X-SAMPA

X-SAMPA is a special code that helps people talk about different sounds in many different languages, like English or French, using just the regular letters on a keyboard! These languages might have special sounds that don't always have their own letters or symbols, so X-SAMPA gives them a special code to use that everybody can understand.

For example, when you say the word "cat," it has three sounds: "kuh" "aah" "tuh." But sometimes, in other languages, the sounds in words might be a little bit different than in English. X-SAMPA helps people write down those sounds using normal keyboard keys, so that everyone understands what they mean.

Think of it like a secret language, but everyone is allowed to use it and it helps you to speak different languages without needing to learn a lot of new symbols or letters. So next time you hear somebody using X-SAMPA, you can know that they're just trying to help us all talk about the sounds of languages in a way we can all understand!