Editing International Phonetic Alphabet (section)

== <span class="anchor" id="chart"></span>Modifying the IPA chart ==
[[File:Extended IPA chart 2005.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The authors of textbooks or similar publications often create revised versions of the IPA chart to express their own preferences or needs. The image displays one such version. All pulmonic consonants are moved to the consonant chart. Only the black symbols are on the official IPA chart; additional symbols are in grey. The grey fricatives are part of the [[extIPA]], and the grey retroflex letters are mentioned or implicit<!--'implicit' is the description used in the Handbook and in the Unicode request for support for the missing retroflex letters--> in the ''Handbook''. The grey click is a retired IPA letter that is still in use.]]
The International Phonetic Alphabet is occasionally modified by the Association. After each modification, the Association provides an updated simplified presentation of the alphabet in the form of a chart. (See [[History of the IPA]].) Not all aspects of the alphabet can be accommodated in a chart of the size published by the IPA. The [[alveolo-palatal]] and [[epiglottal]] consonants, for example, are not included in the consonant chart for reasons of space rather than of theory (two additional columns would be required, one between the retroflex and palatal columns and the other between the pharyngeal and glottal columns), and the [[lateral flap]] would require an additional row for that single consonant, so they are listed instead under the catchall block of "other symbols".<ref>{{harvnb|Esling|2010|pp=688, 693}}</ref> The indefinitely large number of [[Chao tone letter|tone letters]] would make a full accounting impractical even on a larger page, and only a few examples are shown, and even the tone diacritics are not complete; the reversed tone letters are not illustrated at all.

The procedure for modifying the alphabet or the chart is to propose the change in the ''[[Journal of the IPA]].'' (See, for example, December 2008 on an [[open central unrounded vowel]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barry |first1=William J. |last2=Trouvain |first2=Jürgen |date=24 December 2008 |title=Do we need a symbol for a central open vowel? |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/abs/do-we-need-a-symbol-for-a-central-open-vowel/A3C7532F7999E3D8C115E04C8EEBA493 |journal=[[Journal of the International Phonetic Association]] |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=349–357 |doi=10.1017/S0025100308003587 |s2cid=14350438}}</ref> and August 2011 on central approximants.)<ref name="cambridge1">{{cite journal |author1=Martin J. Ball |author2=Joan Rahilly |date=August 2011 |title=The symbolization of central approximants in the IPA |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |publisher=Cambridge Journals Online |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=231–237 |doi=10.1017/s0025100311000107 |s2cid=144408497}}</ref> Reactions to the proposal may be published in the same or subsequent issues of the Journal (as in August 2009 on the open central vowel).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?decade=2000&jid=IPA&volumeId=39&issueId=02&iid=5907924 |title=Journal of the International Phonetic Association Vol. 39 Iss. 02 |publisher=Cambridge Journals Online |date=August 2009 |access-date=20 November 2012 |archive-date=9 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309154234/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?decade=2000&jid=IPA&volumeId=39&issueId=02&iid=5907924 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The examples of reactions published in the journal should not be used as a reference supporting the claim that publishing reactions in the journal is standard. If the reference is meant to support the existence of 2009 reactions, an extra reference (supporting the claim that publication of reactions in the journal is standard) is needed.|date=May 2023}} A formal proposal is then put to the Council of the IPA<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/about.html |title=IPA: About us |publisher=UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences |access-date=20 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010121905/http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/about.html |archive-date=10 October 2012}}</ref>{{Clarification needed|reason=What claim does this reference support? Is it supposed to be an external link to a list of the members of the council?|date=May 2023}} – which is elected by the membership<ref>{{cite web |title=Statutes and By-Laws of the International Phonetic Association |url=http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/statutes.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010121941/http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/statutes.html |archive-date=10 October 2012 |access-date=20 November 2012 |publisher=UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences}}</ref> – for further discussion and a formal vote.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nicolaidis |first=Katerina |title=Approval of New IPA Sound: The Labiodental Flap |url=http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/news/news200509.html |date=September 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111181340/http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/news/news200509.html |archive-date=11 November 2012 |access-date=20 November 2012 |publisher=UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=IPA Council votes against new IPA symbol |url=http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/news/news201112.html |date=May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111181349/http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/news/news201112.html |archive-date=11 November 2012 |access-date=20 November 2012 |publisher=UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences}}</ref>

Many users of the alphabet, including the leadership of the Association itself, deviate from its standardized usage.{{NoteTag|See "Illustrations of the IPA" in the ''Handbook'' for individual languages which for example may use {{angbr|/c/}} as a phonemic symbol for what is phonetically realized as {{IPA|[tʃ]}}, or superscript variants of IPA letters that are not officially defined.}}
The ''Journal of the IPA'' finds it acceptable to mix IPA and [[extIPA]] symbols in consonant charts in their articles. (For instance, including the extIPA letter {{angbr IPA|[[voiceless palatal lateral fricative|𝼆]]}}, rather than {{angbr IPA|ʎ̝̊}}, in an illustration of the IPA.)<ref name="pulmonic" />