Let’s now examine in overview (Figure B3.1) the complete vowel system of English NRP.
The terms ‘checked’ and ‘free’ were introduced in Section A2, but we can now say a little bit more about this distinction. In English, checked vowels cannot occur in word-final stressed open syllables. This implies that there are no words like */'tI 'te/, etc., whereas we do find free vowels in this environment, e.g. /'tiː 'taI/ (tea, tie), etc. Since /ә/ is never stressed, it must be regarded as lying outside the checked/free classification. As it is always short, we are discussing it here together with the checked vowels.
Remember what was said earlier (p. 58) about vowel length in NRP English. Other things being equal, checked vowels are shorter than free vowels and diphthongs (e.g. the vowel in rid is shorter than that in reed and raid). In addition, all vowels are shortened by pre-fortis clipping (p. 58), but this shortening effect is much more obvious with free vowels and diphthongs than with checked vowels.
The checked steady-state vowels of English are shown in Figure B3.2.
/I/ |
KIT |
front-central, close-mid |
/e/ |
DRESS |
front mid |
/æ/ |
TRAP |
front open |
The English front checked vowels share the following characteristics:
they are unrounded;
they are centralised and/or lowered before dark l, e.g. pill, bell, pal (see Figure B3.3);
they are raised before velars, e.g. pick, peck, pack.
Many NRP speakers have a lengthened TRAP vowel in certain common words, such as bad, mad, bag, man; this is also true of many southern regional varieties and traditional RP. This is sometimes termed the bad – lad split.
82 (Answers on Website)
Do you have vowels of the same length in the words listed below? Or is the first vowel regularly longer? (If you’re not a native speaker, ask an English-speaking friend.)
mad – had
man – plan
bag – stag
jam – tram
If you do have lengthening of this sort, can you think of any other words which regularly contain a lengthened trap vowel? Ask friends and relatives the same questions.
Traditional RP front checked vowels had closer qualities, an effect which is especially noticeable with TRAP (making it sound amusingly similar to SQUARE to young ears), so that glad sounds like glared. This feature is still to be heard from some of the older generation – one often imitated example being the British Queen. See also Section C5 for discussion of language change affecting TRAP.
/Λ/ |
STRUT |
central open-mid |
/ә/ |
bonUs |
central mid |
STRUT varies considerably – some speakers use a much more front quality, sounding like [a].
In word-final position (e.g. butter, favour, sofa), the bonUs vowel is noticeably open, and overlapping to a degree with STRUT. Indeed, many native English speakers seem to regard these two vowels as being in allophonic relationship. Since /ә/ is always (by definition) unstressed, then /Λ/ could be regarded as the stressed allophone of /ә/. For many speakers, the two vowels in butter /'bΛtә/ are very similar, or identical, sounding like ['bΛtΛ].
Remember that in the accents of the north of England, roughly from just above Birmingham to the Scottish border, STRUT is absent and words containing /Λ/ are instead pronounced with the foot vowel /Ʊ/. See Sections B1, C1 and C2. Note that the bonus vowel can be spelt with any vowel letter.
83
Although native English speakers outside the north of England usually have a contrast STRUT – FOOT /Λ – Ʊ/, nevertheless not all may consider that they contrast the STRUT vowel /Λ/ and the bonUs vowel /ә/. How do you yourself pronounce the syllable drum in the following words: drum – humdrum – conundrum? Do you say them with a STRUT vowel, a FOOT VOWEL or a bonUs vowel? Or do they vary? (If you’re not a native speaker, ask an English-speaking friend.)
/D/ |
LOT |
back open (rounded) |
/Ʊ/ |
FOOT |
back-central close-mid (rounded) |
The checked back vowels have potential lip-rounding, but in modern NRP such rounding is typically very weak. FOOT is often unrounded and central, especially in the high-frequency word good. See above for the use of the FOOT vowel in STRUT words in northern England. In certain words LOT varies with STRUT, e.g. accomplish, constable. In some northern varieties this is extended to more words, e.g. none, one.
Non-native learners of English often confuse STRUT and LOT words. This is because the STRUT vowel, as well as having a regular spelling with u (e.g. bus, hurry), can also be represented orthographically by o, as in worry. We shall therefore term these the worry words, and you can find a list of them in Unit B4, pp. 117–18.
This is a sound–spelling relationship which is especially significant for non-natives, since it is a problem which affects learners from virtually all language backgrounds.
The free steady-state vowels are long in open syllables, and also when preceding nasals, lateral approximants and lenis stops and fricatives. Before fortis stops and fricatives, under the influence of pre-fortis clipping (see Section A5), these vowels are much shorter.
/iː/ |
FLEECE |
front close |
/εː/ |
SQUARE |
front open-mid |
The FLEECE vowel /iː/ is generally realised as a slight diphthongal glide [Ii], except where shortened by pre-fortis clipping. Compare knee (long, diphthongal) with neat (short, steady-state). Preceding dark l, there is usually a centring glide, so that for many speakers there is no contrast with /Iәl/, e.g. reel – real. English native speakers often seem unsure of how to transcribe words like feel, i.e. either as /fiːl/ or as /fIәl/. Thus, for them, the effect of dark l would appear to be to neutralise the contrast.
