# What phonetic alphabet does this table use?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phonetic-alphabet-does-this-table-use/750791>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 31, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phonetic-alphabet-does-this-table-use/750791 "2016-03-31T23:48:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phonetic-alphabet-does-this-table-use/750791/1 "2016-03-31T23:48:40Z")

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I am trying to work how, exactly to pronounce [these words](http://pasteboard.co/2GGArX9X.png). But there are some symbols that don’t appear in the standard IPA (international phonetic alphabet).

Googling it seems the caret symbol is probably a [circumflex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumflex). But what about the h with a dot beneath it? What about the “squiggle” above the e and the caret BELOW the h?

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**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phonetic-alphabet-does-this-table-use/750791/2 "2016-04-01T00:12:27Z")

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Akkadian: [Akkadian language - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_language#Phonetics_and_phonology)  
Aramaic: [Aramaic - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_language#Sounds) (scroll down for consonants).  
Arabic: [Arabic - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic#Consonants)

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**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phonetic-alphabet-does-this-table-use/750791/3 "2016-04-01T02:24:22Z")

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This might have all the characters in question, with an explanation for how they came into use: [DIN 31635 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_31635)

> [@](#):
>
> DIN 31635 is a Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) standard for the transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982. It is based on the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG) as modified by the International Orientalist Congress 1935 in Rome. The most important differences from English-based systems were doing away with j, because it stood for /dʒ/ in the English-speaking world and for /j/ in the German-speaking world and the entire absence of digraphs like th, dh, kh, gh, sh. Its acceptance relies less on its official status than on its elegance (one sign for each Arabic letter) and the Geschichte der arabischen Literatur manuscript catalogue of Carl Brockelmann and the dictionary of Hans Wehr. Today it is used in most German-language publications of Arabic and Islamic studies.