# SAMPA > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/SAMPA > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/SAMPA.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAMPA > Source revision: 1344255958 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Computer-readable phonetic script For other uses, see [Sampa](/source/Sampa_(disambiguation)). This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (May 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The **Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet** (**SAMPA**) is a computer-readable phonetic script using 7-bit printable [ASCII](/source/ASCII) characters, based on the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) (IPA). It was originally developed in the late 1980s for six European languages by the [EEC](/source/European_Economic_Community) [ESPRIT](/source/European_Strategic_Program_on_Research_in_Information_Technology) information technology research and development program. As many symbols as possible have been taken over from the IPA; where this is not possible, other signs that are available are used, e.g. [@] for [schwa](/source/Schwa) (IPA [ə]), [2] for [ø] (the vowel sound found in [French](/source/French_phonology) *deux* ('two')), and [9] for [œ] (the vowel sound found in French *neuf* ('nine')). For example, the characters [**s{mp@**] represent the pronunciation of the name SAMPA in English (in IPA, [/sæmpə/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English)). Like IPA, SAMPA is usually enclosed in [square brackets](/source/Bracket) or [slashes](/source/Slash_(punctuation)), which are not part of the alphabet proper and merely signify that it is phonetic as opposed to regular text. ## Languages Today, officially, SAMPA has been developed for all the sounds of the following languages: - [Arabic](/source/Arabic_language) - [Bulgarian](/source/Bulgarian_language) - [Cantonese](/source/Cantonese) - [Czech](/source/Czech_language) - [Danish](/source/Danish_language) - [Dutch](/source/Dutch_language) - [English](/source/English_language) - [Estonian](/source/Estonian_language) - [French](/source/French_language) - [German](/source/German_language) - [Greek](/source/Greek_language) - [Hebrew](/source/Hebrew_language) - [Hungarian](/source/Hungarian_language) - [Italian](/source/Italian_language) - [Norwegian](/source/Norwegian_language) - [Polish](/source/Polish_language) - [Portuguese](/source/Portuguese_language) - [Romanian](/source/Romanian_language) - [Russian](/source/Russian_language) - [Scots](/source/Scots_language) - [Serbo-Croatian](/source/Serbo-Croatian) - [Slovak](/source/Slovak_language) - [Slovenian](/source/Slovenian_language) - [Spanish](/source/Spanish_language) - [Swedish](/source/Swedish_language) - [Thai](/source/Thai_language) - [Turkish](/source/Turkish_language) ## Features SAMPA was developed in the late 1980s in the [European Commission](/source/European_Commission)-funded [ESPRIT](/source/European_Strategic_Program_on_Research_in_Information_Technology) project 2589 "Speech Assessment Methods" (SAM)—hence "SAM Phonetic Alphabet"—in order to facilitate email data exchange and computational processing of transcriptions in phonetics and speech technology. SAMPA is a partial [encoding](/source/Encoding) of the [IPA](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). The first version of SAMPA was the union of the sets of phoneme codes for Danish, Dutch, English, French, German and Italian; later versions extended SAMPA to cover other European languages. Since SAMPA is based on phoneme inventories, each SAMPA table is valid only in the language it was created for. In order to make this [IPA](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) encoding technique universally applicable, [X-SAMPA](/source/X-SAMPA) was created, which provides *one single table* without language-specific differences. SAMPA was devised as a [hack](/source/Hack_(technology_slang)) to work around the inability of [text encodings](/source/Text_encoding) to represent IPA symbols. Consequently, as [Unicode](/source/Unicode) support for IPA symbols becomes more widespread, the necessity for a separate, computer-readable system for representing the IPA in ASCII decreases. However, text input relies on specific keyboard encodings or input devices. For this reason, SAMPA and X-SAMPA are still widely used[1][*[better source needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Questionable_sources)*] in computational phonetics and in speech technology. ## See also - [Comparison of ASCII encodings of the International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/Comparison_of_ASCII_encodings_of_the_International_Phonetic_Alphabet) - [SAMPA chart](/source/SAMPA_chart) - [SAMPA chart for English](/source/SAMPA_chart_for_English), a concise version - [X-SAMPA](/source/X-SAMPA), a language-independent notation similar to SAMPA, but covering the entire IPA repertoire - [BABEL Speech Corpus](/source/BABEL_Speech_Corpus) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Project Euphonia's Personalized Speech Recognition for Non-Standard Speech"](http://ai.googleblog.com/2019/08/project-euphonias-personalized-speech.html). *Google AI Blog*. Retrieved 2019-08-16. ## Bibliography - Ranchhod, Elisabeth & J. Mamede, Nuno (2002). *Advances in Natural Language Processing: Third International Conference, PorTAL 2002, Faro, Portugal, June 23–26, 2002. Proceedings ([Lecture Notes in Computer Science](/source/Lecture_Notes_in_Computer_Science))*. (1st ed.). Springer. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [3-540-43829-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/3-540-43829-7). - L. DeMiller, Anna & Rettig, James (2000). *Linguistics: A Guide to the Reference Literature* (2nd ed.). Libraries Unlimited. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-56308-619-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-56308-619-0). - Lamberts, Koen & Goldstone, Rob (2004). *Handbook of Cognition*. Sage Publications Ltd. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7619-7277-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7619-7277-3). ## External links Look up ***[SAMPA](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/SAMPA)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. - [SAMPA computer readable phonetic alphabet](http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/home.htm) - [Phonemic notation of English in SAMPA](http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/english.htm) - [SAMPA for Scots](http://www.scots-online.org/airticles/phonetics.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20030811202058/http://www.scots-online.org/airticles/phonetics.htm) 2003-08-11 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) - [Converter](http://familientagebuch.de/rainer/2007/38.html#4) from (German) written text to SAMPA and IPA (Ajax-application) - [IPA-SAMPA Converter](http://www.lfsag.unito.it/ipa/converter_en.html) and [IPA-SAMPA chart](http://www.lfsag.unito.it/ipa/index_en.html) v t e International Phonetic Alphabet (chart) IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Special topics Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects Encodings ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Usenet ASCII-IPA TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille Consonants Pulmonic consonants Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal Manner ↓ Bi­labial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Post­alveolar Retro­flex (Alve­olo-)​palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn­geal/epi­glottal Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ̊ ɱ n̼ n̪̊ n̪ n̥ n n̠̊ n̠ ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate t̪s̪ d̪z̪ ts dz t̠ʃ d̠ʒ tʂ dʐ tɕ dʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v t̪θ d̪ð tɹ̝̊ dɹ̝ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡʜ ʡʢ ʔh Sibilant fricative s̪ z̪ s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̠ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ɻ̊˔ ɻ˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ Approximant β̞ ʋ ð̞ ɹ ɹ̠ ɻ j ɰ ˷ Tap/flap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮ Trill ʙ̥ ʙ r̥ r r̠ ɽ̊r̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ tꞎ d𝼅 c𝼆 ɟʎ̝ k𝼄 ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ̪ ɬ ɮ ꞎ 𝼅 𝼆 ʎ̝ 𝼄 ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̪ l̥ l l̠ ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ̥ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral tap/flap ɺ̥ ɺ 𝼈̊ 𝼈 ʎ̮ ʟ̆ IPA help audio full chart template Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible. Non-pulmonic consonants BL LD D A PA RF P V U Implosive Voiced ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ Voiceless ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̊ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥ Ejective Stop pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ Affricate p̪fʼ t̪θʼ tsʼ t̠ʃʼ tʂʼ tɕʼ kxʼ qχʼ Fricative ɸʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ Lateral affricate tɬʼ c𝼆ʼ k𝼄ʼ q𝼄ʼ Lateral fricative ɬʼ Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular) Tenuis kʘ qʘ kǀ qǀ kǃ qǃ k𝼊 q𝼊 kǂ qǂ Voiced ɡʘ ɢʘ ɡǀ ɢǀ ɡǃ ɢǃ ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊 ɡǂ ɢǂ Nasal ŋʘ ɴʘ ŋǀ ɴǀ ŋǃ ɴǃ ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊 ŋǂ ɴǂ ʞ Tenuis lateral kǁ qǁ Voiced lateral ɡǁ ɢǁ Nasal lateral ŋǁ ɴǁ IPA help audio full chart template Co-articulated consonants Nasal n͡m Labial–alveolar ɳ͡m Labial–retroflex ŋ͡m Labial–velar Plosive t͡p d͡b Labial–alveolar ʈ͡p ɖ͡b Labial–retroflex k͡p ɡ͡b Labial–velar q͡ʡ Uvular–epiglottal q͡p Labial–uvular Fricative/approximant ɥ̊ ɥ Labialized palatal ʍ w Labialized velar ɧ Sj-sound (variable) Lateral approximant ɫ Velarized alveolar Implosive ɠ̊͜ɓ̥ ɠ͡ɓ Labial–velar Ejective t͡pʼ Labial–alveolar IPA help full chart template Other Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless upper-pharyngeal plosive [ʡ̟] Voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive [ʡ̟̬] Bilabial percussive [ʬ] Bidental percussive [ʭ] Sublaminal lower-alveolar percussive [¡] Vowels Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ IPA help audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [SAMPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAMPA) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAMPA?action=history)). 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