Phonetic symbols for consonants
(as commonly used for languages of Mexico)

Click on any of the phonetic symbols to hear the consonant sound it represents between two vowels, e.g. p. (The sound files average about 40 Kb in size and may take a few seconds to download.) Click on the technical terms to read a definition. See further notes below.

Symbols for other points of articulation

Notes

Consonants are classified primarily according to place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. (See the diagram of places of articulation.)

The consonant symbols presented here are primarily those used by linguists in the Americas (rather than those of the International Phonetic Alphabet), partly because this is the dominant practice for describing languages of Mexico, and partly because the Americanist symbols are easier to represent in web pages. (For this reason, too, an ordinary r is often used for a flapped r in place of the r-wedge listed above, when it is the only r-like sound in a language.) These are also the symbols normally used for phonetic transcription on other pages on the SIL-Mexico website, although some authors prefer to use the IPA or even a mixture of symbols from the two systems.

Most of the materials published in indigenous languages of Mexico are not published in phonetic transcription but in a practical orthography, which, besides reflecting the sound system of the language, must also take into account the practical requirements of typewriters, the preferences of native speakers, and other factors. (For further information, see How the Summer Institute of Linguistics has developed orthographies for indigenous languages of Mexico.) The consonant symbols in practical orthographies in Mexico are usually selected from the Spanish alphabet whenever possible. Glottal stop is usually represented by an enlarged straight apostrophe () called in Spanish a saltillo. Underlining may be used to represent various modifications to basic consonants (especially length). Occasionally other symbols are used, including some of the above.

See also:

• Diagram: The principal organs of articulation
• Diagram: Places of articulation (consonants)
• Diagram: Phonetic symbols for vowels
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (website of the International Phonetic Association)
• The sounds of the IPA available on CD or cassette
• Materiales para la enseñanza de la fonética general (website of SIL International, in Spanish)
• Online Phonetics Course (website of the Linguistics Department, University of Lausanne)
• Pullum, Geoffrey K., and William A. Ladusaw. 1996. Phonetic symbol guide, second edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

(Part of the Electronic glossary of linguistic terms
by J. Albert Bickford and David Tuggy)

© 2005 Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C.
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