Cover symbol
Broad letters or symbols representing classes of sounds
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In linguistics, cover symbols (sometimes informally called wildcards, analogous to wildcard characters in computing) are broad letters or symbols used to represent classes of sounds. Such systems are useful for describing sound changes in historical linguistics, phonotactics in phonology, and ambiguous or underspecified identification in phonetics.
Tables
Consonants
Manner of articulation
The symbols below are defined for indeterminate sounds by the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet (extIPA), which recommends the use of a surrounding circle ⟨◯⟩. Note that these are all manners of articulation.
⟨Z⟩ may also be used for any voiced sibilant. ⟨Ƈ⟩ may be used for any implosive.
Place of articulation
Several symbols are commonly used for indeterminate places of articulation.
⟨T⟩ may also be used for any voiceless alveolar, in which case ⟨D⟩ is used for any voiced alveolar.
One may prefer to use iconographic hooks on ⟨C⟩ for certain places.
| Symbol | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ç | Any palatal. |
| Ꞔ (C̡) | |
 (C̢) |
Any retroflex. |
Proto-Indo-European studies
Those reconstructing Proto-Indo-European phonology use the following cover symbols, some of which differ from the examples above.
Vowels
Capitalized vowels are commonly used in discussions of languages with vowel harmony. They often indicate different harmonic variants of an underlying archiphonemic vowel.
| Symbol | Description |
|---|---|
| A | Any open vowel. |
| E | Any unrounded mid vowel. |
| I | Any unrounded close vowel. |
| O | Any rounded mid vowel. |
| U | Any rounded close vowel. |
| V | Any vowel. |
| Ṽ | Any nasal vowel. |
Syllables
In phonotactics, cover symbols for syllable structures are often written with Greek letters.
Other symbols
| Symbol | Description |
|---|---|
| T | Any tone, pitch accent, or stress. |
| X | Any sound. |
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