Help:IPA/Arabic

The chart below explains how Wikipedia represents Arabic pronunciations with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

To be exact, pronunciations given are those of Modern Standard Arabic. Actual pronunciations differ, depending on the native variety of Arabic of the speaker. For a more thorough look at the sounds of Arabic, see Arabic phonology. For the pronunciation of varieties of Arabic, see Help:IPA/Egyptian Arabic, Hejazi Arabic, and Tunisian Arabic.

The transcription may be either more general and abstract (phonemic), using only the symbols from the first column, or more detailed and precise (phonetic), using as well the symbols explained in the "Notes" section. The former is, however, preferred, use the latter only if you have the expertise in a particular dialect and you know what you are doing.

The symbols are arranged by similarity to letters of the Latin alphabet. Symbols which do not represent any Latin letter are placed at the end.