English phonology

"English IPA" redirects here. For the drink, seeIndia pale ale § United Kingdom.

Englishphonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation inpronunciation,bothhistoricallyand fromdialect to dialect.In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical)phonologicalsystem. Among other things, most dialects havevowel reductioninunstressedsyllablesand a complex set ofphonological featuresthat distinguishfortis and lenisconsonants(stops,affricates,andfricatives).

Phonological analysis of English often concentrates onprestigeorstandardaccents, such asReceived PronunciationforEngland,General Americanfor theUnited States,andGeneral AustralianforAustralia.Nevertheless, many other dialects of English are spoken, which have developed differently from these standardized accents, particularly regional dialects. Descriptions of standardized reference accents provide only a limited guide to the phonology of other dialects of English.

Phonemes

Aphonemeof a language or dialect is anabstractionof aspeech soundor of a group of different sounds that are all perceived to have the same function by speakers of that particular language or dialect. For example, the English wordthroughconsists of three phonemes: the initial "th" sound, the "r" sound, and a vowel sound. The phonemes in that and many other English words do not always correspond directly to the letters used to spell them (Englishorthographyis not as stronglyphonemicas that of many other languages).

The number and distribution of phonemes in English vary from dialect to dialect, and also depend on the interpretation of the individual researcher. The number of consonant phonemes is generally put at 24 (or slightly more depending on the dialect). The number of vowels is subject to greater variation; in the system presented on this page there are 20–25 vowel phonemes inReceived Pronunciation,14–16 inGeneral Americanand 19–21 inAustralian English.The pronunciation keys used in dictionaries generally contain a slightly greater number of symbols than this, to take account of certain sounds used in foreign words and certain noticeable distinctions that may not be—strictly speaking—phonemic.

Consonants

The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English, plus/x/,whose distribution is more limited.Fortisconsonants are alwaysvoiceless,aspiratedinsyllable onset(except in clusters beginning with/s/or/ʃ/), and sometimes alsoglottalizedto an extent insyllable coda(most likely to occur with/t/,seeT-glottalization), while lenis consonants are alwaysunaspiratedand un-glottalized, and generally partially or fullyvoiced.The alveolars are usuallyapical,i.e. pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the roof of the mouth, though some speakers produce themlaminally,i.e. with the blade of the tongue.

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n			ŋ
Plosive	fortis	p		t	tʃ		k
	lenis	b		d	dʒ		ɡ
Fricative	fortis	f	θ	s	ʃ		(x)	h
	lenis	v	ð	z	ʒ
Approximant		w		l	r	j	w

Consonant examples

The following table shows typical examples of the occurrence of the above consonant phonemes in words, usingminimal pairswhere possible.

Fortis		Lenis
/p/	pit	/b/	bit
/t/	tin	/d/	din
/k/	cut	/ɡ/	gut
/tʃ/	cheap	/dʒ/	jeep
/f/	fat	/v/	vat
/θ/	thigh	/ð/	thy
/s/	sap	/z/	zap
/ʃ/	shin / dilution	/ʒ/	delusion
/x/	loch
/h/	ham
		/m/	hum
		/n/	Hun
		/ŋ/	hung
		/j/	your
		/w/	wore
		/r/	rump
		/l/	lump

Sonorants

• The pronunciation of/l/varies by dialect:
  • Received Pronunciation has two main allophones of/l/:the clear or plain[l](the "light L" ), and thedarkorvelarized[ɫ](the "dark L" ). The clear variant is used before vowels when they are in the same syllable, and the dark variant when the/l/precedes a consonant or is in syllable-final position before silence.
  • In South Wales, Ireland, and the Caribbean,/l/is usually clear, and in North Wales, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand it is usually dark.
  • In General American and Canada,/l/is generally dark, but to varying degrees: before stressed vowels it is neutral or only slightly velarized.In southern U.S. accents it is noticeably clear between vowels, and in some other positions.
  • In urban accents of Southern England, as well as New Zealand and some parts of the United States,/l/can be pronounced as an approximant orsemivowel([w],[o],[ʊ]) at the end of a syllable (l-vocalization).
• Depending on dialect,/r/has at least the following allophones in varieties of English around the world (seePronunciation of English /r/):
  • postalveolar approximant[ɹ̠](the most common realization of the/r/phoneme, occurring in most dialects, RP and General American included)
  • retroflex approximant[ɻ](occurs in most Irish dialects and some American dialects)
  • labiodental approximant[ʋ](occurs in south-east England and some London accents; known asr-labialization)
  • alveolar flap[ɾ](occurs in most Scottish, Welsh,Indianand some South African dialects, some conservative dialects in England and Ireland; not to be confused withflappingof/t/and/d/)
  • alveolar trill[r](occurs in some very conservative Scottish dialects and someIndian,South Africanand Welsh accents)
  • voiced uvular fricative[ʁ](occurs in northern Northumbria, largely disappeared; known as theNorthumbrian burr)
• In most dialects/r/islabialized[ɹ̠ʷ]in many positions, as inreed[ɹ̠ʷiːd]andtree[t̠ɹ̠̊ʷiː];in the latter case, the/t/may be slightly labialized as well.
• In somerhotic accents,such as General American,/r/when not followed by a vowel is realized as anr-coloringof the preceding vowel or its coda:nurse[ˈnɚs],butter[ˈbʌɾɚ].
• The distinctions between the nasals areneutralizedin some environments. For example, before a final/p/,/t/or/k/there is nearly always only one nasal sound that can appear in each case:[m],[n]or[ŋ]respectively (as in the wordslimp,lint,link– note that thenoflinkis pronounced[ŋ]). This effect can even occur across syllable or word boundaries, particularly in stressed syllables:synchronyis pronounced[ˈsɪŋkɹəni]whereassynchronicmay be pronounced with either[sɪŋ-]or[sɪn-].For other possible syllable-final combinations, see§ Codain the Phonotactics section below.

Obstruents

In most dialects, the fortis stops and affricate/p,t,tʃ,k/have various different allophones, and are distinguished from the lenis stops and affricate/b,d,dʒ,ɡ/by several phonetic features.