The final vowel in words like happy, coffee, movie, etc. (usually referred to as the ‘happY words’; see Wells 1982: 165–6) is nowadays much closer than in traditional RP. Indeed, most speakers of English would regard it as falling into the FLEECE rather than the KIT category; this is especially true of younger NRP speakers. Traditional RP speakers, northerners (in particular Yorkshire and Lancashire) and most Scots regard the ‘happy’ vowel as /I/ and this is how it has until recently been classified. At one time, traditional RP had a very open vowel in this context, sounding almost like /e/: [‘hæpe]. This is hardly ever heard today and strikes modern NRP users as archaic. For most English speakers the happy vowel provides an example of phoneme neutralisation (see Section B1), with no clear choice possible between KIT and FLEECE in this context. It’s short like KIT but close like FLEECE. This is why pronunciation dictionaries nowadays show it with the compromise symbol i.
SQUARE /εː/ is typically a steady-state vowel in present-day NRP. For past generations, a centring glide of an [εә] type was usual, and this is still to be heard as a variant pronunciation. In most phonetics books, the symbol for this vowel is eә – but this certainly does not reflect the typical pronunciation of the twenty-first century. This is why the more recent Oxford dictionaries show it with εː, and we have followed their example.
/зː/ |
NURSE |
central open-mid |
/ɑː/ |
PALM |
central open |
NURSE /зː/ was more open in traditional RP – a feature nowadays often regarded as ‘affected’.
In what are termed the BATH words, e.g. craft, pass, dance (see below), most British varieties apart from NRP and those in the south-east of England choose TRAP. NRP, London and East Anglia have PALM in these items. Some speakers, for instance many northerners and Midlanders whose speech is otherwise largely NRP, may retain TRAP in BATH words, thus keeping a characteristic of their local speech. (This is often cited as an example of ‘accent loyalty’.) Worldwide, North American accents choose TRAP, South Africa chooses PALM, while Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean are variable.
The set of BATH words consists chiefly of words where orthographic a occurs before (1) a nasal (+ consonant), e.g. chance, or (2) a fricative (+ consonant), e.g. pass, task. The following list provides a selection of the commonest words.
an |
banana, sultana1 |
am |
example, sample (but ample, exam with /æ/) |
ance |
advance, chance, dance, France, glance, lance, lancet (but romance, finance, cancel, cancer with /æ/) |
and |
command, demand, reprimand (/æ/ in single-syllable words, e.g. bland) |
ans |
answer |
ant |
advantage, chant, grant, plant, can’t,1 shan’t1. Note also: aunt |
af |
after, craft, draft, staff. Note also: laugh, draught |
alf/alv |
|
ask |
ask, task, basket |
asp |
gasp, grasp, clasp |
ass |
brass, class, glass, grass, pass (but ass, classical, classify, mass with /æ/) |
ast |
cast, castle, disaster, fast, fasten, ghastly, master, past, plaster (but -astic is usually /æ/, e.g. plastic, elastic, fantastic) |
ath |
bath, path, rather (but maths with /æ/) |
In NRP there are also a number of words which vary between /æ/ and /ɑː/ (e.g. drastic, plastic) and all words containing the prefix trans-, e.g. transport.
84
How do you yourself pronounce the following words – with the TRAP vowel or the PALM vowel?
prance, bask, brass, rather, task, dancer, answer
If possible, ask people from other parts of the English-speaking world. Does everyone have the same patterning? If not, try to analyse the differences.
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Even if you are from the south-east of England, or an NRP speaker, you’ll find some BATH words are pronounced in two ways. Which vowel (TRAP or PALM) do you use in the words below? (If you’re not a native speaker, ask an English-speaking friend.)
chaff, graph, photograph, askance, bastard, lather, plastic, Glasgow, Basque, trans-(e.g. transport)
/ɔː/ |
THOUGHT |
back mid (rounded) |
/uː/ |
GOOSE |
back-central close (rounded) |
Like other back vowels in English, THOUGHT and GOOSE are rounded – although with many speakers the rounding in GOOSE may be minimal or absent.
The GOOSE vowel is generally realised with a glide of an [Ʊu] type, except where shortened by pre-fortis clipping. For many younger NRP speakers a striking change has occurred in recent years whereby this vowel has become much more fronted and unrounded. Older-generation speakers sometimes interpret this new GOOSE vowel as FLEECE, which may cause confusion with pairs such as two – tea, through – three, etc. The fronting is perhaps most obvious following /j/, as in news, confuse, huge, etc.
The THOUGHT vowel is the most strongly lip-rounded of all vowels in present-day NRP English. For most speakers this vowel replaces traditional /Ʊә/ in common words such as sure, you’re/your, poor, and has increasingly extended to many other items. See below.
