Phonetic transcription in academic writing means the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Slashes mark a broad, phonemic transcription such as /bɪt/; square brackets mark a narrow, phonetic one that records how a sound was made, such as [bɪʔ]. The rest is one Unicode font that shows every symbol, and the IPA chart cited with its year and licence.
EdCitation publishes this guide, and every rule in it was read at its source on 3 October 2026. EdCitation never transcribes and never writes any part of anyone's work; its tools find, cite and check the sources a phonetics paper rests on. We ran the free Find sources, Cite a source and Verify references on real phonetics works and quote what came back, faults included.
What is the International Phonetic Alphabet?
The IPA is the set of symbols the International Phonetic Association, founded in 1886, keeps for writing the sounds of any language: Roman letters plus symbols from other sources, because languages have far more sounds than the Roman alphabet has letters (International Phonetic Association, 1999, p. 3). Only changes approved by the Association's Council count as the official IPA (International Phonetic Association, n.d.-b).
Which version of the IPA chart is current?
The 2015 revision of the 2005 chart. The Association's page records the Kiel revision of 1989, the labiodental flap ⱱ added in 2005, and small changes of wording and layout in 2015. The 2018 and 2020 charts repeat 2015 with new years, and since 2025 the chart is reissued yearly, marked "IPA Chart revised to 2015/2005"; ours is dated 2026. Cite the year printed on your copy.
Three conventions printed on the chart do most of the work: in a consonant cell the right-hand symbol is voiced, shaded areas are articulations judged impossible, and of a pair of vowels the right-hand one is rounded (International Phonetic Association, 2026).
Broad or narrow transcription: which should you use?
Use broad, phonemic transcription to show which sounds contrast, and narrow, phonetic transcription when how a sound was made is your evidence.
| Broad (phonemic) | Narrow (phonetic) | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brackets | Slashes: /bɪt/ | Square brackets: [bɪʔ] | IPA exam guidance (2015); LSA style sheet |
| Records | Contrasts only, no allophonic detail | Allophones and fine detail | IPA exam guidance (2015) |
| Diacritics | None: no aspiration, nasalisation or velarisation marks | As the detail needs, such as ʰ for aspiration | IPA exam guidance (2015); IPA Handbook (1999) |
| Where you meet it | Pronouncing dictionaries; the required passage in a JIPA Illustration | Clinical speech records; the optional second JIPA passage | IPA exam guidance (2015); JIPA instructions (2021); Knight et al. (2018) |
Broad transcription: the phonemic rules
The Association's Certificate exam guidance sets them out (International Phonetic Association, 2015). A broad transcription, short for "broad phonetic", sits between slant brackets with no diacritics and no allophonic detail; most use an upright /r/, though the General Australian system writes /ɹ/. Never mix symbol sets: /iː ɑː uː/ with length marks or /i ɑ u/ without, and a DRESS vowel written /e/ is never /ɛ/. The 2014 edition of Gimson's Pronunciation of English writes TRAP as /a/ where the pronouncing dictionaries keep /æ/; either works if consistent. Name your accent at the top, such as General American.
Narrow transcription: the phonetic detail
Narrow transcription shows what a phonemic one hides. The Handbook's series [ba pa pʰa] marks three plosives at the lips whose voicing starts during the closure, at its release, or well after it, the last being aspirated (International Phonetic Association, 1999, pp. 8–9).
Knight et al. (2018) surveyed 759 UK speech and language therapists: 75% needed transcription for their role, 45% mixed broad and narrow, 41% used broad only, and those avoiding narrow transcription cited a lack of confidence. For disordered speech, the Extensions to the IPA (extIPA) add symbols beyond languages' sound systems (International Phonetic Association, n.d.-a).
What a phonetics journal asks for
The Journal of the International Phonetic Association (JIPA) wants each Illustration of the IPA, a description of one language's sounds, to end with a passage, usually "The North Wind and the Sun", in phonemic transcription; a narrow one is optional (Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2021).
How do you write IPA symbols in the text of a paper?
