UPS Labeling Conventions for Vowels
The UPS labeling conventions for vowels were designed to make the phones more intuitive and maintain phonetic similarity across each class. The labels follow these conventions:
Cardinal or main vowels use single character labels
Non-cardinal vowels and common diphthongs use two characters
Maximum label length is three characters
Centralized vowel labels use X, as in AX, IX, UX
Checked vowel (usually must be followed by a consonant in a stressed syllable) labels use H, as in IH, UH
U or O signifies lip rounding, as in AU, AO, EU
The vowel chart below is based on the 1993 IPA vowel chart and displays each IPA vowel followed by its UPS equivalent. The cardinal vowels are marked in red, the checked vowels in blue, and the centralized vowels down the middle in green.
Figure 1. Correspondence Between IPA and UPS Vowels
Vowel Tables
There are four tables, each listing a different category of vowel phones:
The table columns contain the following information:
UPS. The phone label specified in Microsoft's Universal Phone Set (UPS).
IPA. The phone label specified in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) phone set.
Unicode. The Unicode value from the IPA phone set.
SAPI ID. The Speech API (SAPI) phone ID, which in most cases is the Unicode value.
IPA Description. This column describes the features of the phone, such as place of articulation, manner of articulation, phonation type, and airstream mechanism. See the Glossary of Phonetic Terms (Microsoft.Speech) for more information about the features of phones.
ipaASCII. The equivalent phone in ipaASCII phone set for reference.
X-SAMPA. The equivalent phone in X-SAMPA for reference.
Example. A word that uses the phone and illustrates its sound.
Language. The language of the example word.
Monophthong Vowel Phones
Monophthong (literally "one sound" or "one tone") vowels are those whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation.
UPS | IPA | Unicode | SAPI ID | IPA Description | IpaASCII | X-SAMPA | Example | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I | i | U+0069 | 0069 | {hgh,fnt,unr,vwl} | I | i | feel | English |
Y | y | U+0079 | 0079 | {hgh,fnt,rnd,vwl} | Y | y | du | French |
IX | ɨ | U+0268 | 0268 | {hgh,cnt,unr,vwl} | i" | 1 | ||
YX | ʉ | U+0289 | 0289 | {hgh,cnt,rnd,vwl} | U" | } | ||
UU | ɯ | U+026F | 026F | {hgh,bck,unr,vwl} | u- | M | ||
U | u | U+0075 | 0075 | {hgh,bck,rnd,vwl} | u | u | too | English |
IH | ɪ | U+026A | 026A | {smh,fnt,unr,vwl} | I | I | fill | English |
YH | ʏ | U+028F | 028F | {smh,fnt,rnd,vwl} | I. | Y | hübsch | German |
UH | ʊ | U+028ª | 028ª | {smh,bck,rnd,vwl} | U | U | book | English |
E | e | U+0065 | 0065 | {umd,fnt,urd,vwl} | e | e | ses | French |
EU | ø | U+00F8 | 00F8 | {umd,fnt,rnd,vwl} | Y | 2 | blöd | German |
EX | ɘ | U+0258 | 0258 | {umd,cnt,urd,vwl} | @<umd> | @\ | ||
OX | ɵ | U+0275 | 0275 | {umd,cnt,rnd,vwl} | 8 | |||
OU | ɤ | U+0264 | 0264 | {umd,bck,urd,vwl} | o- | 7 | ||
O | o | U+006F | 006F | {umd,bck,rnd,vwl} | o | o | go | English |
AX | ə | U+0259 | 0259 | {mid,cnt,unr,vwl} | @ | @ | ago | English |
AX rho | ɚ | U+025ª | 0259 02DE | {mid,cnt,rho,vwl} | R | forensic | English | |
EH | ɛ | U+025B | 025B | {lmd,fnt,unr,vwl} | E | E | pet | English |
OE | œ | U+0153 | 0153 | {lmd,fnt,rnd,vwl} | W | 9 | plötzlich | German |
ER | ɜ | U+025C | 025C | {lmd,cnt,unr,vwl} | V" | 3 | bird | UK English |