Free diphthongs – also termed vowel glides – fall into a number of categories based on direction of tongue movement. English has closing diphthongs (tongue rises, thus closing the space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth) and centring diphthongs (tongue moves towards the central vowel [ә]). The closing diphthongs can be further subdivided into fronting (moving towards a close front vowel [I]) and backing (moving towards a close back vowel [Ʊ]). See Figures B3.5 and B3.6.
All diphthongs are shown with two symbols as explained below:
fronting diphthongs end with I, e.g. /eI/ FACE
backing diphthongs end with Ʊ, e.g. /aƱ/ MOUTH
centring diphthongs end with ә, e.g. /Iә/ NEAR
The diphthongs /eI aI Iә/ are lip-spread throughout their articulation and are therefore represented by 
on vowel diagrams. The diphthongs /Ʊә ɔI/ involve a change from rounded to unrounded (represented by 
). The diphthongs /әƱ aƱ/ move from lip-spread to lip-rounded (represented by 
). NRP English has no vowel glides which are completely lip-rounded throughout.
/eI/ |
FACE |
front mid → I |
/aI/ |
PRICE |
central open → I |
/ɔI/ |
CHOICE |
back open-mid (rounded) → I |
Traditional RP had a closer starting-point for FACE, a more front starting-point for PRICE, and a more open starting-point for CHOICE. These may still be heard from some conservative speakers. In modern NRP, the glide in FACE is very slight where it is affected by pre-fortis clipping but more extensive elsewhere. Before dark l, in FACE, PRICE, CHOICE, the final element is frequently [ә], e.g. ale [eәɫ], mile [maәɫ], oil [ɔәɫ].
/aƱ/ |
MOUTH |
central open → Ʊ |
/әƱ/ |
GOAT |
central close-mid → Ʊ |
Traditional RP had back starting-points for these diphthongs, and these are still to be heard from some older speakers. GOAT in particular still shows very considerable variation. Many NRP speakers now have a more front articulation which can sound similar to /eI/ to older-generation ears, leading to potential confusion with pairs such as cone/cane, go/gay, etc. For certain speakers, the [Ʊ] element may be minimal or lost entirely before dark l, making pairs such as pole/pearl, whole/hurl near-homophones.
Many NRP speakers born in London, or influenced by London speech, employ [D] rather than [әƱ] before dark l, giving an extra diphthong of an [DƱ] type. This can be heard in words like gold, revolt, etc.
/Iә/ |
NEAR |
front close → ә |
/Ʊә/ |
CURE |
back-central close → ә |
Despite the symbolisation, most NRP speakers have a closer starting-point (similar to FLEECE) and may consider NEAR words as being a sequence /iː/ + /ә/. Very open terminations were found in some traditional RP, and are now considered by many to be ‘affected’. Some, especially younger NRP speakers, have a prolonged [Iː] vowel – losing the glide – in open syllables, e.g. beer [bIː].
In the case of CURE, again many NRP speakers have a closer starting-point (similar to GOOSE) and may consider CURE words as a sequence of /uː/ + /ә/. Increasingly, in common words, e.g. poor, /Ʊә/ is replaced by the THOUGHT vowel and, for some speakers, the /Ʊә/ diphthong hardly exists. In words of the cure, tour type, it is replaced by /ɔː/, whereas in words like brewer, jeweller it is thought of as a sequence /uː/ + /ә/.
Note that traditional RP included SQUARE as a third centring diphthong of an [εә] type which can now be regarded as a steady-state vowel (pp. 104–5).
In the common sequences /aIә/ and /aƱә/, the [I] or [Ʊ] element is generally reduced, and may be altogether absent – an effect which has been termed smoothing (Wells 1982: 286). Nevertheless, words like shire and shower are normally distinct. The contrast of /aƱә/ and /ɑː/ (i.e. shower and Shah) was formerly absent in the relaxed speech of some traditional RP speakers – but this suffered a degree of stigmatisation, often being labelled ‘affected’. In modern NRP (as indeed in other forms of English) a clear contrast of /aƱә – aIә – ɑː/ seems to be well maintained. An exception to this is the word our, which is commonly pronounced /ai/ not only in unstressed contexts but also when stressed.
You can hear a degree of smoothing in other sequences, e.g. /eIә/ as in conveyor, /әƱә/ as in thrower, /ɔIә/ as in royalist. Extreme reductions such as the levelling of /eIә/ and /εː/ (layer – lair) or /әƱә/ and /зː/ (slower – slur) are again characteristic of a type of traditional RP which was often branded ‘affected’. These extreme smoothings are unusual in modern NRP.
86
Transcribe phonemically, showing intonation groups and sentence stress, and using weak and contracted forms wherever possible.
Transcription Passage 9
However, this bottle was not marked ‘poison’, so Alice risked tasting it, and found it very nice. It had a sort of mixed flavour – cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee and hot buttered toast – so she very soon finished it off. ‘What a curious feeling,’ said Alice. ‘I must be shutting up like a telescope!’ And so she was indeed. She was now less than a foot high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the tiny door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further. She felt a little nervous about this. ‘It might end, you know, with me going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I’d be like then.’
1 In England and Wales, PALM /ɑː/, is always found in these items.
