The International Phonetic Alphabet and the IPA Chart

The official International Phonetic Alphabet, and its organization in a chart, is maintained by the Association. As noted in our 1999 Handbook (Appendix 4), modifications have always been the result of “members making proposals for changes, which were published in the journal and voted on by the Association’s Council” (p. 196). Only changes to the alphabet or chart that have been approved by the Council can be considered part of the official IPA. For further information, please consult the Secretary.

Quick links

Download the IPA Chart in the Kiel/LS Uni font as:

• PDF file
• PNG images at different resolutions: 300ppi, 600ppi, 1200ppi
• PNG images of individual sub-charts (600ppi):
  • consonants (pulmonic)
  • consonants (non-pulmonic)
  • other symbols
  • diacritics
  • vowels
  • suprasegmentals
  • tones & word accents

The project IPA charts in four fonts offers many more versions, formats, and download options.

Origin and revisions of the IPA Chart

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has its origins in the late 19th century shortly after the Association was founded in 1886. Since then, the Alphabet has been revised several times with an important landmark being the revision made in the Convention of the International Phonetic Association held in Kiel in 1989. The most recent revisions were in 2005 when the IPA Council approved the inclusion of the labiodental flap in the chart and in 2015 when minor changes were made to the wording and layout of the chart, but otherwise it reproduced the appearance of the 2005 chart. The 2018 and 2020 versions were identical to the 2015/2005 revision with updated years and copyright symbols. Since 2025, the IPA chart is re-issued annually with a note at the bottom of the chart about the latest revision (IPA chart revised to 2015/2005) and updated copyright year and symbols at the top of the chart.

If you would like to know more about the historical revisions to the Chart, please click here for description and analysis of 1888–1951 charts, which includes scans of the original material, or the digitally remastered 1888-2005 files.

Reproduction of the International Phonetic Alphabet

The IPA Chart in IPA Kiel and all its subparts are copyrighted by the International Phonetic Association. As of July 2012, they are made freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 International Deed (CC BY-SA 4.0). This license allows any kind of re-use (including commercial reproduction and derivative works), as long as attribution is given and the reproduction or derivative work is under the same license. Please see the Creative Commons website for further description.

Attribution under this license may be made as follows:

“International Phonetic Alphabet in IPA Kiel, www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/common_files/pdfs/pdfs_IPA_charts_E/IPA_Kiel.pdf, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 International Deed. Copyright © [YYYY] International Phonetic Association. Date of access: [DDDD].”

Under this license, there is no need to request permission from the Association for reproduction or re-use. However, if you have further questions, please contact the Secretary.