Kana Phonetic Alphabet

The Kana Phonetic Alphabet (KPA) is a phonetic transcription method using primarily katakana. Hiragana, kanji or kanji radicals, and other symbols are also used.

Structure

In KPA, consonant characters, with the exception of coronal and dorsal nasals, come with a following vowel. For example ト stands for [to̝]. To write a consonant without a following vowel, a batsu (☓) is written atop the consonant letter to suppress the following vowel. So ト(☓) stands for [t]. These single consonant are used either for coda consonants, or consonants that are not followed by a vowel because they are in a cluster.

Consonants

The following charts show how to write single consonants. To write [m] for example, ム(☓) is always used, never マ(☓), ミ(☓), メ(☓) or モ(☓).

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n				ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	p	b					t	d					k	g
Fricative			f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x	ɣ	h
Affricate					ts	dz
Approximants		w										j
Trill								r
Lateral Approximant								l