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 /ɔ
/
/: bear (sometimes transcribed /ɛ

 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
Central rhotacized
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 close
 
 


  


Starting mid


 


  


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