• The allophones of the fortes/p,t,tʃ,k/include:
  • aspirated[pʰ,tʰ,kʰ]when they occur in the onset of astressedsyllable, as inpotato.In clusters involving a following liquid, the aspiration typically manifests as the devoicing of this liquid. These sounds are unaspirated[p,t,k]after/s/within the same syllable, as instan, span, scan,and at the ends of syllables, as inmat,map,mac.The voiceless fricatives are nearly always unaspirated, but a notable exception is English-speaking areas of Wales, where they are often aspirated.
  • In many accents of English, fortis stops/p,t,k,tʃ/areglottalizedin some positions. That may be heard either as a glottal stop preceding the oral closure ( "pre-glottalization" or "glottal reinforcement" ) or as a substitution of the glottal stop[ʔ]for the oral stop (glottal replacement)./tʃ/can be only pre-glottalized. Pre-glottalization normally occurs in British and American English when the fortis consonant phoneme is followed by another consonant or when the consonant is in final position. Thusfootballandcatchingare often pronounced[ˈfʊʔtbɔːl]and[ˈkæʔtʃɪŋ],respectively. Even more frequently, glottal replacement happens in such cases involving/t/,so thatfootballis pronounced[ˈfʊʔbɔːl].In addition, however, glottal replacement is increasingly common in British English when/t/occurs between vowels if the preceding vowel is stressed; thusbetteris often pronounced by younger speakers as[ˈbeʔə].Sucht-glottalizationalso occurs in many British regional accents, includingCockney,where it can also occur at the end of words, and where/p/and/k/are sometimes treated the same way.
  • For some RP-speakers, final voiceless stops, especially/k/,may become ejectives.
• Among stops, both fortes and lenes:
  • May haveno audible release[p̚,b̚,t̚,d̚,k̚,ɡ̚]in the word-final position.These allophones are more common in North America than Great Britain.
  • Almost always have a masked release before another plosive or affricate (as inrubbed[ˈɹʌˑb̚d̥]), i.e. the release of the first stop is made after the closure of the second stop. This also applies when the following stop ishomorganic(articulated in the same place), as intop player.A notable exception isWelsh Englishin which stops are usually released in that environment.
  • The affricates/tʃ,dʒ/have a mandatory fricative release in all environments.
• Very often in the United States and Canada and less frequently in Australiaand New Zealand,both/t/and/d/can bepronounced as a voiced flap[ɾ]in certain positions: when they come between a preceding stressed vowel (possibly with intervening/r/) and precede an unstressed vowel orsyllabic/l/.Examples includewater,bottle,petal,peddle(the last two words sound alike when flapped). The flap may even appear at word boundaries, as inputiton.When the combination/nt/appears in such positions, some American speakers pronounce it as anasalizedflap that may become indistinguishable from/n/,sowinter[ˈwɪɾ̃ɚ]may be pronounced similarly or identically towinner[ˈwɪnɚ].
• Yod-coalescenceis a process thatpalatalizestheclusters/dj/,/tj/,/sj/and/zj/into[dʒ],[tʃ],[ʃ]and[ʒ]respectively, frequently occurring with clusters that would be considered to span a syllable boundary.
  • Yod-coalescence in stressed syllables, such as intuneanddune,occurs inAustralian,Cockney,Estuary English,Hiberno-English(some speakers),Newfoundland English,South African English,and to a certain extent inNew Zealand EnglishandScottish English(many speakers). This can lead to additional homophony; for instance,dewandduecome to be pronounced the same asJew.
  • In certain varieties such asAustralian English,South African English, and New Zealand English,/sj/and/zj/in stressed syllables can coalesce into[ʃ]and[ʒ],respectively. In Australian English for example,assumeis pronounced[əˈʃʉːm]by some speakers.Furthermore, some British, Canadian, American, New Zealand and Australian speakers may change the/s/sound to/ʃ/before/tr/,so that a word having a cluster of⟨str⟩like instrewnwould be pronounced[ʃtruːn].
• Thepostalveolar consonants/tʃ,dʒ,ʃ,ʒ/are stronglylabialized:[tʃʷdʒʷʃʷʒʷ].
• In addition to/tʃ,dʒ/,the sequences/ts,dz,tr,dr,tθ,dð,pf,bv/also have affricate-like realizations in certain positions (as incats, roads, tram, dram, eighth, behind them, cupful, obvious;see also§ Onset), but usually only/tʃ,dʒ/are considered to constitute the monophonemic affricates of English because (among other reasons) only they are found in all of morpheme-initial, -‍internal, and -‍final positions, and native speakers typically perceive them as single units.

Vowels

English, much like other Germanic languages, has a particularly large number of vowel phonemes, and in addition thevowelsof English differ considerably between dialects. Consequently, corresponding vowels may be transcribed with various symbols depending on the dialect under consideration. When considering English as a whole,lexical setsare often used, each named by a word containing the vowel or vowels in question. For example, theLOTset consists of words which, likelot,have/ɒ/inReceived Pronunciationand/ɑ/inGeneral American.The "LOTvowel "then refers to the vowel that appears in those words in whichever dialect is being considered, or (at a greater level ofabstraction) to adiaphoneme,which represents this interdialectal correspondence. A commonly-used system of lexical sets, devised byJohn C. Wells,is presented below; for each set, the corresponding phonemes are given for RP and General American, using the notation that will be used on this page.

Full monophthongs

LS	RP	GA
TRAP	æ	æ
BATH	ɑː
PALM		ɑ
LOT	ɒ
CLOTH		ɔ,ɑ
THOUGHT	ɔː
KIT	ɪ
DRESS	e	ɛ
STRUT	ʌ
FOOT	ʊ

Potential
diphthongs

LS	RP	GA
FACE	eɪ
GOAT	əʊ	oʊ
FLEECE	iː	i
GOOSE	uː	u

Full diphthongs

LS	RP	GA
PRICE	aɪ
CHOICE	ɔɪ
MOUTH	aʊ

Vowels before historical/r/

LS	RP	GA
NURSE	ɜː	ɜr
START	ɑː	ɑr
NORTH	ɔː	ɔr
FORCE		ɔr,oʊr
NEAR	ɪə	ɪr
SQUARE	ɛː	ɛr
CURE	ʊə,ɔː	ʊr

Reduced vowels

LS	RP	GA
COMMA	ə	ə
LETTER		ər
HAPPY	i

For a table that shows the pronunciations of these vowels in a wider range of English dialects, seeIPA chart for English dialects.

