Within British English and American English there are also a variety of accents. Some of them have received more attention than others from phoneticians and phonologists. These are Received pronunciation (RP)* and General American (GA).
Received pronunciation is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of southeastern England". RP is close to BBC English (the kind spoken by British newscasters) and it is represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries. RP is rather a social accent than regional, associated with the educated upper classes (and/or people who have attended public schools) in Britain.
English pronunciation is also divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme /r/ is pronounced. Rhotic speakers pronounce written "r" in all positions. They will pronounce the "r" in stork, whereas non-rhotic speakers won't, making no distinction between stork and stalk. Non-rhotic speakers pronounce "r" only if it is followed by a vowel - right, rain, room, Robert, far awey, etc.
Non-rhotic accents are British Received Pronunciation and some other types of British English, Australian, New Zealand and South African English. American English is rhotic (the "r" is always pronounced), with the notable exception of the Boston area and New York City. Rhotic accents can be found also in most of Canada. SE Britain is apparently the source of non-rhotic. England is non-rhotic, apart from the south-western England and some ever-diminishing northern areas. Scotland and Ireland are rhotic.
* "Received" here is used in its older sense to mean "generally accepted".
* "Received" here is used in its older sense to mean "generally accepted".
The Sounds of English and Their Representation
In English, there is no one-to-one relation between the system of writing and the system of pronunciation. The alphabet which we use to write English has 26 letters but in (Standard British) English there are approximately 44 speach sounds. The number of speech sounds in English varies from dialect to dialect, and any actual tally depends greatly on the interpretation of the researcher doing the counting. To represent the basic sound of spoken languages linguists use a set of phonetic symbols called theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The chart below contains all of the IPA symbols used to represent the sounds of the English language. This is the standard set of phonemic symbols for English (RP and similar accents).
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|
- [
] - small capital letter I
- [
] - 'epsilon' -- a Greek letter
- [
] - sometimes called 'upsilon'
- [
] - 'ash'; digraph a-e -- usually just "digraph"
- [
] - script A
- [
] - open O
- [
] - 'caret'
- [
] - 'eng' (right-tail n)
- [
] - 'eth'
- [
] - 'theta'
- [
] - 'schwa'
The colon / : / represents longer duration in pronunciation and is found in long vowels such as / i: /, / a: /, / u: /, etc.
Vowels and Consonants (en/bg)
Classifying the Vowels Sounds of English
The classifcation of vowels is based on four major aspects:
- Tongue height - according to the vertical position of the tongue (high vowels, also referred to as close; low vowels, also referred to as open; intermediate - close-mid and open-mid)
- Frontness vs. backness of the tongue - according to the horizontal position of the highest part of the tongue.
- Lip rounding - whether the lips are rounded (O-shape) or spread (no rounding) when the sound is being made.
- Tenseness of the articulators - refers to the amount of muscular tension around the mouth when creating vowel sounds. Tense and lax are used to describe muscular tension.
| Front vowels (tongue body is pushed forward) | Central vowels (tongue body is neutral) | Back vowels (tongue body is pulled back) | |
| High/close vowels (tongue body is raised) | / / see/ / sit | / / boot/ / book | |
| Mid vowels (tongue body is intermediate) | /e/ bait* / / bet | // sofa**, / / bird | /o/ boat* /  / bought*** |
| Low/open vowels (tongue body is lowered) | // bat | // under** | / / father, / / sock(BrE) |
*In some American accents (especially Californian English), vowel sounds in words such as bait, gate, pane and boat, coat, note are not consider diphthongs. American phonologists often class them as tense monophthongs (/e/ and /o/).
**/
/ is used in unstressed syllables, while // is in stressed syllables. The vowel // used to be a back vowel, and the symbol was chosen for this reason. This is no longer a back vowel, but a central one.***A considerable amount of Americans don't have the deep /
/ in their vocabulary, they pronouce bought, ball, law with the deep // sound.
See also: IPA vowels chart
According to the position of the lips:
- English front and central vowels are always unrounded.
- English back vowels /
Vowel Tenseness:
- Tense vowels (produced with a great amount of muscular tension): /
- Lax vowels (produced with very little muscular tension): /
Classifying the Consonants Sounds of English According to the Manner and Place of Articulation
According to the manner of articulation (how the breath is used) the consonants are: stops, also known as plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, laterals, andapproximants. Nasals, laterals and approximants are always voiced; stops, fricatives and affricates can be voiced or unvoiced.
| Stops /Plosives/ | During production of these sounds, the airflow from the lungs is completely blocked at some point, then released. In English, they are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/. |
| Fricatives | The flow of air is constricted, but not totally stopped or blocked. In English, these include /f/, /v/, //, //, /s/, /z/, /  /, / /, and /h/. |
| Affricates | These sounds begin like stops, with a complete blockage of air/closure of the vocal tract, and end with a restricted flow of air like fricatives. English has two affricates - the / / sounds of "church" and the / / of "judge". |
| Nasals | Nasals are sounds made with air passing through the nose. In English, these are /m/, /n/, and //. |
| Laterals | Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In English there is only one such sound - /l/ |
| Approximants | In the production of an approximant, one articulator is close to another, but the vocal tract is not narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. In English, these are /j/, /w/ and /r/. Approximants /j/ and /w/ are also referred to as semi-vowels. |
According to the place of articulation (where in the mouth or throat the sound is produced) the consonants are:
| Bilabial: with both lips | /p/, /b/, /m/ |
| Labiodental: between lower lip and upper teeth | /f/, /v/ |
| Dental/Interdental: between the teeth | //, // |
| Alveolar: the ridge behind the upper front teeth | /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/ |
| Alveo-palatal (or post-alveolar): it is the area between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate | //, //, //, // |
| Palatal: hard palate, or 'roof' of the mouth' | /j/ |
| Velar: the soft palate or velum | /k/, /g/, // |
| Glottal (laryngeal): space between the vocal cords | /h/ |
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