The Pronunciation field in Lexiconga utilizes KeyboardFire's Phondue web script to make typing IPA pronunciations much more convenient. While you can still point and click to select IPA characters using the IPA table, Phondue provides many two-key keyboard shortcuts called digraphs that allow you to type any IPA symbol with only a standard keyboard.
These symbols were decided to be intuitive as possible:
Many symbols that look similar to letters of the English alphabet (such as small caps) can be produced by doubling the capital letter:
GG -> ɢ ?? -> ʔ NN -> ɴ BB -> ʙ RR -> ʀ XX -> χ
LL -> ʟ II -> ɪ YY -> ʏ UU -> ʊ EE -> ɛ OO -> ɞ
AA -> ɑ '' -> ˈ ,, -> ˌ :: -> ː
The slash is used to "reflect," "rotate," or otherwise flip around a given symbol:
ʀ/ -> ʁ ʔ/ -> ʕ ?/ -> ʕ r/ -> ɹ y/ -> ʎ m/ -> ɯ
o/ -> ø e/ -> ə ɛ/ -> ɜ c/ -> ɔ a/ -> ɐ ɑ/ -> ɒ
w/ -> ʍ h/ -> ɥ k/ -> ʞ !/ -> ¡ v/ -> ʌ
Also note that for any digraph, if either of the two characters that compose it are not "standard" letters you can find on your keyboard, the digraph can be done in reverse order—so since ʀ/ produces ʁ, you can press / again to go back to ʀ in case of accidental flippage (it's also weirdly amusing to press RR///////).
This sometimes makes it easier to enter certain pairs; you may prefer to
use AA
for ɑ
and AA/
for ɒ
instead of the
visual o|
and |o
.
Digraphs have also been designed for when a symbol looks like two overlayed characters, or two characters next to each other. This includes "hooked" letters (such as ŋ), produced with the original letter and a comma, and "stroked" letters (such as ɟ), produced with the original letter and a dash:
m, -> ɱ n, -> ŋ ŋ, -> ɲ v, -> ⱱ c, -> ç j, -> ʝ
x, -> ɣ ɣ, -> χ h, -> ɦ w, -> ɰ
j- -> ɟ h- -> ħ l- -> ɬ i- -> ɨ u- -> ʉ e- -> ɘ
o- -> ɵ ʕ- -> ʢ ?- -> ʡ ʔ- -> ʡ
LZ -> ɮ OX -> ɤ XO -> ɤ OE -> œ EB -> ɞ AE -> æ
CE -> ɶ RL -> ɺ LR -> ɺ ɾl -> ɺ lɾ -> ɺ
w| -> ɰ o/ -> ø ɜ( -> ɞ /\ -> ʌ o| -> ɑ a| -> ɑ
|o -> ɒ |a -> ɒ
o. -> ʘ |= -> ǂ || -> ‖ /^ -> ↗ /> -> ↗ \v -> ↘
\> -> ↘
Others are based on pronunciation:
PH -> ɸ BH -> β TH -> θ DH -> ð SH -> ʃ ZH -> ʒ
SJ -> ɕ ZJ -> ʑ ʃx -> ɧ xʃ -> ɧ
It may be worth noting at this point that digraphs of two lowercase letters
were intentionally avoided to prevent interference with regular typing. If
you need to type a sequence without it turning into a digraph (maybe you
want to type an actual ʃx
), place a backslash between the two characters
(so, type ʃ\x
).
In fact, [backslash][anything] is treated as a digraph that simply resolves to the second character.
A few digraphs are based on shape:
rO -> ɾ r0 -> ɾ vO -> ʋ v0 -> ʋ
Another related point: digraphs that contain a lowercase letter can also be
typed with that letter as uppercase. So, if RO
is easier to type than
rO
, that works as well.
Retroflex and nonpulmonic symbols have their own categories:
retroflex: ) looks like the shape of the tongue
t) -> ʈ d) -> ɖ n) -> ɳ r) -> ɽ ɾ) -> ɽ s) -> ʂ
z) -> ʐ ɹ) -> ɻ l) -> ɭ ɗ) -> ᶑ
clicks: clicking noise reminiscent of a *
o* -> ʘ |* -> ǀ !* -> ǃ =* -> ǁ
implosives and ejective marker: direction of airflow
b( -> ɓ d( -> ɗ j( -> ʄ ɟ( -> ʄ g( -> ɠ ɢ( -> ʛ
ɖ( -> ᶑ ') -> ʼ
Superscripts and diacritics that go above the letter use ^
, diacritics that
go below use _
, and miscellaneous "moved" symbols
use <
or >
:
^h -> ʰ ^n -> ⁿ ^m -> ᵐ ^ŋ -> ᵑ ^l -> ˡ ^w -> ʷ
^j -> ʲ ^ɥ -> ᶣ ^ʋ -> ᶹ ^ɣ -> ˠ ^ʕ -> ˤ
_| -> ◌̩ ^| -> ◌̍ _o -> ◌̥ ^o -> ◌̊ _v -> ◌̬ ^v -> ◌̌
_^ -> ◌̯ _: -> ◌̤ _~ -> ◌̰ _[ -> ◌̪ _] -> ◌̺ _{ -> ◌̼
_+ -> ◌̟ __ -> ◌̠ _) -> ◌̹ _( -> ◌̜ _# -> ◌̻ [] -> ◌̻
^> -> ◌̚ ^: -> ◌̈ ^x -> ◌̽ ^~ -> ◌̃
-' -> ˔ _˔ -> ◌̝ -, -> ˕ _˕ -> ◌̞ <| -> ⊣ _⊣ -> ◌̘
>| -> ⊢ _⊢ -> ◌̙
~~ -> ◌̴ >r -> ˞
Note that all of these sequences can be flipped in order—that is, ^h
produces the same thing as h^
. This allows usage such as |<_
to produce
⊣_
which becomes ◌̘.
Tonal countours use numbers plus |
:
5| -> ˥ 4| -> ˦ 3| -> ˧ 2| -> ˨ 1| -> ˩
+| -> ꜛ -| -> ꜜ
Finally, some digraphs simply have unique mnemonics:
ː- -> ˑ "chop off" the bottom triangle
(( -> ◌͡◌ two parens for a tie that connects 2 chars
)) -> ◌͜◌
◌͜◌) -> ‿ one more paren to make it a little bit longer