Lepsius initially used it to transcribe Egyptian hieroglyphs in his Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien[1] and extended it to write African languages, published in 1853,[citation needed] 1854[2] and 1855,[3] and in a revised edition in 1863.

[4] The alphabet was comprehensive but was not used much as it contained a lot of diacritic marks and was difficult to read and typeset at that time.

It was, however, influential in later projects such as Ellis's Paleotype, and diacritics such as the acute accent for palatalization, under-dot for retroflex, underline for Arabic emphatics, and the click letters continue in modern use.

A short sign can be used to distinguish which element of the diphthong is the on- or off-glide (uĭ, ŭi) Vowels in hiatus can be indicated with a diaeresis when necessary (aï [a.i]).

Retroflex consonants are marked with an under-dot: ṭ [ʈ], ḍ [ɖ], ṇ [ɳ], ṣ̌ [ʂ], ẓ̌ [ʐ], ṛ [ɽ], ḷ [ɭ], and ı̣ [ǃ].

The Semitic "emphatic" consonants are marked with an underline: ṯ [tˤ], ḏ [dˤ], s̱ [sˤ], ẕ [zˤ], δ̱ [ðˤ], ḻ [lˤ].

Lepsius typically characterized ejective consonants as tenuis, as they are completely unaspirated, and wrote them with the Greek spiritus lenis (p’, t’, etc.

When transcribing consonant letters which are pronounced the same but are etymologically distinct, as in Armenian, diacritics from the original alphabet or roman transliteration may be carried over.

Two additional tone marks, without any defined phonetic value, are used for Chinese: "level" maˏ (平) and checked maˎ (入); these may also be underlined.