The following tables show the vowel phonemes of three standard varieties of English. The notation system used here for Received Pronunciation (RP) is fairly standard; the others less so. The feature descriptions given here (front, close, etc.) are abstracted somewhat; the actual pronunciations of these vowels are somewhat more accurately conveyed by theIPAsymbols used (seeVowelfor a chart indicating the meanings of these symbols; though note also the points listed below the following tables). The symbols given in the table are traditional but redirect to their modern implementation.

Received Pronunciation

	Front		Central		Back
					unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ	iː	ʊ	uː				ɔː
Mid	e	ɛː	ə	ɜː	ʌ		ɒ
Open	æ					ɑː
Diphthongs	eɪaɪɔɪaʊəʊɪəʊə
Triphthongs	(eɪəaɪəɔɪəaʊəəʊə)

General American

	Front		Central		Back
	lax	tense	lax	tense	lax	tense
Close	ɪ	i			ʊ	u
Mid	ɛ	eɪ	ə	(ɜ)	(ʌ)	oʊ
Open	æ			ɑ		(ɔ)
Diphthongs	aɪɔɪaʊ

General Australian

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ	iː		ʉː	ʊ	oː
Mid	e	eː	ə	ɜː	ɔ
Open	æ	(æː)	a	aː
Diphthongs	æɪɑɪoɪæɔəʉɪə(ʊə)

The differences between these tables can be explained as follows:

• General American lacks a phoneme corresponding to RP/ɒ/(LOT,CLOTH), instead using/ɑ/in theLOTwords and generally/ɔ/in theCLOTHwords. In a few North American accents, namely inEastern New England(Boston)LOTwords do not have the vowel ofPALM(thefather–bothermergerhas not occurred) but instead merge withCLOTH/THOUGHT.
• Although the notation/ʌ/is used for the vowel ofSTRUTin RP and General American, the actual pronunciation in RP may be closer to a near-open central vowel[ɐ],especially among older speakers. In modern RP, this vowel is increasingly realized as[ʌ]to avoid the clash with the lowered variety of/æ/in the[a]region (thetrap–strutmerger). In General American,/ʌ/is invariably realized as[ʌ],whereas[ɐ]does not appear in this context.
• RP transcriptions use ⟨e⟩ rather than ⟨ɛ⟩ largely for convenience and historical tradition; it does not necessarily represent a different sound from the General American phoneme, as theDRESSvowel is generally realized as[ɛ]in modern RP.
• The different notations used for the vowel ofGOATin RP and General American (/əʊ/and/oʊ/) reflect a difference in the most common phonetic realizations of that vowel.
• The triphthongs given in the RP table are usually regarded as sequences of two phonemes (a diphthong plus/ə/); however, in RP, these sequences frequently undergosmoothinginto single diphthongs or even monophthongs.
• The different notations used here for some of the Australian vowels reflect the phonetic realization of those vowels in Australian: a central[ʉː]rather than[uː]inGOOSE,a more closed[e]rather than[ɛ]inDRESS,a close-mid[oː]rather than traditional RP's[ɔː]inTHOUGHT,an open-mid[ɔ]rather than traditional RP's[ɒ]inLOT,an opener[a]rather than somewhat closer[ʌ]inSTRUT,a central[aː]rather a back[ɑː]inCALMandSTART,and somewhat different pronunciations of most of the diphthongs. Note that central[ʉː]inGOOSE,close-mid[oː]inTHOUGHTand open-mid[ɔ]inLOTare standard realizations in modern RP and the difference between modern RP and Australian English in these vowels lies almost only in transcription, rather than pronunciation.
• Both Australian/eː/and RP/ɛː/are long monophthongs, the difference between them being in tongue height: Australian/eː/is close-mid[eː],whereas the corresponding RP vowel is open-mid[ɛː].

Other points to be noted are these:

• The vowel/æ/is coming to be pronounced more open (approaching[a]) by many modern RP speakers. In American speech, however, there is a tendency for it to become more closed, tenser and even diphthongized (to something like[eə]), particularly in certain environments, such as before anasal consonant,though younger speakers of some varieties are lowering/æ/like RP speakers (seeCanadian shift). Some American accents, for example those ofNew York City,PhiladelphiaandBaltimore,make a marginal phonemic distinction between/æ/and/eə/,although the two occur largely in mutually exclusive environments. See/æ/ raising.
• A significant number of words (theBATHgroup) have/æ/in General American, but/ɑː/in RP. The pronunciation varies between/æ/and/aː/in Australia, with speakers fromSouth Australiausing/aː/more extensively than speakers from other regions.
• In General American and Canadian (which arerhotic accents,where/r/is pronounced in positions where it does not precede a vowel), many of the vowels can ber-coloredby way of realization of a following/r/.This is often transcribed phonetically using a vowel symbol with an added retroflexiondiacritic⟨˞⟩; thus the symbol[ɚ]has been created for an r-coloredschwa(sometimes called schwar) as inLETTER,and the vowel ofSTARTcan be modified to make[ɑ˞]so that the wordstartmay be transcribed[stɑ˞t].Alternatively, theSTARTsequence might be written[stɑɚt]to indicate an r-colored offglide. The vowel ofNURSEis generally always r-colored in these dialects, and this can be written[ɚ](or as a syllabic[ɹ̩]).
• In modern RP and other dialects, many words from theCUREgroup are coming to be pronounced by an increasing number of speakers with theNORTHvowel (sosureis often pronounced likeshore).
• The vowels ofFLEECEandGOOSEare commonly pronounced as narrow diphthongs, approaching[ɪi]and[ʊu],in RP. Near-RP speakers may have particularly marked diphthongization of the type[əi]and[əu~əʉ],respectively. In General American, the pronunciation varies between a monophthong and a diphthong.

Allophones of vowels

Listed here are some of the significant cases ofallophonyof vowels found within standard English dialects.

• Vowels are shortened when followed in a syllable by a voiceless (fortis) consonant.This is known aspre-fortis clipping.Thus in the following word pairs the first item has a shortened vowel while the second has a normal length vowel: 'right'/raɪt/– 'ride'/raɪd/;'face'/feɪs/– 'phase'/feɪz/;'advice'/ədvaɪs/– 'advise'/ədvaɪz/.
• In many accents of English,tensevowels undergobreakingbefore/l/,resulting in pronunciations like[pʰiəɫ]forpeel,[pʰuəɫ]forpool,[pʰeəɫ]forpail,and[pʰoəɫ]forpole.
• In RP, the vowel/əʊ/may be pronounced more back, as[ɒʊ],before syllable-final/l/,as ingoal.In standard Australian English the vowel/əʉ/is similarly backed to[ɔʊ]before/l/.A similar phenomenon may occur inSouthern American English.
• The vowel/ə/is often pronounced[ɐ]in open syllables.
• ThePRICEandMOUTHdiphthongs may be pronounced with a less open starting point when followed by avoicelessconsonant;this is chiefly a feature of Canadian speech (Canadian raising), but is also found in parts of the United States.Thuswritermay be distinguished fromridereven whenflappingcauses the/t/and/d/to be pronounced identically.

