Symbolic Phonetic Notation
Synopsis
Kalmasoft SPN (Symbolic Phonetic Notation) is a set of phonetic symbols developed for intermediate representation of the sound of an arbitrary unwritten language.
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Information
Reference: SPN
Last updated: 15/1/2023
Preview
The Symbolic Phonetic Notation (SPN) is a set of phonetic notation symbols developed by Kalmasoft with the sole purpose of preserving unwritten languages by reproducing their sound in a manageable way; preserving the phonological aspects of any targeted language can be made easy by electronically processing its intermediate representation using SPN which fits easily for such purposes, it can also be managed programmatically or by any other well defined analytical means.
SPN symbols were carefully designed to represent the anatomy of speech organs while articulating various sounds as precise and intuitive as possible, the notation system is composed of symbols that are easy to memorize and write though not as comprehensive and versatile compared to the current complex IPA symbols for example; SPN symbols simply depict the positions of the tongue and lips and the other articulatory organs as they produce the sound, hence it is a phonetic notation.
SPN is not meant to serve as a writing system and should not be dealt with as such, it is rather a "utility set of symbols" that doesn’t stand by itself for any specific language and should not be considered as a "writing system" in any sense; a separately designed writing system is highly recommended in order to have a complete linguistic solution for any arbitrary targeted language.
All SPN symbols are temporarily assigned in the range EC00-EFFF of the Unicode Private Use Area, so the only way to access or view the symbols is by using the font from within the desktop applications e.g. text editors/word processors or by any other suitable programming solution.
Resources
The tables shown below contain non-standard Unicode characters in the column "Font". Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the correct intended characters, this web page uses SPN truetype web font which may not work properly on your browser, you may need to download the font and use it locally otherwise an image copy of the same symbols are shown in the column "Symbol" for reference just in case the characters do not appear correctly. You may download the SPN font from our download page lingual support page for your testing purposes.
Sample output
Symbol: the phonetic symbol
Font: font representation
Name: symbol name
Description: phonetic description
IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet corresponding symbol
Articulation: this include both place and manner of articulation, and phonation
Unicode: Private Use Area code point
Remarks: notes on the symbol
| ID | Symbol | Font | Name | Description | IPA | Articulation | Unicode | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
| A | open front unrounded vowel | /a/ | vowel | U+EC00 | |
| 2 |  |
| E | open-mid front unrounded vowel | /ɛ/ | vowel | U+EC0A | |
| 3 |  |
| I | close front unrounded vowel | /i/ | vowel | U+EC14 | |
| 4 |  |
| O | open-mid back unrounded vowel | /ɔ/ | vowel | U+EC1E | |
| 5 |  |
U | close back rounded vowel | /u/ | vowel | U+EC28 | ||
| 6 |  |
WA | voiced labio-velar approximant | /w/ | U+EC32 | |||
| 7 |  |
| YA | Close front rounded vowel | /j/ | U+EC3C | ||
| 8 |  |
| glottal stop | /ʔ/ | U+EC46 | Arabic Hamza (ء) | ||
| 9 |  |
| HA | voiceless glottal fricative | /h/ | U+EC50 | ||
| 10 |  |
| HHA | voiceless pharyngeal fricative | /ħ/ | U+EC5A | Arabic Haa' (ح) | |
| 11 |  |
| voiced pharyngeal fricative | /ʕ/ | U+EC64 | Arabic 'Ain (ع) | ||
| 12 |  |
| GA | voiced velar stop | /g/ | velar | U+EC6E | |
| 13 |  |
| KA | voiceless velar stop | /k/ | velar | U+EC78 | |
| 14 |  |
| GHA | Voiced velar fricative | /ɣ/ | veral | U+EC82 | |
| 15 |  |
| KHA | voiceless velar fricative | /x/ | velar | U+EC8C | |
| 16 |  |
| NGA | voiced velar nasal | /ŋ/ | velar | U+EC96 | |
| 17 |  |
| NJA | voiced palatal nasal | /ɲ/ | velar | U+ECA0 | |
| 18 |  |
| QA | voiceless uvular stop | /q/ | velar | U+ECAA | Amharic (ቀ) |
| 19 |  |
voiceless alveolar affricate | /c/ | U+ECB4 | ||||
| 20 |  |
| JA | voiced palatoalveolar affricate | /ʤ/ | palatal | U+ECBE | |
| 21 |  |
| CHA | voiceless palatoalveolar sibilant affricate | /tʃ/ | palatal | U+ECC8 | |
| 22 |  |
| SHA | voiceless postalveolar fricative | /ʃ/ | palatal | U+ECD2 | |
| 23 |  |
| RA | voiced alveolar trill | /r/ | retroflex | U+ECDC | |
| 24 |  |
| DA | voiced alveolar stop | /d/ | dental | U+ECE6 | |
| 25 |  |
| LA | alveolar lateral approximant | /l/ | dental | U+ECF0 | |
| 26 |  |
| NA | voiced alveolar nasal | /n/ | dental | U+ECFA | |
| 27 |  |
| SA | voiceless alveolar fricative | /s/ | dental | U+ED04 | |
| 28 |  |
| SSA | voiceless alveolar sibilant | /sˁ/ | dental | U+ED0E | Arabic Saad (ص) |
| 29 |  |
| TA | voiceless alveolar stop | /t/ | dental | U+ED18 | |
| 30 |  |
| DDA | voiceless alveolar stop | /ðˁ/ | dental | U+ED22 | |
| 31 |  |
| DHA | voiced dental fricative | /ð/ | dental | U+ED2C | |
| 32 |  |
| DDHA | voiced dental fricative/voiced alveolar sibilant | /ðˁ/ | dental | U+ED36 | |
| 33 |  |
| ZA | voiced alveolar fricative | /z/ | dental | U+ED40 | |
| 34 |  |
| ZHA | voiced alveolo-palatal fricative | /ʑ/ | U+ED4A | ||
| 35 |  |
| THA | voiceless dental fricative | /θ/ | dental | U+ED54 | |
| 36 |  |
| TSA | voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate | /ts/ | U+ED5E | ||
| 37 |  |
| TTA | /tˁ/ | dental | U+ED68 | Arabic Taa' (ط) | |
| 38 |  |
| VA | voiced labiodental fricative | /v/ | labiodental | U+ED72 | |
| 39 |  |
| FA | voiceless labiodental fricative | /f/ | labial | U+ED7C | |
| 40 |  |
| MA | voiced bilabial nasal | /m/ | labial | U+ED86 | |
| 41 |  |
| BA | voiced bilabial fricative | /b/ | velar | U+ED90 | |
| 42 |  |
| PA | voiceless bilabial stop | /p/ | labial | U+ED9A | |
| 43 |  |
| Double vowel | ː | U+EDA4 | Long vowel |
Quantities are represented using special symbols depicting numbers, these are added for consistency purpuses; SPN numbers are self-explanatory, each symbol depicts the count of angles, symbols with closed shapes (triangles) are the higher values of the decimal system.
| ID | Symbol | Font | Value | Name | Unicode | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
| 0 | Zero | U+EF00 | |
| 2 |  |
| 1 | One | U+EF01 | |
| 3 |  |
| 2 | Two | U+EF02 | |
| 4 |  |
| 3 | Three | U+EF03 | |
| 5 |  |
| 4 | Four | U+EF04 | |
| 6 |  |
| 5 | Five | U+EF05 | |
| 7 |  |
| 6 | Six | U+EF06 | |
| 8 |  |
| 7 | Seven | U+EF07 | |
| 9 |  |
| 8 | Eight | U+EF08 | |
| 10 |  |
| 9 | Nine | U+EF09 |