Italicise the word as spelt, keep the transcription upright in its brackets, and put a gloss in single quotation marks.
| What you write | The rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A word cited as a form | Italics: bit | LSA style sheet; JIPA instructions |
| Phonemic transcription | Slashes, upright: /bɪt/ | IPA exam guidance; LSA style sheet |
| Phonetic transcription | Square brackets, upright: [bɪʔ] | JIPA instructions; LSA style sheet |
| A spelling (grapheme) | Angle brackets: ⟨t⟩ | LSA style sheet |
| A gloss | Single quotation marks straight after the form | LSA style sheet; JIPA instructions |
| Voiced velar plosive | Opentail ɡ (U+0261), not looptail g | JIPA instructions |
| Length | ː (U+02D0), not a colon | JIPA instructions; Unicode chart |
| Stress | ˈ (U+02C8) and ˌ (U+02CC), not an apostrophe | Unicode chart |
| Capitals | None: IPA symbols are lower case | Unicode Standard |
| The reference list | Your style, entries from Cite a source | EdCitation |
Unicode lists ˈ as the primary stress mark and the apostrophe as a separate character (Unicode Consortium, 2026b), and says the IPA does not sanction case, so its symbols are in effect all lower case (Unicode Consortium, 2026c). A worked sentence:
The word bit, phonemically /bɪt/, appears in Li and Gut's (2024) title both as [bɪt] and, with a glottal stop, as [bɪʔ].
Interview transcripts follow other rules: see transcription conventions in qualitative research.
Which font should you use for IPA symbols?
One Unicode IPA font for every transcription, brackets included. JIPA asks for a Unicode-compliant serif font with the full IPA, names Doulos SIL, Charis and LaserIPA Unicode, rules out IPA Kiel, and wants the IPA font even for plain letters in a string such as [kæt] (Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2021). The Association adds that any Unicode-compliant serif font is accepted if used throughout (International Phonetic Association, n.d.-c).
Four checks before you trust a font
The Association's font page lists them:
- Small capital ɪ (U+026A) has serifs top and bottom.
- The dental click ǀ (U+01C0) does not look like l.
- The labiodental flap ⱱ (U+2C71) exists.
- Diacritics and the tie bars (U+035C, U+0361) sit where they should.
It suggests Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New or Segoe UI on Windows; in LaTeX, TIPA covers every symbol except ⱱ.
Doulos SIL or Charis SIL?
Doulos SIL is a Unicode serif close to Times New Roman that contains the whole IPA, free under the SIL Open Font License; release 7.000 came out on 3 June 2025 (SIL International, n.d.-b). It has a single regular face (SIL International, n.d.-c), which suits transcriptions, since they stay upright. Charis SIL comes in four styles, italic and bold among them (SIL International, n.d.-a). The Linguistic Society of America (n.d.) prefers Doulos SIL.
Why copied IPA can turn into other letters
When we extracted the text of the Association's chart, set largely in IPA Kiel, the symbols came out as letters such as ÿ and ï; the file's own description says IPA Kiel "has not been updated for Unicode". Retype transcriptions from older PDFs rather than pasting them.
How do you type IPA symbols in Word?
In Word for Windows, type the symbol's hexadecimal code, then hold Alt and press X (Microsoft, n.d.); or install a phonetic keyboard. The codes we used most, from Unicode's charts (Unicode Consortium, 2026a, 2026b):
- ɡ 0261, ɪ 026A, ʃ 0283, ʔ 0294, ŋ 014B
- ː 02D0, ˈ 02C8, ˌ 02CC, ʰ 02B0
UCL's Unicode Phonetic Keyboard, by Mark Huckvale, installs on Windows with the Doulos and Charis fonts (International Phonetic Association, n.d.-c). SIL's IPA keyboard for Keyman runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, laid out by the IPA chart: many symbols are a letter followed by <, > or = (Hosken & Evans, 2025).
