37.2489, Software: IPAbet: A Fast and Memorable Keyboard for Typing the International Phonetic Alphabet

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2489. Mon Jul 27 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2489, Software: IPAbet: A Fast and Memorable Keyboard for Typing the International Phonetic Alphabet

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Date: 26-Jul-2026
From: Brian Kim [briankimpossible at gmail.com]
Subject: IPAbet: A Fast and Memorable Keyboard for Typing the International Phonetic Alphabet


IPAbet is a fast and memorable keyboard for typing the International
Phonetic Alphabet, directly in any application. It is a normal US
keyboard: unshifted keys type plain US characters, while IPA symbols
take at most two keystrokes, using familiar spellings and romanization
conventions — s⇧H → ʃ (as in "sh"), t⇧H → θ, n⇧G → ŋ, 2⇧H → ʔ (from
the Arabic chat alphabet). Diacritics are dead keys on the Option
layer, like the standard accent keys. Every symbol on the IPA chart is
covered — pulmonic and non-pulmonic consonants, all vowels,
diacritics, suprasegmentals, and the Chao tone letters — plus the
extIPA 2015 diacritic set. Available as a native macOS input method,
with the same engine running in any browser at ipabet.org/type, no
installation needed. A typing course (ipabet.org/learn) and a
keystroke-annotated IPA chart with audio (ipabet.org/chart) are
included. Free and open source, MIT license: https://ipabet.org ·
https://github.com/bikeshaving/ipabet

Linguistic Field(s): Clinical Linguistics
                     Language Documentation
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology
                     Writing Systems




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