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eSpeak NG is an open source speech synthesizer that supports more than hundred languages and accents.
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Phonemes

Evan Kirshenbaum created an ASCII transcription of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)[1], [2]. As well as using ASCII characters for specific IPA phonemes, this transcription provides a set of 3-letter feature abbreviations allowing a phoneme to be described as a sequence of features.

This document describes the IPA phonemes using the features used by Kirshenbaum. Where Kirshenbaum does not specify a feature name, the feature name from Cainteoir Text-to-Speech[5] is used. This is to provide a consistent naming scheme for the extended feature set. Where there is still no feature available, a custom 3-letter feature name is chosen.

The aim of the feature set described in this document is to specify the underlying phonetics and phonemics of the sounds being produced in a way that is consistent between languages and voices. While this feature set is modelled on the IPA, it is not meant to be able to preserve phoneme transcriptions when using a transcription as both the input and output phoneme sets. This document provides commentary on the intended usage of these features where there is ambiguity from the associated IPA usage between authors.

This document is grouped into two sections. The first section displays the IPA charts using the feature names instead of their names, showing the IPA phoneme at that position in the chart. This makes it easier to look up the features for a given IPA phoneme.

The second section lists the features and their associated name. This section does not describe what these mean. Their meaning is described in phonetics articles, books and Wikipedia. The Wikipedia IPA[4] article can be used as a starting point, as it links to topics and descriptions of the various phonemes.

The diacritics and suprasegmental feature lists also show their corresponding IPA symbol. This is to avoid duplicating the lists in the IPA chart and Feature sections.

IPA Charts

Consonants (Pulmonic)

blb lbd dnt alv pla rfx alp pal vel uvl phr glt
nas m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ
stp pb td ʈɖ cɟ kɡ qɢ ʔ
frc ɸβ fv θð sz ʃʒ ʂʐ ɕʑ çʝ xɣ χʁ ħʕ hɦ
apr ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ
flp ⱱ ɾ ɽ
trl ʙ r ʀ
lat frc ɬɮ
lat apr l ɭ ʎ ʟ

Symbols to the left are vls, and to the right are vcd.

Consonants (Non-Pulmonic)

blb lbd dnt alv pla rfx pal vel uvl phr glt
clk ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ
lat clk ǁ
vcd imp ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
ejc pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ
ejc frc fʼ θʼ sʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ xʼ χʼ
lat ejc frc ɬʼ

Other Symbols

Symbol Features
ʍ vls lbv apr
w vcd lbv apr
ɥ vcd lbp apr
ʜ vls epg frc
ʢ vcd epg frc
ʡ vls epg stp
ɺ vcd alv lat flp
ɧ vls vzd pla frc

Vowels

fnt cnt bck
hgh iy ɨʉ ɯu
smh ɪʏ ʊ
umd eø ɘɵ ɤo
mid ə
lmd ɛœ ɜɞ ʌɔ
sml æ ɐ
low aɶ ɑɒ

Symbols to the left are unr, and to the right are rnd.

NOTE: The smh vowels are more cnt than the other vowels. However, this distinction is not needed to classify these vowels, so is not included in the above table.

Features

Consonants

Voicing

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
vcd vcd voiced
vls vls voiceless

Place of Articulation

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
blb blb bilabial
lbd lbd labio-dental
dnt dnt dental
alv alv alveolar
pla pla post-alveolar (palato-alveolar)
rfx rfx retroflex
alp alveolo-palatal
pal pal palatal
vel vel velar
uvl uvl uvular
phr phr pharyngeal
epg epiglottal
glt glt glottal
Co-articulation
Feature Kirshenbaum Name
lbv lbv labial-velar
lbp labial-palatal

Manner of Articulation

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
stp stp plosive (stop)
nas nas nasal
trl trl trill
flp flp tap/flap
frc frc fricative
apr apr approximant
clk clk click
ejc ejc ejective
imp imp implosive

The following features can be combined with other manners of articulation:

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
lat lat lateral

Vowels

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
vwl vwl vowel

Height

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
hgh hgh close (high)
smh smh near-close (semi-high)
umd umd close-mid (upper-mid)
mid mid mid
lmd lmd open-mid (lower-mid)
sml near-open (semi-low)
low low open (low)

Backness

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
fnt fnt front
cnt cnt center
bck bck back

Rounding

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
unr unr unrounded
rnd rnd rounded

Diacritics

Syllabicity

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
syl syl ◌̩ syllabic
nsy ◌̯ non-syllabic

Consonant Release

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
asp asp ◌ʰ aspirated
nrs ◌ⁿ nasal release
lrs ◌ˡ lateral release
unx unx ◌̚ no audible release (unexploded)

NOTE: The nrs and lrs features are not defined in Cainteoir Text-to-Speech.

Gemination

Gemination is found in several languages including Italian and Japanese. It is also present in the suprasegmental phonology between words such as “lamppost” and “evenness”.

Some linguists use the long suprasegmental for geminate consonants. The eSpeak NG convention is to use consonant length for phonation when consonant length is distinct without gemination occurring.