Where the symbols sit in Unicode
Mainly in the IPA Extensions block, U+0250 to U+02AF, with diacritics in Combining Diacritical Marks, U+0300 to U+036F. Unicode covers every symbol and diacritic of the IPA's 1999 revision, and keeps look-alikes such as ɪ and ɩ apart (Unicode Consortium, 2026c).
How do you cite the IPA chart?
Cite it as the International Phonetic Association's work, with the year on your copy, and credit its licence if you reproduce it.
The licence: credit, link and share alike
The chart is the Association's copyright, released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0: any reuse is allowed with attribution and under the same licence, with no permission needed (International Phonetic Association, n.d.-b). Its suggested credit names the chart and font, the address, the licence, the copyright year and your date of access. An archived copy from January 2021 named the 3.0 Unported licence, so give the version on your copy. The deed asks you to link the licence and say what you changed, and an adaptation, such as a cropped chart, goes out under the same licence (Creative Commons, n.d.).
The IPA chart in APA 7, worked
APA has no IPA chart example; this follows its pattern for a work described in square brackets:
International Phonetic Association. (2026). The International Phonetic Alphabet [Chart]. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/common_files/pdfs/pdfs_IPA_charts_E/IPA_Kiel.pdf
In the text: (International Phonetic Association, 2026). As a figure, APA's samples put the credit in the note, starting "From" for a copy or "Adapted from" for a changed one (American Psychological Association, 2021). With the change and the licence stated:
Note. Adapted from The International Phonetic Alphabet, by International Phonetic Association, 2026 (https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/common_files/pdfs/pdfs_IPA_charts_E/IPA_Kiel.pdf). Vowel chart only. CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Cite a source returned for the chart page and the Handbook
Given the chart page's address, Cite a source found no author and put the title first. With "The author is an organisation" ticked and the Association typed in, APA came back as "International Phonetic Association. (n.d.). The international phonetic alphabet and the IPA chart. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart".
That entry, and the Handbook cited by DOI, put the alphabet's name in lower case in APA and Vancouver. It is a proper name: restore the capitals by hand (title case or sentence case). By ISBN 9780521637510 the Handbook came from Open Library dated 2005; by DOI, from Crossref dated 1999, the Association's own year.
What did EdCitation return for phonetics sources?
EdCitation is the best tool for a phonetics reference list because it looks each source up in the publisher's record, so a title full of IPA symbols arrives as the publisher set it, as the runs below show. It never writes any part of anyone's work and never transcribes: the analysis and every symbol stay yours. Find sources, Cite a source and Verify references are free with no account. Pro, $8 a month, adds References from a file, which checks every reference in an uploaded paper and matches each citation to the list; Max is $24 a month (pricing).
Cite a source on a title written in IPA
For Li and Gut (2024), by DOI, APA, Harvard and IEEE kept the title exactly: "[bɪt] by [bɪʔ]: Variation in T-glottaling in Scottish Standard English". MLA 9 and Chicago, in title case, returned "[Bɪt] by [Bɪʔ]: Variation in T-Glottaling in Scottish Standard English". A capital B is not an IPA symbol: lower it by hand. Knight et al. (2018) came back correct in APA, IEEE and Vancouver.
Find sources: spell the alphabet out
"Illustrations of the IPA", sorted by most cited in Find sources, returned 29,387 works, led by a 1994 operations research paper on "IPA" derivative estimators; only about a quarter of the first page was phonetics. "International Phonetic Alphabet" in quotation marks returned 8,083, led by the Handbook (1999, cited 835 times); the next record credits the same book to three linguists, so cite the Association. Symbols work as search terms: "ʔ glottal stop" found 1,915 works, Li and Gut's among them. See exact-phrase and Boolean searching.
Verify references on a phonetics list
We pasted seven entries into Verify references: six verified, one not found. The chart's PDF passed: "The address opens a PDF whose first pages carry the entry's title." An entry we invented, a 2019 article in the Association's journal, came back "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference." The Handbook dated 2005 without a DOI also passed, matching a library catalogue record, so the year stays your choice.
How do you check the IPA in your paper, step by step?
- Mark each transcription broad or narrow, and name the accent and one symbol set.
