From the IPA website:
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an academic standard created by the International Phonetic Association.
IPA is a phonetic notation system that uses a set of symbols to represent each distinct sound that exists in human spoken language. It encompasses all languages spoken on earth. The system was created in 1886 and was last updated in 2005. It consists of 107 letters, 52 diacritics, and four prosodic marks.
To view the chart, and/or hear the sounds associated with each symbol, please go to our IPA chart with sounds.
The IPA is based on the Latin alphabet, but includes some non-Latin characters as well.
A “diacritical mark” or “diacritical point”, “diacritical signis” is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph.
Diacritical marks are added above, under or within a letter. They sometimes can also be placed in between two letters.
Prosody is a representation of the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech.