PRONOUNCING ENGLISH VOWELS

PRONOUNCING ENGLISH VOWELSVowels are letters that are pronounced by forcing air over your vocal cords through your mouth.. There are many tape or video cassette lessons available from sc

PRONOUNCING ENGLISH VOWELS

Vowels are letters that are pronounced by forcing air over your vocal cords through your mouth It is the shape of your mouth that decides which vowel sound comes out There are many tape or video cassette lessons available from schools, libraries and stores which will help you with your pronunciation You can also learn a lot by listening to the radio and watching television and films

This section discusses the symbols used for the vowel phonemes in three major English accents: Received Pronunciation, General American, and General Australian

Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language which has traditionally been the prestige British accent RP is a form of English English

(English English is a term that has been applied to the English language as spoken in England.), sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of southeastern England."

It is often taught to non-native speakers; used as the standard for English in most books

on general phonology and phonetics; and represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries

Full vowels:

Full vowels are those that appear in stressed syllables

Monophthongs Short Long

Front Back Front Central Back Close

Mid Open

• / /: bid

• / /: good

• / /: bed (sometimes

transcribed /e/)

• / /: bud

• / /: bat (sometimes transcribed

/a/)

• / /: pot

• / /: bead

• / /: booed

• / /: bird (sometimes

transcribed / /)

• / /: bought, board

• / /: father, bard

Diphthongs Closing Centring

to / / to / / Starting close

Starting mid

Starting open

• / /: bay

• / /: boy

• / /: toe

• / /: buy (sometimes

transcribed /ʌɪ/)

• / /: cow

• / /: beer

• / /: boor (falling out of use in British

English; often replaced by /ɔː/)

• / /: bear (sometimes transcribed /ɛː/)

Reduced vowels:

Reduced vowels occur in unstressed syllables

• / /: roses

• / /: Rosa’s, runner

• /l/: bottle

• /n/: button

• /m/: rhythm

General American

General American is a national accent of American English based on speech patterns common in the Midwest of the United States and those used by many American network television broadcasters It is also sometimes called Standard Midwestern The General American accent or dialect is not thought of as a linguistic standard in the sense that Received Pronunciation (RP) is the standard, prestige variant in England and British society historically, but its speakers are perceived as "accentless" by most Americans The idea of a uniform media American accent has declined in popularity since the late 1960s

Full vowels:

Monophthongs Checked Free

Front Central Back Front rhotacized Central Back Close

Close-mid Open-mid Open

• / /: bid

• / /: good

• / /: bed

• / /: bud

• / /: bad

• / /: bead

• / /: booed

• / /: bayed

• / /: bode

• / /: bird

• / / or / /: bought

• / /: pod, father Note: the vowels / / and / / are diphthongal for many American speakers, so the

transcriptions / / and / / are also often used

Diphthongs Closing Rhotacized

to / / to / /

Starting open

• / /: boy

• / /: buy

• / /: cow

• / /: beer

• / /: boor (often replaced by / /, sometimes by /

/ in American English)

• / /: bear

• / /: bore (sometimes phonemicized / /)

• / /: bar

Reduced vowels:

• / /: roses (for many Americans merged with /ə/)

• / /: Rosa’s

• / /: runner

• /l/: bottle

• /n/: button

• /m/: rhythm