🩺extIPA — Extensions to the IPA for Disordered Speech

The extIPA is the standard supplementary symbol set for transcribing disordered and atypical speech — the phenomena the core IPA deliberately leaves out: atypical articulations and airstreams, atypical phonation and timing, indeterminate sounds, and connected-speech/silence notation. In the primary sources' own words, the symbols exist "to supply transcriptional resources to those needing to describe disordered speech of all types," chosen at the request of speech-language pathologists and clinical phoneticians.¹²

Who maintains it, and which version is current

The extIPA is stewarded by the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association (ICPLA), publishing through JIPA. Its dating trips up almost everyone, so here is the reconciled chain: original symbol set published 1990 → revision panel at the 2010 Oslo ICPLA conference → revised chart finalized as the "2015 revision" → formally ratified by the ICPLA membership at Halifax in June 2016 (approved nem. con.) → published as Ball, Howard & Miller, "Revisions to the extIPA chart," JIPA 48(2): 155–164 (online 2017, in print 2018).¹² Cite the 2018 article; do not quote the superseded 1990 chart.

What is on the chart

The revised chart has three parts: a main consonant chart (adding places and manners the IPA grid omits, such as dentolabial and interdental articulations), an "Other Sounds" section, and voicing diacritics — including the distinctive parentheses notation for partial (de)voicing.² A subtle point clarified in the Unicode process: the "Other Sounds" superscript-release combinations (lateral fricated release, interdental aspiration, and the like) are a productive pattern — the chart's "etc." is real, and any IPA fricative may appear as a superscript release, not just the printed examples.²

How it relates to IPA and VoQS

extIPA extends — never replaces — ordinary IPA transcription, and is designed to mix inline with IPA symbols. The clinical three-layer model: IPA for segments, extIPA for atypical segments and timing, VoQS for long-domain voice-quality settings. The two extension systems were expanded together in the 2020 Unicode proposals.²³ Pedagogically the order is fixed: solid IPA narrow transcription first, then extIPA/VoQS.

Unicode and fonts

Unicode coverage came through two 2020 proposals by Miller & Ball (L2/20-039 and L2/20-116, 22 characters). Key assignments: combining parentheses U+1AC1–U+1AC4 (unpaired voicing parentheses); Latin Extended-E U+AB6C–U+AB6F (turned small capital G, reversed K, reversed G, reversed eng); and Latin Extended-D U+A7CB–U+A7D8 (feng digraph with trill, lezh with retroflex hook, turned y with belt, small capital L with belt, plus modifier letters). SIL's Gentium is the reference font.² Practical consequence: older fonts silently lack these — test rendering before publishing clinical transcription.

Four errors to avoid

• Citing the 1990 chart or superseded symbols — the 2018 JIPA article is the current authority.¹
• Conflating extIPA (segment-level, atypical articulation) with VoQS (long-domain voice quality).²
• Assuming font support for the post-2020 characters without testing.²
• Treating the "Other Sounds" list as closed — it is a productive pattern across the fricative rows.²

Learn more

• Ball, Howard & Miller (2018), "Revisions to the extIPA chart," JIPA 48(2) — The current authoritative statement of the chart.
• Unicode proposal L2/20-116 (Miller & Ball, 2020) — Code-point assignments and glyph rationale — read in full for this guide.
• ICPLA — International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association — The steward organization; chart downloads.
• extIPA chart (current) — The 2015-revision chart as distributed.