Unstressed syllables

Further information:Stress and vowel reduction in English

Unstressed syllablesin English may contain almost any vowel, but in practice vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables tend to use different inventories of phonemes. In particular, long vowels are used less often in unstressed syllables than stressed syllables. Additionally there are certain sounds—characterized bycentralposition and weakness—that are particularly often found as the nuclei of unstressed syllables. These include:

• schwa,[ə],as inCOMMAand (in non-rhotic dialects)LETTER(COMMA–LETTERmerger); also in many other positions such asabout,photograph,paddock,etc. This sound is essentially restricted to unstressed syllables exclusively. In the approach presented here it is identified as a phoneme/ə/,although other analyses do not have a separate phoneme for schwa and regard it as a reduction or neutralization of other vowels in syllables with the lowest degree of stress.
• r-colored schwa,[ɚ],as inLETTERin General American and some other rhotic dialects, which can be identified with the underlying sequence/ər/.
• syllabic consonants:[l̩]as inbottle,[n̩]as inbutton,[m̩]as inrhythm.These may be phonemized either as a plain consonant or as a schwa followed by a consonant; for examplebuttonmay be represented as/ˈbʌtn̩/or/ˈbʌtən/(see above underConsonants).
• [ɨ̞],as inrosesandmaking.This can be identified with the phoneme/ɪ/,although in unstressed syllables it may be pronounced more centrally, and for some speakers (particularly in Australian and New Zealand and some American English) it is merged with/ə/in these syllables (weak vowel merger). Among speakers who retain the distinction there are many cases wherefree variationbetween/ɪ/and/ə/is found, as in the second syllable oftypical.(TheOEDhas recently adopted the symbol⟨ᵻ⟩to indicate such cases.)
• [ʉ̞],as inargument,today,for which similar considerations apply as in the case of[ɨ̞].(The symbol⟨ᵿ⟩is sometimes used in these cases, similarly to⟨ᵻ⟩.) Some speakers may also have a rounded schwa,[ɵ̞],used in words likeomission[ɵ̞ˈmɪʃən].
• [i],as inhappy,coffee,in many dialects (others have[ɪ]in this position).The phonemic status of this[i]is not easy to establish. Some authors consider it to correspond phonemically with a close front vowel that is neither the vowel ofKITnor that ofFLEECE;it occurs chiefly in contexts where the contrast between these vowels is neutralized,implying that it represents anarchiphoneme,which may be written/i/.Many speakers, however, do have a contrast in pairs of words likestudiedandstuddedortaxisandtaxes;the contrast may be[i]vs.[ɪ],[ɪ]vs.[ə]or[i]vs.[ə],and thus some authors consider that thehappY-vowel should be identified phonemically either with the vowel ofKITor that ofFLEECE,depending on the speaker.See alsohappy-tensing.
• [u],as ininfluence,toeach.This is the back rounded counterpart to[i]described above; its phonemic status is treated in the same works as cited there.

Vowel reductionin unstressed syllables is a significant feature of English. Syllables of the types listed above often correspond to a syllable containing a different vowel ( "full vowel" ) used in other forms of the samemorphemewhere that syllable is stressed. For example, the firstoinphotograph,being stressed, is pronounced with theGOATvowel, but inphotography,where it is unstressed, it is reduced to schwa. Also, certain common words (a,an,of,for,etc.) are pronounced with a schwa when they are unstressed, although they have different vowels when they are in a stressed position (seeWeak and strong forms in English).

Some unstressed syllables, however, retain full (unreduced) vowels, i.e. vowels other than those listed above. Examples are the/æ/inambitionand the/aɪ/infinite.Some phonologists regard such syllables as not being fully unstressed (they may describe them as havingtertiary stress); some dictionaries have marked such syllables as havingsecondary stress.However linguists such as LadefogedandBolinger (1986)regard this as a difference purely of vowel quality and not of stress,and thus argue that vowel reduction itself is phonemic in English. Examples of words where vowel reduction seems to be distinctive for some speakersincludechickareevs.chicory(the latter has the reduced vowel ofHAPPY,whereas the former has theFLEECEvowel without reduction), andPharaohvs.farrow(both have theGOATvowel, but in the latter word it may reduce to[ɵ]).

Lexical stress

Main article:Stress and vowel reduction in English

Lexical stressis phonemic in English. For example, the nounincreaseand the verbincreaseare distinguished by the positioning of the stress on the first syllable in the former, and on the second syllable in the latter. (Seeinitial-stress-derived noun.) Stressed syllables in English are louder than non-stressed syllables, as well as being longer and having a higher pitch.

In traditional approaches, in any English word consisting of more than onesyllable,each syllable is ascribed one of three degrees of stress:primary,secondaryorunstressed.Ordinarily, in each such word there will be exactly one syllable with primary stress, possibly one syllable having secondary stress, and the remainder are unstressed (unusually-long words may have multiple syllables with secondary stress). For example, the wordamazinghas primary stress on the second syllable, while the first and third syllables are unstressed, whereas the wordorganizationhas primary stress on the fourth syllable, secondary stress on the first, and the second, third, and fifth unstressed. This is often shown in pronunciation keys using theIPAsymbols for primary and secondary stress (which are ˈ and ˌ respectively), placed before the syllables to which they apply. The two words just given may therefore be represented (inRP) as/əˈmeɪzɪŋ/and/ˌɔːɡənaɪˈzeɪʃən/.

Some analysts identify an additional level of stress (tertiarystress). This is generally ascribed to syllables that are pronounced with less force than those with secondary stress, but nonetheless contain a "full" or "unreduced" vowel (vowels that are considered to be reduced are listed underEnglish phonology § Unstressed syllablesabove). Hence the third syllable oforganization,if pronounced with/aɪ/as shown above (rather than being reduced to/ɪ/or/ə/), might be said to have tertiary stress. (The precise identification of secondary and tertiary stress differs between analyses; dictionaries do not generally show tertiary stress, although some have taken the approach of marking all syllables with unreduced vowels as having at least secondary stress.)

