History of The International Phonetic Alphabet - 1976 and 1979 Revisions

1976 and 1979 Revisions

In 1976 or 1979 the format of the chart was revamped, and there was modest change in the IPA itself.

Formatting changes

• Vowels were moved to separate charts, one for rounded and one for unrounded vowels, and the near-high vowels ɩ, ʏ, ɷ and rounded mid-central vowel ɵ were included
• The non-pulmonic consonants (clicks, implosives, ejectives) were given their own rows
• The labial-palatals and labial-velars were given their own columns, but the alveolo-palatal column was removed. Doubly-articulated consonants were no longer listed twice, and k͡p, ɡ͡b were added to the chart.
• The organization of the rows was changed, from

plosive, nasal, lateral fricative, lateral approximant, trill, tap/flap, fricative, approximant

to

nasal, plosive, fricative, approximant, lateral fricative, lateral approximant, trill, tap/flap, ejective, implosive, click, lateral click

• Most of the dual fricative–approximants were listed in one row only, though j remained in both

Terminology also changed: "breathed" to voiceless, "frictionless continuant" to approximant, "rolled" to trill, "flapped" to tap or flap.

Substantive changes

Design:

• Aspiration became a diacritic ⟨ʰ⟩ rather than ⟨h⟩ or ⟨ʻ⟩
• ⟨ɩ ɷ⟩ and ⟨ɪ ʊ⟩ were listed as allographs
• Additional rhotic-vowel diacritics were illustrated: ⟨aʴ aʵ aʶ⟩

Additions:

• The approximants ⟨ɻ⟩ and ⟨ɰ⟩
• The bilabial click ⟨ʘ⟩
• breathy voice, as ⟨b̤ ə̤⟩

Removals:

• Japanese moraic ("syllabic") ⟨ƞ⟩ (now m, n, ŋ)
• The affricate ligatures ⟨ƾ⟩ (ts) and ⟨ƻ⟩ (dz).
• The rhotic-vowel transcription ⟨ᶒ, ᶏ, ᶗ, ᶕ⟩, etc.
• The labialized fricatives, ⟨σ, ƍ, ƪ, ƺ⟩
• ⟨ ̣⟩ for closer and ⟨ ̨⟩ for more open vowels (redundant with ⟨˔ ˕⟩ since difference in degree removed)

Also, the dedicated rhotic-vowel diacritic was not mentioned apart from the specific case of ⟨ɚ⟩; this may have been inadvertent, as it was listed in 1989.