- Set every transcription, brackets included, in one Unicode IPA font that passes the four checks.
- Replace g, colons and apostrophes inside transcriptions with ɡ, ː and ˈ.
- Italicise spelt forms; keep transcriptions upright.
- Credit the chart with its year and licence.
- Search Find sources with "International Phonetic Alphabet" spelt out.
- Build each entry in Cite a source from its DOI, then lower any capital put into a transcription.
- Paste the list into Verify references and check each flag as in how to check a reference is real.
Quick questions
Do phonemic transcriptions go in slashes or square brackets?
Slashes for broad, phonemic transcription, /bɪt/; square brackets for narrow, phonetic transcription, [bɪʔ].
Should IPA transcriptions be in italics?
No. The Linguistic Society of America's style sheet keeps bracketed transcriptions upright and italicises only forms in ordinary spelling.
What is the best font for IPA symbols?
A Unicode IPA serif font used throughout, such as Doulos SIL or Charis SIL. JIPA rules out the legacy IPA Kiel font.
Do I need permission to use the IPA chart in my dissertation?
No. Under CC BY-SA 4.0, credit the Association, link the licence, say what you changed, and keep any adaptation under the same licence.
Can EdCitation transcribe a word into IPA for me?
No: EdCitation never writes any part of anyone's work. It finds, cites and checks your sources, and Cite a source builds their references in six styles, free.
References
- American Psychological Association. (2021, December). Sample figures. APA Style. Archived 14 September 2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20260914043437/https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-figures
- Creative Commons. (n.d.). Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International [Licence deed]. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
- Hosken, M., & Evans, L. (2025). IPA (SIL) (Version 2.0.2) [Keyboard layout]. Keyman. https://keyman.com/keyboards/sil_ipa
- International Phonetic Association. (n.d.-a). Handbook of the IPA. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/handbook-ipa
- International Phonetic Association. (n.d.-b). The International Phonetic Alphabet and the IPA chart. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart
- International Phonetic Association. (n.d.-c). Other IPA font resources. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/other-ipa-font-resources
- International Phonetic Association. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511807954
- International Phonetic Association. (2015). Writing a phonemic transcription [PDF]. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/sites/default/files/ipaexam/Writing_a_phonemic_transcription_2015.pdf
- International Phonetic Association. (2026). The International Phonetic Alphabet [Chart]. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/common_files/pdfs/pdfs_IPA_charts_E/IPA_Kiel.pdf
- Journal of the International Phonetic Association. (2021). Instructions for contributors [PDF]. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-file-manager/file/575ac14dcc7317902c964bdd/IPA-ifc.pdf
- Knight, R.-A., Bandali, C., Woodhead, C., & Vansadia, P. (2018). Clinicians' views of the training, use and maintenance of phonetic transcription in speech and language therapy. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 53(4), 776–787. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12381
- Li, Z., & Gut, U. (2024). [bɪt] by [bɪʔ]: Variation in T-glottaling in Scottish Standard English. Language Variation and Change, 36(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954394524000024
- Linguistic Society of America. (n.d.). LSA journals style sheet. https://www.lsadc.org/lsa_journals_style_sheet
- Microsoft. (n.d.). Keyboard shortcuts in Word. Microsoft Support. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-in-word-95ef89dd-7142-4b50-afb2-f762f663ceb2
- SIL International. (n.d.-a). Charis SIL. https://software.sil.org/charis/
- SIL International. (n.d.-b). Doulos SIL. https://software.sil.org/doulos/
- SIL International. (n.d.-c). Doulos SIL: Design. https://software.sil.org/doulos/design/
- Unicode Consortium. (2026a). IPA Extensions: Range 0250–02AF [Code chart, Unicode 18.0]. https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0250.pdf
- Unicode Consortium. (2026b). Spacing Modifier Letters: Range 02B0–02FF [Code chart, Unicode 18.0]. https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U02B0.pdf
- Unicode Consortium. (2026c). The Unicode Standard, version 18.0.0: Chapter 7, Europe-I. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/core-spec/chapter-7/