In some analyses, then, the concept of lexical stress may become conflated with that of vowel reduction. An approach that attempts to separate both is provided byPeter Ladefoged,who states that it is possible to describe English with only one degree of stress, as long asunstressed syllablesare phonemically distinguished forvowel reduction.In this approach, the distinction between primary and secondary stress is regarded as a phonetic or prosodic detail rather than a phonemic feature – primary stress is seen as an example of the predictable "tonic" stress that falls on thefinalstressed syllable of aprosodic unit.For more details of this analysis, seeStress and vowel reduction in English.

For stress as a prosodic feature (emphasis of particular words within utterances), see§ Prosodic stressbelow.

Phonotactics

Phonotacticsis the study of the sequences of phonemes that occur in languages and the sound structures that they form. In this study it is usual to represent consonants in general with the letter C and vowels with the letter V, so that a syllable such as 'be' is described as having CV structure. TheIPAsymbol used to show a division between syllables is the full stop ⟨.⟩. Syllabification is the process of dividing continuous speech into discrete syllables, a process in which the position of a syllable division is not always easy to decide upon.

Most languages of the world syllabifyCVCVandCVCCVsequences as/CV.CV/and/CVC.CV/or/CV.CCV/,with consonants preferentially acting as the onset of a syllable containing the following vowel. According to one view, English is unusual in this regard, in that stressed syllables attract following consonants, so thatˈCVCVandˈCVCCVsyllabify as/ˈCVC.V/and/ˈCVCC.V/,as long as the consonant clusterCCis a possible syllable coda; in addition,/r/preferentially syllabifies with the preceding vowel even when both syllables are unstressed, so thatCVrVoccurs as/CVr.V/.This is the analysis used in theLongman Pronunciation Dictionary.However, this view is not widely accepted, as explained in the following section.

Syllable structure

English allows clusters of up to three consonants in the syllable onset and up to four consonants in the syllable coda,giving a general syllable structure of (C)³V(C)⁴,a potential example beingstrengths/strɛŋkθs/(although this word has variant pronunciations with only 3 coda consonants, such as/strɛŋθs/). A five-consonant coda may occur in the wordangsts,but this is a highly exceptional case, as the word is both infrequent and not always pronounced with five final segments(it can be analyzed as a VC⁴syllable/æŋsts/rather than as VC⁵/æŋksts/). From the phonetic point of view, the analysis of syllable structures is a complex task: because of widespread occurrences of articulatory overlap, English speakers rarely produce an audible release of individual consonants in consonant clusters.This coarticulation can lead to articulatory gestures that seem very much like deletions or complete assimilations. For example,hundred poundsmay sound like[hʌndɹɪbpaʊndz]andjumped back(in slow speech,[dʒʌmptbæk]) may sound like[dʒʌmpbæk],but X-rayandelectropalatographicstudies demonstrate that inaudible and possibly weakened contacts or lingual gestures may still be made. Thus the second/d/inhundred poundsdoes not entirely assimilate to a labial place of articulation, rather the labial gesture co-occurs with the alveolar one; the "missing"[t]injumped backmay still be articulated, though not heard.

Division into syllables is a difficult area, and different theories have been proposed. A widely accepted approach is the maximal onset principle:this states that, subject to certain constraints, any consonants in between vowels should be assigned to the following syllable. Thus the wordleavingshould be divided/ˈliː.vɪŋ/rather than */ˈliːv.ɪŋ/,andhastyis/ˈheɪ.sti/rather than */ˈheɪs.ti/or */ˈheɪst.i/.However, when such a division results in an onset cluster that is not allowed in English, the division must respect this. Thus if the wordextrawere divided */ˈɛ.kstrə/the resulting onset of the second syllable would be/kstr/,a cluster that does not occur initially in English. The division/ˈɛk.strə/is therefore preferred. If assigning a consonant or consonants to the following syllable would result in the preceding syllable ending in an unreduced short vowel, this is avoided. Thus the wordlemmashould be divided/ˈlɛm.ə/and not */ˈlɛ.mə/,even though the latter division gives the maximal onset to the following syllable.

In some cases, no solution is completely satisfactory: for example, in British English (RP) the wordhurrycould be divided/ˈhʌ.ri/or/ˈhʌr.i/,but the former would result in an analysis with a syllable-final/ʌ/(which is held to be non-occurring) while the latter would result in a syllable final/r/(which is said not to occur in this accent). Some phonologists have suggested a compromise analysis where the consonant in the middle belongs to both syllables, and is described asambisyllabic.In this way, it is possible to suggest an analysis ofhurrythat comprises the syllables/hʌr/and/ri/,the medial/r/being ambisyllabic. Where the division coincides with a word boundary, or the boundary between elements of a compound word, it is not usual in the case of dictionaries to insist on the maximal onset principle in a way that divides words in a counter-intuitive way; thus the wordhardwarewould be divided/ˈhɑː.dweə/by the maximal onset principle, but dictionaries prefer the division/ˈhɑːd.weə/.

In the approach used by theLongman Pronunciation Dictionary,Wellsclaims that consonants syllabify with the preceding rather than following vowel when the preceding vowel is the nucleus of a more salient syllable, with stressed syllables being the most salient, reduced syllables the least, and full unstressed vowels ( "secondary stress" ) intermediate. But there are lexical differences as well, frequently but not exclusively with compound words. For example, indolphinandselfish,Wells argues that the stressed syllable ends in/lf/,but inshellfish,the/f/belongs with the following syllable:/ˈdɒlf.ɪn,ˈself.ɪʃ/→[ˈdɒlfɪ̈n,ˈselfɪ̈ʃ],but/ˈʃel.fɪʃ/→[ˈʃelˑfɪʃ],where the/l/is a little longer and the/ɪ/is not reduced. Similarly, intoe-strapWells argues that the second/t/is a full plosive, as usual in syllable onset, whereas intoast-rackthe second/t/is in many dialects reduced to the unreleased allophone it takes in syllable codas, or even elided:/ˈtoʊ.stræp/,/ˈtoʊst.ræk/→[ˈtoˑʊstɹæp,ˈtoʊs(t̚)ɹæk];likewisenitrate/ˈnaɪtr.eɪt/→[ˈnaɪtɹ̥eɪt]with a voiceless/r/(and for some people an affricatedtras intree), vsnight-rate/ˈnaɪt.reɪt/→[ˈnaɪt̚ɹeɪt]with a voiced/r/.Cues of syllable boundaries include aspiration of syllable onsets and (in the US) flapping of coda/t,d/(a tease/ə.ˈtiːz/→[əˈtʰiːz]vs.at ease/ət.ˈiːz/→[əɾˈiːz]), epenthetic stops like[t]in syllable codas (fence/ˈfens/→[ˈfents]butinside/ɪn.ˈsaɪd/→[ɪnˈsaɪd]), and r-colored vowels when the/r/is in the coda vs. labialization when it is in the onset(key-ring/ˈkiː.rɪŋ/→[ˈkiːɹʷɪŋ]butfearing/ˈfiːr.ɪŋ/→[ˈfɪəɹɪŋ]).

