About Our IPA Transcriber

IPANow! Online by PhoneticSoft is a one-of-a-kind web application that transcribes English, Latin, Italian, German, Spanish and French texts into International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols by applying rules utilized by scholarly lyric diction textbooks.

Simply type or paste in a text, click a button, and IPANow! produces an IPA transcription underneath each line of text that can then be copied and pasted just about anywhere...a word processor, a website, a slide presentation, you name it! Take a look at some free IPA transcriptions created with IPANow! or watch a video demo to get a better idea of how it works.

IPANow! was created to be a lyric diction resource for choral conductors, teachers of voice, professional vocalists, church musicians and music educators and students. Linguists and speech pathologists may also find IPANow! helpful with the understanding that certain, subtle differences exist between spoken and lyric diction. We believe you will find IPANow! an invaluable resource.

Meet the Developer

IPANow! was conceived and developed by Dr. Kelly J. Turner of North Carolina. Dr. Turner has taught vocal and choral music, lyric diction, and music theory at both the secondary and collegiate levels. He holds both the Master of Music (1999) and the Doctor of Musical Arts (2009) in Choral Conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

His keen interest in the application of technology to music led him to develop and release the first (PC desktop) version of IPANow! in 2008. In 2012 he released app versions of IPANow! for iPhone and iPad, and is now actively developing and supporting this web-based version of IPANow!.

Dr. Turner currently resides in the beautiful Piedmont Triad of North Carolina with his wife and two children.

Legacy Products

IPANow! for Windows Desktop

Despite the fresh, clean look of this new website, we've actually been in business for over 14 years. The first software product to bear the IPANow! name was launched in early 2008. It was a Windows distributed application that had most of the same core logic behind it that IPANow! Online has. Even though we decided to retire that product in 2019, we're still happy to support it if you're still using it and have any questions. And if you're a Windows user who'd like to try out the free trial version of that software, you can still download it here. So far it seems to run fine on every version of Windows since XP, but we're not making any promises!

IPANow! Mobile Apps

In response to users' desire to have the IPA transcription functionality on the go, in 2012 we developed and launched four mobile apps for iOS; one for each of the four languages. As of today they are still available on the Apple App Store.

IPA Transcription Options

Our Latin to IPA translator allows you to choose between Italianate, Germanic, and Classical pronunciations of Latin. While the Italianate pronunciation is more commonly utilized in vocal and choral singing, some choose to use the Germanic pronunciation when performing works by certain German composers (Bach et. al.). For example, the letter 'g' is transribed as [g] instead of [dʒ] and the 'qu' combination is transcribed as [kv] instead of [kw]. The Classical pronunciation of Latin is associated with speaking the language rather than singing it. This is the pronunciation one would typically be taught when taking a Latin class in school. For example the letter 'v' is pronounced [w] and the 'ae' diphthong is pronounced [ai].
The pronunciation of intervocalic 's' in Latin is often a thorny issue among scholars. Thus the Latin IPA transcriber allows the user to choose to have intervocalic 's' transcribed as either [s] or [z].

Our Spanish to IPA converter allows you to choose between Latin American (Standard American Spanish) and Castilian (Standard European Spanish) pronunciation. Generally speaking, Castilian Spanish is the pronunciation that would be used by a Spaniard and utilizes distinción, making more use of the [θ] and [ð] sounds than Spanish-speaking people from the Americas.

Our English to IPA translator allows you to choose between standard American English or British "stage" English. For example, the the word "chance" may be pronounced with [ æ ] or [ ɑ ] as the vowel.
Numerous English words are homophones, meaning they have more than one acceptable pronunciation. For example, the noun "wind" is pronounced differently than the verb "wind." The English to IPA transcriber allows you to toggle between the different pronunciations by simply clicking on the transcription result (highlighted in blue).

IPANow!'s Italian IPA transcriber includes options for using the three 'n' assimilations, which change the sound of the letter "n" before certain consonant sounds in order to avoid a "ghost" vowel after the "n."
Vocalists often disagree about the appropriate application of "open e" versus "closed e" and "open o" versus "closed o" in lyric diction. Our IPA transcription app offers three options in this regard. It can either transcribe all "e"s and "o"s open, transcribe them all closed, or apply logic to make an educated guess on all "e"s and "o"s.
Phrasal doublings are often used by Italian singers in certain places for emphasis. IPANow! has a setting to include these phrasal doublings in the transcription output.

Some voice professionals advocate placing a glottal stop before any German word beginning with a vowel to promote cleaner articulation. Thus the German to IPA converter includes the option to insert glottal stop symbol [ʔ] before words beginning with a vowel. This setting is disabled by default.
Opinions vary on the correct phonetic transcription of the diphthongs in German spelled 'ei', 'au', and 'eu'. Our German IPA module allows you to choose how you want these diphthongs rendered in the transcription output.

Because final schwas in French are only sung when the composer has assigned a note value to them, the French IPA transcriber has the option of adding parentheses around final schwas. Thus the user can choose to have the French word 'belle' transcribed as [bɛlə] or [bɛl(ə)].
Further, some experts assert that the schwa sound in French is more accurately represented by the symbol [œ] rather than the traditional [ə]. IPANow! users can choose to have schwas rendered using either symbol.
The French to IPA converter allows users choose between the "closed o" nasal vowel (default) and "open o" nasal vowel. The French word 'mon' can be either [mɔ̃] or [mõ].
Regarding the pronunciation of "r"s in sung French, most vocalists avoid the uvular [ʁ] that is commonly used in speech. Most prefer to utilize either a flipped [ɾ] or a rolled [r] symbol in phonetic transcription in order to keep placement of the vocal sound more forward. IPANow! allows the user to choose [r], [ɾ], or [ʁ].
Many diction experts recommend attaching final consonants involved in liaison to the second word in transcription. Doing this promotes the fluidity and connectedness that is a must for French diction. Our transcription app offers the option to transcribe linked consonants with the second word.

About Our IPA Transcriber

Meet the Developer

Legacy Products

IPA Transcription Options

Have More Questions?

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