ER rho | ɝ | U+025D | 025C 02DE | {lmd,cnt,unr,rho,vwl} | @. | bird | US English | |
UR | ɞ | U+025E | 025E | {lmd,cnt,rnd,vwl} | O" | 3\ | ||
AH | ʌ | U+028C | 028C | {lmd,bck,unr,vwl} | V | V | cut | English |
AO | ɔ | U+0254 | 0254 | {lmd,bck,rnd,vwl} | O | O | dog | English |
AE | æ | U+00E6 | 00E6 | {sml,fnt,unr,vwl} | & | { | cat | English |
AEX | ɐ | U+0250 | 0250 | {sml,cnt,unr,vwl} | 6 | Besser | German | |
A | a | U+0061 | 0061 | {low,fnt,unr,vwl} | a | a | valle | Spanish |
AOE | ɶ | U+0276 | 0276 | {low,fnt,rnd,vwl} | &. | & | ||
AA | ɑ | U+0251 | 0251 | {low,bck,unr,vwl} | A | A | father | English |
Q | ɒ | U+0252 | 0252 | {low,bck,rnd,vwl} | A. | Q | hot | English |
Diphthong Vowel Phones
In addition to monophthongs, many languages contain diphthongs or even triphthongs. Diphthong (literally "two sounds" or "two tones") vowels are those that change quality during their pronunciation, or "glide", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow.
Diphthongs and triphthongs can be represented in UPS as vowel compounds, using the + symbol. However to make lexicons more readable, UPS also contains phones for common diphthongs. The table below shows both the compounding of two phones using the + symbol and the resultant UPS phone.
UPS Compound | UPS | IPA | SAPI ID | X-SAMPA | Example | Language | Example | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E + I | EI | e.ɪ | 006503610069 | eI | late | English | late | English |
A + UH | AU | ɑ.ʊ | 00610361028A | aU | foul | English | Haus | German |
AO + I | OI | ɔ.ɪ | 025403610069 | OI | toy | English | Kreuz | German |
A + I | AI | ɑ.ɪ | 006103610069 | ai | bite | English | Eis | German |
I + AX | IYX | i.ə | 006903610259 | i:6 | Tier | German | fear | English |
Y + AX | UYX | y.ə | 007903610259 | y:6 | Tür | German | ||
EH + AX | EHX | ɛ.ə | 025B03610259 | E6 | Berg | German | stairs | English |
U + AX | UWX | u.ə | 007503610259 | u:6 | Kur | German | lure | English |
O + AX | OWX | o.ə | 006F03610259 | o:6 | Ohr | German | boa | English |
AO + AX | AOX | ɔ.ə | 025403610259 | O6 | dort | German | four | English |
German Diphthong Vowels
The German language has several more centering diphthongs that must be represented as phone compounds and do not have explicit UPS phones assigned to them. The 'lng' diacritic is included for phonetic completeness.
UPS Compound | IPA | X-SAMPA | Example | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
IH + AX | ɪ.ə | I6 | Wirt | German |
YH + AX | ʏ.ə | Y6 | Türke | German |
EY lng + AX | e.ə | e:6 | schwer | German |
EH lng + AX | ɛ:.ə | E:6 | Bär | German |
EU lng + AX | ø.ə | 2:6 | Föhr | German |
OE + AX | œ.ə | 96 | Wörter | German |
A lng + AX | a.ə | a:6 | Haar | German |
A + AX | a.ə | a6 | hart | German |
UH + AX | ʊ.ə | U6 | kurz | German |
Nasal Vowel Phones
UPS contains phones for four nasal vowels. These are shown in the following table with French examples. The SAPI phone ID for these phones is formed from the phone IDs of the primary vowel and the nasality diacritic. The UPS phone is therefore equivalent to the compound shown in the first column.
Compound | UPS | SAPI ID | X-SAMPA | Example | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E nas | EN | 00650303 | e~ | vin | French |
A nas | AN | 00610303 | a~ | vent | French |
O nas | ON | 006F0303 | o~ | bon | French |
OE nas | OEN | 01530303 | 9~ | brun | French |
