dental fricative (U+00F0); delta (U+03B4)
• ɛ not ε
  unrounded open-mid front vowel (U+025B); epsilon (U+03B5)
• ŋ not η
  voiced velar nasal (U+014B); eta (U+03B7)
• ʃ not ʅ
  voiceless postalveolar fricative (U+0283); retroflex apical vowel (U+0285)


in the Basic Greek block


in the Latin Extended-A block


in the IPA Extensions block

Last modified 2004 11 19