In our research, we employ a machine readable transcription system instead of the standard IPA symbols which cannot be easily understood by computers. The JSRU (Joint Speech Research Unit) alphabet is a system developed for text-to-speech synthesis.
- The two main categories of sounds are consonants and vowels - go to the chart of the IPA sounds to find out more.
- Translation table of JSRU and SAMPA (another machine readable alphabet).
Consonants (IPA symbols are given if different from JSRU symbols)
| JSRU | IPA | Example | Example |
| | | (word initial) | (non-initial) |
| | | | |
| p | (same) | pen | lip |
| b | (same) | bad | nib |
| t | (same) | tea | light |
| d | (same) | do | lad |
| k | (same) | cat | crack |
| g | (same) | got | fog |
| ch | (IPA) | chin | watch |
| j | (IPA) | June | village |
| f | (same) | food | off |
| v | (same) | voice | give |
| th | (IPA) | thin | tenth |
| dh | (IPA) | then | with |
| s | (same) | same | success |
| z | (same) | zoo | was |
| sh | (IPA) | show | wash |
| zh | (IPA) | genre | beige |
| h | (same) | happy | behave |
| m | (same) | man | swim |
| n | (same) | know | gone |
| ng | (IPA) | N/A | sing |
| l | (same) | leg | girl |
| r | (IPA) | red | arrow |
| y | (IPA) | year | value |
| w | (same) | wet | quick |
| x | (IPA) | N/A | loch (Scottish) |
| gx | (IPA) | no example | glottal stop |
Extra JSRU symbols for Spanish Consonants
| JSRU | IPA | Example | Remarks |
| bh | (IPA) | haba | |
| mg | (IPA) | confuso | |
| gn | (IPA) | año | |
| ly | (IPA) | llover | (ll) |
| xh | x | julio | (j) |
| jh | (IPA) | nieto | can use y which is similar |
| gh | (IPA) | rogar | |
| rx | (IPA) | perro | (Spanish 'dog') Trilled 'r' |
| rc | (IPA) | pero | (Spanish 'but') Tapped or flapped 'r' |
Extra JSRU symbols for German Consonants
| JSRU | IPA | Example | Remarks |
| cx | (IPA) | ich | |
| rh | (IPA) | ragt | uvular fricative |
| pf | | Pfand | affricate |
| tc | | zahl | affricate |
Vowels and Diphthongs
| JSRU | IPA | Example |
| i | (IPA) | sit |
| o | (IPA) | got |
| oo | (IPA) | put |
| aa | (IPA) | hat |
| e | (IPA) | ten |
| u | (IPA) | cup |
| a | (IPA) | ago |
| ee/ey | (IPA) | see |
| aw | (IPA) | saw |
| uu | (IPA) | too |
| ar | (IPA) | arm |
| er | (IPA) | fur |
| ai | (IPA) | page |
| ie | (IPA) | eye |
| oi | (IPA) | boy |
| oa | (IPA) | home |
| ou | (IPA) | now |
| ia | (IPA) | beer |
| ei | (IPA) | bare |
| ur | (IPA) | tour |
Extra JSRU symbols for German Vowels
| JSRU | IPA | Example | Remarks |
| oe | (IPA) | Hölle | short vowel |
| ue | (IPA) | Tüttel | short vowel |
| ay | (IPA) | tatze | short vowel |
| oy | (IPA) | Topp | short vowel |
| ea | (IPA) | Tee | long vowel |
| ow | (IPA) | tot | long vowel |
| uy | (IPA) | Tüte | long vowel |
| or | (IPA) | töten | long vowel |
| eu | (IPA) | Leute | diphthong |
| ae | (IPA) | bitter | short vowel |
| eo | (IPA) | Ende | short vowel |
| ew | (IPA) | ähnlich | long vowel |
**Note that extra symbols will be needed for transcribing other languages
