2937. English Phonetics and Phonology.

2012-2013

Weeks 4/5.
Unit 2. Lecture 1.

Vowels
 Overview

1. British English vowel inventory & important facts

2. Differences between British & American English

3. Summary and references

 1. British English vowel inventory
• Preliminary remarks:

— The BrE vowel inventory

 1. British English vowel inventory
• Preliminary remarks:

— A distinction is made between

long and short vowels. ‘Long’ is
shown with the length mark ː

— Apart from the quality and quantity, it’s important to

bear in mind whether the vowels are found in
stressed or unstressed syllables
 1. British English vowel inventory
— Monophthongs
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Long-short monoph. in STR. or UNSTR. syllables

— /iː/ long close front unrounded (spread)

(e.g. eat /iːt/, seat /siːt/)
— /ɪ/ short half-close front unrounded (neutral)
(e.g. it /ɪt/, sit /sɪt/)
— /uː/ long close central to back rounded
(e.g. pool /pu:l/, Luke /lu:k/)
— /ʊ/ short half-close central to back rounded
(e.g. pull /pʊl/, look /lʊk/)
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Long-short monophthongs in STR. or UNSTR. syllables

— /ɔː/ long half-close to half-open back rounded

(e.g. short /ʃɔːt/, port /pɔːt/)
— /ɒ/ short half-open to open back rounded
(e.g. shot /ʃɒt/, pot /pɒt/)
— /ɜː/ long half-close to half-open central unrounded (neu)
(e.g. bird /bɜːd/, first /fɜːst/)
— /e/ short half-close to half-open front unrounded (spr.)
(e.g. bed /bed/, fest /fest/)
 1. British English vowel inventory

• Long-short monophthongs in STR. or UNSTR. syllables

— /æ/ short half-open to open front unroun. (n.)

(e.g. cat /kæt/, hat /hæt/)
— /ʌ/ short half-open central unrounded (neutral)
(e.g. cut /kʌt/, hut /hʌt/)
— /ɑː/ long open back unrounded (neut.)
(e.g. cart /kɑːt/, heart /hɑːt/)
 1. British English vowel inventory

• Short vowels in UNSTRESSED syllables

— /ǝ/ short half-close to half-open central unrounded (neu.)

(e.g. America /ǝˈmerǝkǝ/, England /ˈɪŋglǝnd/)
— /i/ short close front unrounded (spread)
(e.g. Tweety /ˈtwi:ti/, react /riˈækt/)
— /u/ short close to half-close central to back rounded
(e.g. thank you /θæŋkju/, to ask /tu ˈɑ:sk/)
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Diphthongs

— In describing diphthongs there is no need to specify

length nor to use the length mark ː (diphthongs are
all long vowels, so it’s redundant)

— You can classify diphthongs according to changes in

tongue height (e.g. closing) or tongue location
(centring, fronting, backing)
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Centring
Tongue location: from front/back to central

— /ɪə/ half-close to mid, front to central

(e.g. here /hɪǝ/, idea /aɪˈdɪǝ/, beer /bɪǝ/)
— /eə/ half-close to half-open, front to central
(e.g. bear /beǝ/, their /ðeǝ/, fair /feǝ/)
— /ʊə/ half-close to mid, back to central
(e.g. poor /pʊə/, dour /dʊə/)
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Closing fronting
Tongue height: from open/mid to close
Tongue location: from back/central to front

— /aɪ/ open to half-close, central to front

(e.g. sky /skaɪ/, mine /maɪn/)
— /ɔɪ/ mid to half-close, back to front
(e.g. boy /bɔɪ/, noise /nɔɪs/)
— /eɪ/ mid to half-close, front
(e.g. day /deɪ/, late /leɪt/)
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Closing backing
Tongue height: from open/mid to close
Tongue location: from front/central to back

— /əʊ/ mid to half-close, central to back

(e.g. no /nəʊ/, hoe /həʊ/, oak /əʊk/)

— /aʊ/ open to half-close, central to back

(e.g. now /naʊ/, how /haʊ/, house /haʊs/)
 1. British English vowel inventory

• Important facts: rounding

— Most monophthongs are unrounded

(neutral or spread)
— In rounded monophthongs (i.e. /ʊ, u:, u, ɒ, ɔ:/),
rounding is typically very weak
— /ɔ:/ is the most strongly rounded. /ʊ/ (e.g. pull)
& /u:/ (e.g. pool) are losing their lip-rounding
and backness. /ʊ/ is somewhat neutral in good
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Important facts: stress
— Based on syllable stress, we speak of strong vowels
(typically -but not exclusively- in stressed syllables)
vs. weak vowels (only in unstressed syllables)
— The weak vowels are 3:
/ə/ (schwa), e.g. Africa /ˈæfrɪkǝ/
/i/ (the happY vowel), e.g. /ˈhæpi/
/u/ (the thank yOU vowel), e.g. /ˈθæŋk ju/)
— Since unstressed syllables are very common, they are
very frequent, particularly schwa
 1. British English vowel inventory
• Important facts: diphthongs

— The diphthong /eə/ is increasingly pronounced as a

long vowel [ɛ:], not to be confused with /ɜ:/. Cf. fare
vs. fur
— /ʊə/, traditionally found in sure, poor, tour, etc. now
sounds mostly identical to shore, pour, tore (with /ɔ:/)
— The decline of /ʊə/ is increasing, particularly in
common words (e.g. your, pure, you’re) but the sound
is still common in other words (e.g. jury or rural)
2. Differences between BrE & AmE vowels
• Rhotacization and AmE monophthongs

─ <r> is always pronounced as an r-sound in rhotic AmE

(e.g. car /kɑ:r/)

─ This leads to the rhotacization (or r-colouring) of the

preceding vowel typical of most AmE

─ For rhotacised vowels (also

called ‘coloured’ vowels), the
tongue tip curls back, like for
any retroflex consonant
2. Differences between BrE & AmE vowels
• Rhotacization and AmE monophthongs

─ Most vowels are partially rhotacised but in AmE /ɜ:/

(e.g. sir, her) and schwa /ǝ/ + /r/ (e.g. letter, colour)
are fully rhotacized

─ Rhotacisation is
indicated with a
superscript right hook:
ɚ ɝ
2. Differences between BrE & AmE vowels

─ Centring diphthongs (/ɪə, eə, ʊə/) do not occur in

AmE or very rarely
Instead AmE has (rhotacized) vowels followed by /r/
2. Differences between BrE & AmE vowels

─ Other differences:

─ In BrE /æ/ (e.g. thank, language, can, man) is more open

than in AmE, where it’s closer and lengthened, sounding
rather like [ɛ:] and similar to BrE /e/

─ /ɒ/ (dog, not) doesn’t occur in AmE. /ɑ:/ used instead

2. Differences between BrE & AmE vowels

BrE monophthongs AmE monophthongs

 3. Summary and references

─ BrE vowel inventory

-12 monoph.: 5 long, 9 short
-8 diph.: 3 centring, 3 closing front, 2 closing back.
-All in str. & unstr. syll. except /ə, i, u/ (in unstressed)

─ Differences between BrE and AmE

-Rhotacization in AmE
-No centring diphthongs in AmE
Roach, P. 2001. English Phonetics & Phonology: A Practical Coursebook. CUP.
Collins, Beverly and Inger M. Mees. 2003. Practical Phonetics & Phonology : A Source
Book for Students. London: Routledge.