Onset

The following can occur as theonset:

All single-consonant phonemes except/ŋ/
Stop plus approximant other than/j/: /pl/,/bl/,/kl/,/ɡl/,/pr/,/br/,/tr/,/dr/,/kr/,/ɡr/,/tw/,/dw/,/ɡw/,/kw/,/pw/	play, blood, clean, glove, prize, bring, tree,dream,crowd, green, twin, dwarf, Guam, quick, puissance
Voiceless fricative or/v/plus approximant other than/j/: /fl/,/sl/,/θl/,/ʃl/,/fr/,/θr/,/ʃr/,/hw/,/sw/,/θw/,/vw/	floor, sleep, thlipsis,schlep, friend, three, shrimp, what,swing, thwart, voilà
Consonant other than/r/or/w/plus/j/(before/uː/or its modified/reduced forms): /pj/,/bj/,/tj/,/dj/,/kj/,/ɡj/,/mj/,/nj/,/fj/,/vj/,/θj/,/sj/,/zj/,/hj/,/lj/	pure, beautiful, tube,during,cute, argue, music, new,few, view, thew,suit,Zeus,huge, lurid
/s/plus voiceless stop: /sp/,/st/,/sk/	speak, stop, skill
/s/plus nasal other than/ŋ/: /sm/,/sn/	smile, snow
/s/plus voiceless non-sibilant fricative: /sf/,/sθ/	sphere, sthenic
/s/plus voiceless stop plus approximant: /spl/,/skl/,/spr/,/str/,/skr/,/skw/,/spj/,/stj/,/skj/	split, sclera, spring, street, scream, square, spew, student,skewer
/s/plus nasal plus approximant: /smj//snj/	smew, snew
/s/plus voiceless non-sibilant fricative plus approximant: /sfr/	sphragistics

Notes:

Other onsets

Certain English onsets appear only in contractions: e.g./zbl/('sblood), and/zw/or/dzw/('swoundsor'dswounds). Some, such as/pʃ/(pshaw),/fw/(fwoosh), or/vr/(vroom), can occur ininterjections.An archaic voiceless fricative plus nasal exists,/fn/(fnese), as does an archaic/snj/(snew).

Several additional onsets occur inloan words(with varying degrees of anglicization) such as/bw/(bwana),/mw/(moiré),/nw/(noire),/tsw/(zwitterion),/zw/(zwieback),/dv/(Dvorak),/kv/(kvetch),/ʃv/(schvartze),/tv/(Tver),/tsv/(Zwickau),/kʃ/(Kshatriya),/tl/(Tlaloc),/vl/(Vladimir),/zl/(zloty),/tsk/(Tskhinvali),/hm/(Hmong),/km/(Khmer), and/ŋ/(Nganasan).

Some clusters of this type can be converted to regular English phonotactics by simplifying the cluster: e.g./(d)z/(dziggetai),/(h)r/(Hrolf),/kr(w)/(croissant),/(ŋ)w/(Nguyen),/(p)f/(pfennig),/(f)θ/(phthalic),/(t)s/(tsunami),/(ǃ)k/(!kung), and/k(ǁ)/(Xhosa).

Others can be replaced by native clusters differing only invoice:/zb~sp/(sbirro), and/zɡr~skr/(sgraffito).

Nucleus

The following can occur as thenucleus:

• All vowel sounds
• /m/,/n/and/l/in certain situations (see below underword-level patterns)
• /r/inrhotic varietiesof English (e.g.General American) in certain situations (see below underword-level patterns)

Coda

Most (in theory, all) of the following except those that end with/s/,/z/,/ʃ/,/ʒ/,/tʃ/or/dʒ/can be extended with/s/or/z/representing themorpheme-s/-z. Similarly, most (in theory, all) of the following except those that end with/t/or/d/can be extended with/t/or/d/representing the morpheme -t/-d.

Wells (1990)argues that a variety of syllable codas are possible in English, even/ntr,ndr/in words likeentry/ˈɛntr.i/andsundry/ˈsʌndr.i/,with/tr,dr/being treated as affricates along the lines of/tʃ,dʒ/.He argues that the traditional assumption that pre-vocalic consonants form a syllable with the following vowel is due to the influence of languages like French and Latin, where syllable structure is CVC.CVC regardless of stress placement. Disregarding such contentious cases, which do not occur at the ends of words, the following sequences can occur as thecoda:

