Editing SAMPA (section)

{{Short description|Computer-readable phonetic script}}{{Other uses|Sampa (disambiguation){{!}}Sampa}}
{{No footnotes|date=May 2018}}

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 [[European Economic Community|EEC]] [[European Strategic Program on Research in Information Technology|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. [<code>@</code>] for [[schwa]] (IPA {{IPA|[ə]}}), [<code>2</code>] for the vowel sound found in [[French phonology|French]] {{lang|fr|deux}} {{gloss|two}} (IPA {{IPA|[ø]}}), and [<code>9</code>] for the vowel sound found in French {{lang|fr|neuf}} {{gloss|nine}} (IPA {{IPA|[œ]}}).

The characters [<code>'''"s{mp@'''</code>] represent the pronunciation of the name SAMPA in English, with the initial symbol ["] indicating primary stress (in IPA, {{IPAc-en|'|s|æ|m|p|ə}}). Like IPA, SAMPA is usually enclosed in [[bracket|square brackets]] or [[slash (punctuation)|slashes]], which are not part of the alphabet proper and merely signify that it is phonetic as opposed to regular text.