Even more importantly, forward compatibility is ensured as software that recognizes only 7-bit ASCII characters as special and does not alter bytes with the highest bit set (as is often done to support 8-bit ASCII extensions such as ISO-8859-1) will preserve UTF-8 data unchanged.
ˈiːvən mˈoːɹ ɪmpˈoːɹtəntli, fˈɔːɹwɚd kəmpˌæɾəbˈɪlᵻɾi ɪz ɛnʃˈʊɹd æz sˈɔftwɛɹ ðæt ɹˈɛkəɡnˌaɪzᵻz ˈoʊnli sˈɛvənbˈɪt ˈæski kˈæɹɪktɚz æz spˈɛʃəl ænd dʌznˌɑːt ˈɔltɚ bˈaɪts wɪððə hˈaɪɪst bˈɪt sˈɛt ˌæzˌɪz ˈɔfən dˈʌn tə səpˈoːɹt ˈeɪtbˈɪt ˈæski ɛkstˈɛnʃənz sˈʌtʃ ɐz ˌaɪˌɛsˈoʊ ˈeɪt θˈaʊzənd ˈeɪthˈʌndɹɪd fˈɪfti nˈaɪn dˈæʃ wˈʌn wɪl pɹɪzˈɜːv jˌuːtˌiːˈɛf ˈeɪt dˈeɪɾə ʌntʃˈeɪndʒd.