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Transcription exercises require a knowledge and proper use of IPA symbols, but only plain text can be transmitted through the web interface for Anth 383. We have therefore devised a system that will let you express accurate phonetic transcriptions using only standard keyboard symbols.

Below is a list of typing symbols to use in place of the appropriate IPA symbol. Many phonetic symbols look like letters of the alphabet, so often you can use a keyboard letter to stand for an IPA symbol. It is important to remember, however, that a phonetic symbol must always represent the same sound. For example, you can only ever use the symbol s to represent the sound of IPA [s], not [z].

In some cases, however, your keyboard doesn’t have a particular symbol, such as , , or . If you need to express these symbols, use the names listed in the table. Some examples are provided for you.