X-SAMPA (Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet) is an ASCII-only encoding of the IPA created so phonetic transcriptions can be typed and transmitted with a plain keyboard. Each IPA symbol has a unique ASCII code, such as A for the open back vowel and S for the postalveolar fricative.

How does the converter handle multi-character codes?

X-SAMPA codes vary in length — some use a backslash or backtick, like r\ for the alveolar approximant or 3` for the rhotic vowel. The tool matches the longest possible token first, so r\ is recognised before a bare r and J\_< before J, preventing mis-parsing.

Are some letters the same in both systems?

Yes. Plain ASCII letters such as p, b, t, d, k, m, n, f, s, v, z, l, w, j and the vowels a, e, i, o, u, y represent the same sounds in X-SAMPA and IPA, so they pass through unchanged.

What about stress and length marks?

The double quote (") becomes the primary-stress mark ˈ, the percent sign (%) becomes secondary stress ˌ, and the colon (:) becomes the length mark ː. A half-length :\ maps to ˑ.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. The entire conversion runs locally in your browser using a lookup table. Nothing you type is sent to a server, so it is safe for unpublished or sensitive transcriptions.

X-SAMPA to IPA Converter

Q: Are some letters the same in both systems?

Yes. Plain ASCII letters such as p, b, t, d, k, m, n, f, s, v, z, l, w, j and the vowels a, e, i, o, u, y represent the same sounds in X-SAMPA and IPA, so they pass through unchanged.

Q: What about stress and length marks?

The double quote (") becomes the primary-stress mark ˈ, the percent sign (%) becomes secondary stress ˌ, and the colon (:) becomes the length mark ː. A half-length :\ maps to ˑ.

Q: Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. The entire conversion runs locally in your browser using a lookup table. Nothing you type is sent to a server, so it is safe for unpublished or sensitive transcriptions.

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Convert X-SAMPA to IPA

X-SAMPA is a clever workaround for a real problem: the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses hundreds of special Unicode characters that are awkward to type. X-SAMPA re-encodes every one of those symbols as plain ASCII so linguists can transcribe speech on an ordinary keyboard. This tool reverses that encoding, turning an X-SAMPA string back into the proper Unicode IPA symbols.

How it works

The converter scans your input left to right and, at each position, tries to match the longest X-SAMPA token in its lookup table before falling back to shorter ones. This greedy, longest-first matching is essential because many codes share a prefix:

r\`   → ɻ   (retroflex approximant)
r\    → ɹ   (alveolar approximant)
r`    → ɽ   (retroflex flap)
r     → r   (alveolar trill, unchanged)

If no multi-character token matches at the current position, the single character is checked; if it still isn’t in the table it is passed through unchanged, because ASCII letters like p, t, s and the vowels a e i o u already mean the same thing in both systems. Stress marks (" → ˈ, % → ˌ) and length marks (: → ː, :\ → ˑ) are mapped the same way.

Example and notes

The X-SAMPA string h@"loU wr3ldconverts tohəˈloʊ wrɝld, recognising @as schwa,”as primary stress,oUas the diphthong, and3“ as the rhotic vowel. Because the table covers clicks (O\ → ʘ, |\ → ǀ) and implosives (b_< → ɓ, g_< → ɠ) as well, it handles transcriptions from a wide range of languages, not just English. For the reverse direction, use the companion IPA-to-X-SAMPA converter.