Transcription: JSRU

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.

Click here for the full chart of the IPA sounds.

Follow this link for a translation table of JSRU and SAMPA (another machine readable alphabet).

Consonants (IPA symbols are given if different from JSRU symbols)

*Sound info are links to the online phonology site at Stirling University

JSRU	IPA	Sound info*	Example	Example
			(word initial)	(non-initial)

p	(same)	p sound	pen	lip
b	(same)	b sound	bad	nib
t	(same)	t sound	tea	light
d	(same)	d sound	do	lad
k	(same)	k sound	cat	crack
g	(same)	g sound	got	fog
ch		ch sound	chin	watch
j		j sound	June	village
f	(same)	f sound	food	off
v	(same)	v sound	voice	give
th		th sound	thin	tenth
dh		dh sound	then	with
s	(same)	s sound	same	success
z	(same)	z sound	zoo	was
sh		sh sound	show	wash
zh		zh sound	genre	beige
h	(same)	h sound	happy	behave
m	(same)	m sound	man	swim
n	(same)	n sound	know	gone
ng		ng sound	N/A	sing
l	(same)	l sound	leg	girl
r		r sound	red	arrow
y		y sound	year	value
w	(same)	w sound	wet	quick
x		x sound	N/A	loch (Scottish)
gx		gx sound	no example	glottal stop

Extra JSRU symbols for Spanish Consonants

JSRU	IPA	Example	Remarks
bh		haba
mg		confuso
gn		año
ly		llover	(ll)
xh	x	julio	(j)
jh		nieto	can use y which is similar
gh		rogar
rx		perro	(Spanish 'dog') Trilled 'r'
rc		pero	(Spanish 'but') Tapped or flapped 'r'

Extra JSRU symbols for German Consonants

JSRU	IPA	Example	Remarks
cx		ich
rh		ragt	Uvular fricative
pf		Pfand	affricate
tc		zahl	affricate

Vowels and Diphthongs

*Sound info are links to the online phonology site at Stirling University

JSRU	IPA	Sound info*	Example
i		i sound	sit
o		o sound	got
oo		oo sound	put
aa		aa sound	hat
e		e sound	ten
u		u sound	cup
a		a sound	ago
ee/ey		ee/ey sound	see
aw		aw sound	saw
uu		uu sound	too
ar		ar sound	arm
er		er sound	fur
ai		ai sound	page
ie		ie sound	eye
oi		oi sound	boy
oa		oa sound	home
ou		ou sound	now
ia		ia sound	beer
ei		ei sound	bare
ur		ur sound	tour

Extra JSRU symbols for German Vowels

JSRU	IPA	Example	Remarks
oe		Hölle	short vowel
ue		Tüttel	short vowel
ay		tatze	short vowel
oy		Topp	short vowel
ea		Tee	long vowel
ow		tot	long vowel
uy		Tüte	long vowel
or		töten	long vowel
eu		Leute	diphthong
ae		bitter	short vowel
eo		Ende	short vowel
ew		ähnlich	long vowel

**Note that extra symbols will be needed for transcribing other languages