The way gemination is represented in eSpeak NG is to duplicate the phonemes, with the first phoneme using the unx feature. For example, n̚.n for a geminated n. This describes how with the stp and nas consonants, the mouth remains closed (unx) for the first of the geminated consonants.

Phonation

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
brv ◌̤ breathy voiced
crv ◌̰ creaky voiced
fts ◌͈ fortis
lns ◌͉ lenis

The IPA ◌̬ and ◌̥ diacritics (voiced and voiceless) are used for both filling spaces in the IPA consonants chart and making the distinction between fortis and lenis consonants. Cainteoir Text-to-Speech uses slv (slack voice) and stv (stiff voice) for these diacritics. For eSpeak NG, these diacritics are only used for controlling their voiced/voiceless property (and thus their position on the IPA code chart), so vls and vcd are used for these diacritics.

The extended IPA[7] ◌͈ and ◌͉ diacritics are used to specify lesser (lns) and greater (fts) oral pressure than the unmodified voiced or voiceless phoneme. This distinction is made by the Ewe, Tabasaran, Archi, and other languages[8].

Where fortis and lenis are used to contrast consonant durations (e.g. in the Jawoyn, Ojibwe, and Zurich German languages[8]), the length suprasegmentals are used instead.

Articulation

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
dzd ◌̪ dental
apc ◌̺ apical
lmn ◌̻ laminal
lgl ◌̼ linguolabial

The following IPA diacritics are only used by eSpeak NG to fill out positions in the IPA consonant and vowel charts. As such those phonemes are transcribed according to the features at that position, not using the features at the location of the base phoneme with a feature for each of the positioning diacritics.

IPA Name
◌̟ advanced
◌̠ retracted
◌̈ centralized
◌̽ mid-centralized
◌̝ raised
◌̞ lowered

Co-articulation

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
mrd ◌̹ more rounded
lrd ◌̜ less rounded
lzd lzd ◌ʷ labialized or labio-velarized
pzd pzd ◌ʲ palatalized
vzd vzd ◌ˠ velarized
fzd fzd ◌ˤ pharyngealized
atr ◌̘ advanced tongue root
rtr ◌̙ retracted tongue root
nzd nzd ◌̃ nasalized
rzd rzd ◌˞ rhoticized

NOTE: The IPA supports ◌̴ for velarized or pharynealized consonants. Unicode has deprecated this combining character, while keeping the combined forms. As such, only the combined forms are supported, using the fzd feature. Cainteoir Text-to-Speech uses vfz for this combining character, but eSpeak NG does not preserve the distinction between ◌ˤ and ◌̴.

Precomposed Characters

These characters are represented as a single Unicode character. They can be used in place of the base character followed by a co-articulation combining character.

Symbol Features
ɫ vcd fzd alv lat apr
ɚ unr mid cnt rzd vwl
ɝ unr lmd cnt rzd vwl

Suprasegmentals

Stress

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
st1 ˈ◌ primary stress
st2 ˌ◌ secondary stress
st3 ˈˈ◌ extra stress

Length

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
est ◌̆ extra short
hlg ◌ˑ half-long
lng lng ◌ː long

Rhythm

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
sbr ◌.◌ syllable break
lnk ◌‿◌ linked (no break)

Intonation

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
fbr | minor (foot) break
ibr ‖ major (intonation) break
glr ↗ global rise
glf ↘ global fall

Tones

Tone IPA Start Middle End
extra high (top) ◌˥ ts5 tm5 te5
high ◌˦ ts4 tm4 te4
mid ◌˧ ts3 tm3 te3
low ◌˨ ts2 tm2 te2
extra low (bottom) ◌˩ ts1 tm1 te1

Tone Stepping

Feature Kirshenbaum IPA Name
dst ꜛ◌ downstep
ust ꜜ◌ upstep

Unused

Feature Kirshenbaum Name
ctl central
mrm murmured
orl oral

NOTE: The ctl and orl features are specified by Evan Kirshenbaum in Appendix A of his ASCII/IPA transcription, but are not used in the rest of the specification.

NOTE: Evan Kirshenbaum transcribes ɦ as h<?> ({mrm,glt,frc}), while Wikipedia also lists this as a {vcd,glt,frc}[6]. This is the only phoneme that Kirshenbaum uses the mrm feature for. As such, the mrm feature is not used within this document.

References

  1. Kirshenbaum, Evan, Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII (HTML). 1993.

  2. Kirshenbaum, Evan, Representing IPA phonetics in ASCII (PDF). 2001.

  3. International Phonetic Association, The International Phonetic Alphabet and the IPA Chart. 2015. Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).

  4. Wikipedia. International Phonetic Alphabet. 2017. Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).

  5. Dunn, R. H., Cainteoir Text-to-Speech Phoneme Features. 2013-2015.

  6. Wikipedia. Voiced glottal fricative. 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).

  7. Wikipedia. Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet. 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).

  8. Wikipedia. Fortis and lenis. 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).