An alphabet based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), but using only 7-bit ASCII characters. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists. It is intended to provide a standardized, accurate and unique way of representing the sounds of any spoken language, and is used, often on a day-to-day basis, by linguists, speech pathologists and therapists, foreign language teachers, lexicographers, and translators. In its unextended form (as of 2005) it has approximately 107 base symbols and 55 modifiers.

The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet are divided into three categories:

Although the IPA is meant to represent only those qualities of speech that are relevant to language itself (such as tongue position, manner of articulation, and the separation and accentuation of words and syllables), an extended set of symbols called Extended IPA has been created by phonologists to record qualities of speech that have no direct effect on meaning (such as tooth-gnashing, lipsing, and sounds made by people with a cleft).