Cover symbol


In linguistics, cover symbols are broad letters or symbols used to represent classes of sounds. Such systems are useful for describing sound changes in historical linguistics, phonotactics in phonology, and ambiguous or underspecified identification in phonetics.

Tables

Consonants

The symbols below are defined for indeterminate sounds by the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet, which recommends the use of a surrounding circle.
SymbolDefinition
CAny consonant.
ȻAny obstruent.
FAny fricative.
GAny glide.
ꞰAny click.
LAny liquid or lateral.
NAny nasal.
PAny plosive.

R
Any rhotic.

R

Any resonant or sonorant.
S
Any resonant or sonorant.
SAny sibilant.

Those reconstructing Proto-Indo-European phonology use the following cover symbols, which may somewhat differ from the extIPA examples above.
SymbolDefinition
HAny laryngeal.
MAny labial sonorant.
PAny bilabial plosive.
RAny non-labial sonorant.
TAny coronal or dental plosive.

Vowels

Capitalized vowels are commonly used in discussions of languages with vowel harmony. They often indicate different harmonic variants of an underlying archiphonemic vowel.
SymbolDescription
AAny open vowel.
OAny rounded mid vowel.
UAny rounded close vowel.
VAny vowel.
ṼAny nasal vowel.

Syllables

In phonotactics, cover symbols for syllable structures are often written with Greek letters.
SymbolDescription
σA syllable.
μA mora.
ωAn onset.
ρA rime.
νA nucleus.
κA coda.

Other symbols