Cover symbol

Tables

Consonants

Manner of articulation

The majority of the symbols below are defined for indeterminate sounds by the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet (extIPA), which recommends the use of a surrounding circle ⟨⟩. The symbols represent manners of articulation.

⟨Z⟩ may also be used for any voiced sibilant, in which case ⟨S⟩ is used for any voiceless sibilant.

Place of articulation

Several symbols are commonly used for sounds of indeterminate manners but specific places of articulation.

⟨T⟩ may also be used for any voiceless alveolar, in which case ⟨D⟩ is used for any voiced alveolar.

One may prefer to use iconographic hooks on ⟨C⟩ for certain places.

Proto-Indo-European studies

Those reconstructing Proto-Indo-European phonology use the following cover symbols, some of which differ from the examples above.

Vowels

Capitalized vowels are commonly used in discussions of languages with vowel harmony. They often indicate different harmonic variants of an underlying archiphonemic vowel.

Syllables

In phonotactics, cover symbols for syllable structures are often written with Greek letters.

Other symbols