Phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet

Syllable-level patterns
Syllables may consist of a single vowel, meaning that onset and coda are not mandatory.
The consonant /ŋ/ does not occur in syllable-initial position.
The consonant /h/ does not occur in syllable-final position.
Onset clusters ending in /j/ are followed by /uː/ or its variants (see note 5 above).
Long vowels and diphthongs are not found before /ŋ/, except for the mimetic words boing
and oink, unassimilated foreign words such as Burmese aung and proper names such as
Taung
, and American-type pronunciations of words like strong (which have /ɔŋ/ or /ɑŋ/).
The short vowels /ɛ, ʊ/ occur before /ŋ/ only in assimilated non-native words such as
ginseng
 and 
Song
(name of a Chinese dynasty) or non-finally in some dialects in words like
strength and length as well as in varieties without the 
foot-strut split
.
/ʊ/ is rare in syllable-initial position (although in the northern half of England, [ʊ] is used for
/ʌ/ and is common at the start of syllables).
Stop + /w/ before /uː, ʊ, ʌ, aʊ/ (all presently or historically /u(ː)/) are excluded.
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Sequences of /s/ + C
1
+ V̆ + C
1
, where C
1
is a consonant other than /t/ and V̆ is a short
vowel, are virtually nonexistent.
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