IPAbet keystroke reference beta

The complete keystroke → IPA mapping, generated from the canonical ipabet.json (raw JSON, served verbatim). Notation: ⇧ = Shift, ⌥ = Option, ⌃ = Control; a space separates keystrokes typed in sequence. On Windows and Linux the ⌥ layer is AltGr — the right Alt key — mapped 1:1, and ⌥⇧ is AltGr+Shift; keystroke labels across this site follow your platform (the pill in the corner switches spellings). Visual chart · home.

Base letters (identity)

Bare Latin keys that are their own IPA value.

Number-row bases

IPA glyphs with no Latin letter. The digit is a base, typed unshifted, with a modifier after it (5 ⇧H → ə, 2 ⇧Q → ʡ); the roots take ⇧H — the schwa included: 5 is the center key, and its default is the center vowel. The digit works the other way too: ⇧5 is the centralize modifier, pulling a cardinal vowel into the ə-neighborhood (e ⇧5 → ɜ, o ⇧5 → ɞ, a ⇧5 → ɐ). Because the bases sit on the unshifted digit, ⇧2–⇧7 stay their native symbols (@ # $ % ^ &) — ⇧5 included, everywhere except right after a bare e, o, or a. Held, a shift-chain uppercases the whole digraph — ⇧5⇧H → Ə, ⇧7⇧H → Ħ — the digit's capital plane. The tie bar lives on ⌥J (join); see the Option layer below.

Digraphs (base + ⇧modifier)

A capital letter after a glyph transforms it. Modifier meanings: ⇧5 pull toward the center — the ə-neighborhood (e⇧5→ɜ, o⇧5→ɞ, a⇧5→ɐ); ə itself is the 5 base's default, 5⇧H; ⇧H the h-digraph — plosives spirantize (tH→θ, pH→ɸ), sibilants hush (sH→ʃ), vowels lax (iH→ɪ, uH→ʊ); for a, back (aH→ɑ); ⇧R retroflex (coronals); ⇧J palatalize (consonants only); ⇧W labialize / round-flip; ⇧L lateralize; ⇧G dorsal deepening — velar/uvular place; ⇧Q guttural — uvular-pharyngeal-epiglottal throat region; ⇧V labiodental; ⇧B bilabial place; ⇧A drag toward a (vowels: oA→ɒ, uA→ʌ); ⇧Y central — the y-vowels (iY→ɨ, uY→ʉ, eY→ɘ, oY→ɵ, aY→ä); Welsh y, Russian ы; ⇧E ligature with e; ⇧C click — base letter is the anterior place (p bilabial, t dental, q alveolar, c palatal, l lateral); ⇧P implosive (voiced glottalic ingressive).

Extra letters

Latin letters beyond IPA, for writing real orthographies — each typed by doubling a base with its own shift (s⇧S → ß, t⇧T → þ).

Escapes (getting a literal character back)

⇧+letter transforms the glyph before it, so "GitHub" would otherwise come out "Giθub". The ways out, none of which need the IPA layer turned off:

Diacritics & suprasegmentals (Option layer)

Combining diacritics are prefix, dead-key style like é/ñ on the US keyboard: press ⌥+key, then the base absorbs the mark (⌥n then n → ñ). They stack. Spacing marks (length, tone, stress) are postfix. Where a mark has a second form, ⌥⇧+key gives it (⌥⇧n → creaky). Backspace peels a pending mark; Space or Esc commits it as its spacing form. On a glyph already carrying marks, backspace deletes the base and re-arms the marks — they pend again for the next letter (ã ⌫ o → õ). Where the two forms are values of the same dimension — advanced/retracted, apical/laminal — the second replaces the first rather than stacking; forms on independent dimensions stack.

A few keys carry their own behavior: the rhotic hook (⌥r) is postfix and fuses ə/ɜ to precomposed ɚ/ɝ; the tie joiner (⌥j above, ⌥⇧j below) attaches to the previous segment, or emits the spacing linker (⁀/‿) when pressed again on the tie it made; a doubled ⌥. commits the interpunct · (Catalan l·l).

Each ⌥⇧ form is annotated with what ⌥⇧ means for that mark — greater pole, more extreme value, lesser value, same glyph relocated below, an independent twin, or an arbitrary pick between two unpolarized duals. replaces marks the pairs that are values of one dimension, where ⌥⇧ replaces instead of stacking. These are per-mark fields in ipabet.json.

Beyond IPA

Marks the IPA chart has no cell for, kept because the layout should be able to write real orthographies and not only transcribe them. They are fully typeable and stack like any other mark; they are simply absent from the chart. Each carries "ipa": false and a beyond value in the spec.

tenant

Not IPA. Carried so the layout can write real orthographies and romanizations.

tradition

Standard within a phonological tradition but absent from the IPA chart.

extIPA

Extensions to the IPA, for disordered speech (the 2015 chart).

Superscripts (⌥z + base)

⌥z arms the raise and the next glyph arrives raised (t ⌥z h → tʰ) — a prefix, like the ⌥ diacritics, previewing as ⁻. A glyph that is already raised still transforms, so a digraph works: ⌥z s ⇧H → ᶴ. Generated from Unicode's <super> decompositions, plus the raised letters Unicode gives no decomposition. Where no raised form exists the arm lifts and the glyph lands plain.

Subscripts (⌥⇧z + base)

The lowered twin, on the shifted operator, and prefix the same way: ⌥⇧z then the glyph (x ⌥⇧z 2 → x₂), previewing as ₋. Generated the same way from <sub> decompositions — digits and the handful of letters Unicode lowers.

Cycles (press again)

A combining key may carry a cycle: pressing it again on its own pending mark advances through a family and wraps, every step visible in the composition preview — ⌫ cancels. Cycles hold one dimension only; marks from different dimensions keep separate keys so they can stack (dental + laminal = t̪̻).

Quotes by locale

The bracket keys are semantic: ⌥[ opens the primary quote, ⌥⇧[ closes it; ⌥]/⌥⇧] are the secondary pair. Which characters they emit is the quote locale (default en):

On macOS pick it in the input menu (Quote Style); on the web editor, the picker. The grapheme brackets live beside them:

Machine access

GET /ipabet.schema.json is the JSON Schema (Draft 2020-12) for ipabet.json: every field, its meaning, and the invariants that hold between them (a mark has a shiftSense exactly when it has a double; ipa: false and beyond imply each other).

GET /chart.json returns the IPA chart as structured data — every symbol with its codepoint, keystrokes, and place/manner or vowel coordinates. GET /ipabet.json returns the canonical mapping verbatim (the source of every row above). The letters array is the base/digraph list (key is the keystroke sequence, glyph the output); marks is the Option layer; modifiers documents each ⇧ modifier's meaning.