Arpabet is a phonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds . The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet....

 code developed by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) as a part of their Speech Understanding Project (1971–1976). It represents each phoneme

Phoneme

In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....

 of General American English with a distinct sequence of ASCII

ASCII

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...

 characters. Arpabet has been used in several speech synthesizers, like SAM for the Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

, Say for the Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

 and TextAssist for the PC

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

. It is also used in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary is a public domain pronouncing dictionary created by Carnegie Mellon University . It is used as the American lexicon for the Festival Speech Synthesis System and also for the CMU Sphinx speech recognition system...

.

Symbols

In Arpabet, every phoneme is represented by one or two capital letters. Digits are used as stress

Stress (linguistics)

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...

 indicators and are placed at the end of the stressed syllabic vowel

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

. Punctuation marks are used like in the written language, to represent intonation changes at the end of clauses and sentences

Sentences

The Four Books of Sentences is a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the twelfth century. It is a systematic compilation of theology, written around 1150; it derives its name from the sententiae or authoritative statements on biblical passages that it gathered together.-Origin and...

. The stress values are:

Stress

Value	Description
0	No stress Unstressed vowel In English, vowel reduction is the centralization and weakening of an unstressed vowel, such as the characteristic change of many vowels at the ends of words to schwa. Stressed vowels are never reduced in English.-Reduced vowels :...
1	Primary stress
2	Secondary stress Secondary stress Secondary stress is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word; the stronger degree of stress is called 'primary'. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for secondary stress is a short vertical line preceding and at the foot of the stressed syllable: the nun in ...

Vowels

Monophthong

Monophthong

A monophthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation....

s

Arpabet	IPA	Word examples
AO	ɔ	off (AO1 F); fall (F AO1 L); frost (F R AO1 S T)
AA	ɑ	father (F AA1 DH ER), cot (K AA1 T)
IY	i	bee (B IY1); she (SH IY1)
UW	u	you (Y UW1); new (N UW1); food (F UW1 D)
EH	ɛ	red (R EH1 D); men (M EH1 N)
IH	ɪ	big (B IH1 G); win (W IH1 N)
UH	ʊ	should (SH UH1 D), could (K UH1 D)
AH	ʌ	but (B AH1 T), sun (S AH1 N)
	ə	sofa (S OW1 F AH0), alone (AH0 L OW1 N)
AX		discus (D IH1 S K AX0 S); note distinction from discuss (D IH0 S K AH1 S)
AE	æ	at (AE1 T); fast (F AE1 S T)

Diphthong

Diphthong

A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...

s

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
EY	eɪ	say (S EY1); eight (EY1 T)
AY	aɪ	my (M AY1); why (W AY1); ride (R AY1 D)
OW	oʊ	show (SH OW1); coat (K OW1 T)
AW	aʊ	how (HH AW1); now (N AW1)
OY	ɔɪ	boy (B OY1); toy (T OY1)

R-colored vowel

R-colored vowel

In phonetics, an R-colored or rhotic vowel is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant...

s

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
ER	ɝ	her (HH ER0); bird (B ER1 D); hurt (HH ER1 T), nurse (N ER1 S)
	ɚ	father (F AA1 DH ER); coward (K AW1 ER D)
EH R	ɛr	air (EH1 R); where (W EH1 R); hair (HH EH1 R)
UH R	ʊr	cure (K Y UH1 R); bureau (B Y UH1 R OW0), detour (D IH0 T UH1 R)
AO R	ɔr	more (M AO1 R); bored (B AO1 R D); chord (K AO1 R D)
AA R	ɑr	large (L AA1 R JH); hard (HH AA1 R D)
IH R or IY R	ɪr	ear (IY1 R); near (N IH1 R)
AW R	aʊr	This seems to be a rarely used r-controlled vowel. In some dialects flower (F L AW1 R; in other dialects F L AW1 ER0)

Consonants

Stops

Stop consonant

In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
P	p	pay (P EY1)
B	b	buy (B AY1)
T	t	take (T EY1 K)
D	d	day (D EY1)
K	k	key (K IY1)
G	ɡ	go (G OW1)

Affricates

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
CH	tʃ	chair (CH EH1 R)
JH	dʒ	just (JH AH1 S T); gym (JH IH1 M)

Fricatives

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
F	f	for (F AO1 R)
V	v	very (V EH1 R IY0)
TH	θ	thanks (TH AE1 NG K S); Thursday (TH ER1 Z D EY2)
DH	ð	that (DH AE1 T); the (DH AH0); them (DH EH1 M)
S	s	say (S EY1)
Z	z	zoo (Z UW1)
SH	ʃ	show (SH OW1)
ZH	ʒ	measure (M EH1 ZH ER0); pleasure (P L EH1 ZH ER)
HH	h	house (HH AW1 S)

Nasals

Nasal consonant

A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
M	m	man (M AE1 N)
N	n	no (N OW1)
NG	ŋ	sing (S IH1 NG)

Liquids

Liquid consonant

In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
L	l	late (L EY1 T)
R	r or ɹ	run (R AH1 N)
DX	ɾ	wetter (W EH DX AXR)

Semivowel

Semivowel

In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...

s

Arpabet	IPA	Word Examples
Y	j	yes (Y EH1 S)
W	w	way (W EY1)
(missing)	hw or ʍ	"when" etc. in some dialects

See also

Other ASCII phonetic codes:

• SAMPA
  SAMPA
  The Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a computer-readable phonetic script using 7-bit printable ASCII characters, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet ....
  
  , language-specific
  • X-SAMPA
    X-SAMPA
    The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and extend SAMPA to cover the entire range of characters in the...
    
    , encoding the whole International Phonetic Alphabet
    International Phonetic Alphabet
    The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
    
    
• WorldBet
  WorldBet
  WorldBet is an ASCII encoding of the International Phonetic Alphabet with additional symbols. One of its aims is to provide more non-English symbols, such as clicks, than earlier ASCII-mappings do ....