Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet

The Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (SAMPA) is a computer-readable phonetic script using 7-bit printable ASCII characters, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

It was originally developed in the late 1980s for six European languages by the EEC ESPRIT information technology research and development program. As many symbols as possible have been taken over from the IPA; where this is not possible, other signs that are available are used, e.g. for schwa (IPA ), for the vowel sound found in French deux (IPA ), and for the vowel sound found in French neuf (IPA ).

Today, officially, SAMPA has been developed for all the sounds of the following languages:

  • Arabic
  • Bosnian
  • Bulgarian
  • Cantonese
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Estonian
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Hungarian
  • Italian
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Scots
  • Serbian
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Thai
  • Turkish

The characters represent the pronunciation of the name SAMPA in English. Like IPA, SAMPA is usually enclosed in square brackets or slashes, which are not part of the alphabet proper and merely signify that it is phonetic as opposed to regular text.

Read more about Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet:  Features

Famous quotes containing the words speech, assessment, methods, phonetic and/or alphabet:

    His speech is a burning fire;
    With his lips he travaileth;
    In his heart is a blind desire,
    In his eyes foreknowledge of death:
    He weaves, and is clothed with derision;
    Sows, and he shall not reap;
    His life is a watch or a vision
    Between a sleep and a sleep.
    —A.C. (Algernon Charles)

    The first year was critical to my assessment of myself as a person. It forced me to realize that, like being married, having children is not an end in itself. You don’t at last arrive at being a parent and suddenly feel satisfied and joyful. It is a constantly reopening adventure.
    —Anonymous Mother. From the Boston Women’s Health Book Collection. Quoted in The Joys of Having a Child, by Bill and Gloria Adler (1993)

    We can best help you to prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods but by finding new words and creating new methods.
    Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

    The syntactic component of a grammar must specify, for each sentence, a deep structure that determines its semantic interpretation and a surface structure that determines its phonetic interpretation.
    Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)

    I believe the alphabet is no longer considered an essential piece of equipment for traveling through life. In my day it was the keystone to knowledge. You learned the alphabet as you learned to count to ten, as you learned “Now I lay me” and the Lord’s Prayer and your father’s and mother’s name and address and telephone number, all in case you were lost.
    Eudora Welty (b. 1909)