The single consonant phonemes except/h/,/w/,/j/and, innon-rhotic varieties,/r/
Lateral approximant plus stop or affricate:/lp/,/lb/,/lt/,/ld/,/ltʃ/,/ldʒ/,/lk/	help, bulb, belt, hold, belch, indulge, milk
In rhotic varieties,/r/plus stop or affricate:/rp/,/rb/,/rt/,/rd/,/rtʃ/,/rdʒ/,/rk/,/rɡ/	harp, orb, fort, beard, arch, large, mark, morgue
Lateral approximant + fricative:/lf/,/lv/,/lθ/,/ls/,/lz/,/lʃ/,(/lð/)	golf, solve, wealth, else, bells, Welsh, (stealth (v.))
In rhotic varieties,/r/+ fricative:/rf/,/rv/,/rθ/,/rð/,/rs/,/rz/,/rʃ/	dwarf, carve, north, birth (v.), force, Mars, marsh
Lateral approximant + nasal:/lm/,/ln/	film, kiln
In rhotic varieties,/r/+ nasal or lateral:/rm/,/rn/,/rl/	arm, born, snarl
Nasal +homorganicstop or affricate:/mp/,/nt/,/nd/,/ntʃ/,/ndʒ/,/ŋk/;some varieties also allow/ŋg/	jump, tent, end, lunch, lounge, pink, sing
Nasal + fricative:/mf/,/mz/,/mθ/,(/nf/),/nθ/,(/ns/),/nz/,/ŋz/;some varieties also allow/ŋθ/	triumph, Thames, warmth, (saunf), month, (prince), bronze, songs, length, strength
Voiceless fricative plus voiceless stop:/ft/,/sp/,/st/,/sk/,/ʃt/,/θt/	left, crisp, lost, ask, smashed, smithed
Voiced fricative plus voiced stop:/zd/,/ðd/	blazed, writhed
Two or three voiceless fricatives:/fθ/,/fθs/	fifth, fifths
Two voiceless stops:/pt/,/kt/	opt, act
Two voiceless stops + fricative:/pts/,/kts/	opts, acts
Stop plus fricative:/pθ/,/ps/,/tθ/,/ts/,/dθ/,/dz/,/ks/	depth, lapse, eighth, klutz, width, adze, box
Lateral approximant + two or three consonants:/lmd/,/lpt/,/lps/,/lfθ/,/lts/,/lst/,/lkt/,/lks/	filmed, sculpt, alps, twelfth,waltz, whilst, mulct, calx
In rhotic varieties,/r/+ two consonants:/rmd/,/rmθ/,/rpt/,/rps/,/rnd/,/rts/,/rst/,/rld/,/rkt/	farmed, warmth, excerpt, corpse, mourned, quartz, horst, world, infarct
Nasal + homorganic stop + stop or fricative:/mpt/,/mps/,/nts/,/ntθ/,/ŋkt/,/ŋks/,/ŋkθ/in some varieties	prompt, glimpse, chintz, thousandth, distinct, jinx, length
Nasal + homorganic stop + two fricatives:/ntθs/	thousandths
Nasal + non-homorganic stop:/mt/,/md/,/ŋd/	dreamt, hemmed, hanged
Three obstruents:/ksθ/,/kst/	sixth, next
Four obstruents:/ksθs/,/ksθt/,/ksts/	sixths, sixthed, texts

• Notes:

For some speakers, a fricative before/θ/is elided so that these never appear phonetically:/fɪfθ/becomes[fɪθ],/sɪksθ/becomes[sɪkθ],/twɛlfθ/becomes[twɛlθ].

Syllable-level patterns

• Syllables may consist of a single vowel, meaning that onset and coda are not mandatory.
• The consonant/ŋ/does not occur in syllable-initial position (most speakers do not maintain it even in loans likeNgorongoroandNguyen).
• The consonant/h/does not occur in syllable-final position.
• Onset clusters ending in/j/are followed by/uː/or its variants (see§ Onsetnote e above).
• Long vowels and diphthongs are not found before/ŋ/,except for the mimetic wordsboingandoink,unassimilated foreign words such as Burmeseaungand proper names such asTaung,and American-type pronunciations of words likestrong(which have/ɔŋ/or/ɑŋ/). The short vowels/ɛ,ʊ/occur before/ŋ/only in assimilated non-native words such asginsengandSong(name of a Chinese dynasty) or non-finally in some dialects in words likestrengthandlengthas well as in varieties without thefoot-strutsplit.
• /ʊ/is rare in syllable-initial position (although in the northern half of England,[ʊ]is used for/ʌ/and is common at the start of syllables).
• Stop +/w/before/uː,ʊ,ʌ,aʊ/(all presently or historically/u(ː)/) are excluded.
• Sequences of/s/+ C₁+ V̆ + C₁,where C₁is a consonant other than/t/and V̆ is a short vowel, are virtually nonexistent.

Word-level patterns

• /ə/does not occur in stressed syllables, unless it is merged with another vowel as in some varieties.
• /ʒ/does not occur in word-initial position in native English words, although it can occur syllable-initially as inluxurious/lʌɡˈʒʊəriəs/in American English, and at the start of borrowed words such asgenre.
• /m/,/n/,/l/and, inrhotic varieties,/r/can be the syllable nucleus (i.e. asyllabic consonant) in an unstressed syllable following another consonant, especially/t/,/d/,/s/or/z/.Such syllables are often analyzed phonemically as having an underlying/ə/as the nucleus. See above underConsonants.
• The short vowels arechecked vowels,in that they cannot occur without a coda in a word-final stressed syllable. (This does not apply to/ə/,which does not occur in stressed syllables as mentioned above.)

Prosody

Theprosodicfeatures of English – stress, rhythm, and intonation – can be described as follows.

Prosodic stress

Prosodic stressis extra stress given to words or syllables when they appear in certain positions in an utterance, or when they receive special emphasis.

According to Ladefoged's analysis (as referred to under§ Lexical stressabove), English normally has prosodic stress on the final stressed syllable in anintonation unit.This is said to be the origin of the distinction traditionally made at the lexical level between primary and secondary stress: when a word likeadmiration(traditionally transcribed as something like/ˌædmɪˈreɪʃən/) is spoken in isolation, or at the end of a sentence, the syllablera(the final stressed syllable) is pronounced with greater force than the syllablead,although when the word is not pronounced with this final intonation there may be no difference between the levels of stress of these two syllables.

Prosodic stress can shift for variouspragmaticfunctions, such as focus or contrast. For instance, in the dialogueIs it brunch tomorrow? No, it'sdinnertomorrow,the extra stress shifts from the last stressed syllable of the sentence,tomorrow,to the last stressed syllable of the emphasized word,dinner.

Grammaticalfunction wordsare usually prosodically unstressed, although they can acquire stress when emphasized (as inDid you find the cat? Well, I foundacat). Many English function words have distinct strong and weak pronunciations; for example, the wordain the last example is pronounced/eɪ/,while the more common unstressedais pronounced/ə/.SeeWeak and strong forms in English.

Rhythm

English is claimed to be astress-timedlanguage. That is, stressed syllables tend to appear with a more or less regular rhythm, while non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this. For example, in the sentenceOne make of car is better than another,the syllablesone,make,car,bett-and-noth-will be stressed and relatively long, while the other syllables will be considerably shorter. The theory of stress-timing predicts that each of the three unstressed syllables in betweenbett-and-noth-will be shorter than the syllableofbetweenmakeandcar,because three syllables must fit into the same amount of time as that available forof.However, it should not be assumed that all varieties of English are stress-timed in this way. The English spoken in the West Indies,in Africaand in Indiaare probably better characterized assyllable-timed,though the lack of an agreed scientific test for categorizing an accent or language as stress-timed or syllable-timed may lead one to doubt the value of such a characterization.

