In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicated by one of two methods: Since Unicode 1.1, there have been two similar superscript characters: IPA ⟨ˤ⟩ (U+02E4 ˤ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL REVERSED GLOTTAL STOP) and Semiticist ⟨ˁ⟩ (U+02C1 ˁ MODIFIER LETTER REVERSED GLOTTAL STOP).

U+02C1 is a typographic alternative to ⟨ʿ⟩ (U+02BF ʿ MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING); which is used to transliterate the Semitic consonant ayin and which = reversed ⟨ʾ⟩, which itself transliterates the glottal Semitic consonants aleph and hamza.

[2] That feature is represented in the orthography by a tilde under the respective pharyngealized vowel.

For many languages, pharyngealization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants.

[3] Arabic and Syriac use secondary uvularization, which is generally not distinguished from pharyngealization, for the "emphatic" coronal consonants.