Intonation

Further information:Intonation (linguistics) § English

Phonological contrasts in intonation can be said to be found in three different and independent domains. In the work of Hallidaythe following names are proposed:

• Tonalityfor the distribution of continuous speech into tone groups.
• Tonicityfor the placing of the principal accent on a particular syllable of a word, making it thetonic syllable.This is the domain also referred to asprosodic stressorsentence stress.
• Tonefor the choice of pitch movement on the tonic syllable. (The use of the termtonein this sense should not be confused with thetoneof tone languages, such as Chinese.)

These terms ( "the Three Ts" ) have been used in more recent work,though they have been criticized for being difficult to remember.American systems such asToBIalso identify contrasts involving boundaries between intonation phrases (Halliday'stonality), placement of pitch accent (tonicity), and choice of tone or tones associated with the pitch accent (tone).

Example of phonological contrast involving placement of intonation unit boundaries (boundary marked by comma):

1. Those who ran quickly, escaped. (the only people who escaped were those who ran quickly)
2. Those who ran, quickly escaped. (the people who ran escaped quickly)

Example of phonological contrast involving placement of tonic syllable (marked by capital letters):

1. I have plans to LEAVE. (= I am planning to leave)
2. I have PLANS to leave. (= I have some drawings to leave)

Example of phonological contrast (British English) involving choice of tone (\ = falling tone, \/ = fall-rise tone)

1. She didn't break the record because of the \ WIND. (= she did not break the record, because the wind held her up)
2. She didn't break the record because of the \/ WIND. (= she did break the record, but not because of the wind)

There is typically a contrast involving tone betweenwh-questionsandyes/no questions,the former having a falling tone (e.g. "Where did you \PUT it?" ) and the latter a rising tone (e.g. "Are you going /OUT?" ), though studies of spontaneous speech have shown frequent exceptions to this rule.Tag questionsasking for information are said to carry rising tones (e.g. "They are coming on Tuesday, /AREN'T they?" ) while those asking for confirmation have falling tone (e.g. "Your name's John, \ISN'T it." ).

History of English pronunciation

Main article:Phonological history of English

The pronunciation system of English has undergone many changes throughout the history of the language, from thephonological system of Old English,tothat of Middle English,through to that of the present day. Variation betweendialectshas always been significant. Former pronunciations of many words are reflected in their spellings, asEnglish orthographyhas generally not kept pace with phonological changes since the Middle English period.

The English consonant system has been relatively stable over time, althougha number of significant changeshave occurred. Examples include the loss (in most dialects) of the[ç]and[x]sounds still reflected by the⟨gh⟩in words likenightandtaught,and the splitting of voiced and voiceless allophones of fricatives into separate phonemes (such as the two differentphonemes represented by⟨th⟩). There have also been manychanges in consonant clusters,mostly reductions, for instance those that produced the usual modern pronunciations of such letter combinations as⟨wr-⟩,⟨kn-⟩and⟨wh-⟩.

Thedevelopment of vowelshas been much more complex. One of the most notable series of changes is that known as theGreat Vowel Shift,which began around the late 14th century. Here the[iː]and[uː]in words likepriceandmouthbecame diphthongized, and other long vowels became higher:[eː]became[iː](as inmeet),[aː]became[eː]and later[eɪ](as inname),[oː]became[uː](as ingoose), and[ɔː]became[oː]and later[oʊ](in RP now[əʊ];as inbone). These shifts are responsible for the modern pronunciations of many written vowel combinations, including those involving asilent final⟨e⟩.

Many other changes in vowels have taken place over the centuries (see the separate articles on thelow back,high backandhigh frontvowels,short A,anddiphthongs). These various changes mean that many words that formerly rhymed (and may be expected to rhyme based on their spelling) no longer do.For example, inShakespeare's time, following the Great Vowel Shift,food,goodandbloodall had the vowel[uː],but in modern pronunciationgoodhas been shortened to[ʊ],whilebloodhas been shortened and lowered to[ʌ]in most accents. In other cases, words that were formerly distinct have come to be pronounced the same – examples of such mergers includemeet–meat,pane–painandtoe–tow.

Controversial issues

Velar nasal

The phonemic status of the velar nasal consonant[ŋ]is disputed; one analysis claims that the only nasal phonemes in English are/m/and/n/,while[ŋ]is an allophone of/n/found before velar consonants. Evidence in support of this analysis is found in accents of the north-west Midlands of England where[ŋ]is found only before/k/or/ɡ/,withsungbeing pronounced as[sʌŋɡ].However, in most other accents of Englishsungis pronounced[sʌŋ],producing a three-way phonemic contrastsum–sun–sung/sʌmsʌnsʌŋ/and supporting the analysis of the phonemic status of/ŋ/.In support of treating the velar nasal as an allophone of/n/,Sapir (1925)claims on psychological grounds that[ŋ]did not form part of a series of three nasal consonants: "no naïve English-speaking person can be made to feel in his bones that it belongs to a single series withmandn.... It stillfeelslikeƞg."More recent writers have indicated that analyses of[ŋ]as an allophone of/n/may still have merit, even though[ŋ]may appear both with and without a following velar consonant; in such analyses, an underlying/ɡ/that isdeletedby aphonological rulewould account for occurrences of[ŋ]not followed by a velar consonant.Thus the phonemic representation ofsingwould be/sɪnɡ/and that ofsingeris/sɪnɡə/;in order to reach the phonetic form[sɪŋ]and[sɪŋə],it is necessary to apply a rule that changes/n/to[ŋ]before/k/or/ɡ/,then a second rule that deletes/ɡ/when it follows[ŋ].

• 1./n/→[ŋ]/ ____ velar consonant
• 2./ɡ/→ ∅ /[ŋ]_____

These produce the following results:

Word	Underlying phonological form	Phonetic form
sing	/sɪnɡ/	[sɪŋ]
singer	/ˈsɪnɡər/	['sɪŋər]
singing	/ˈsɪnɡɪnɡ/	['sɪŋɪŋ]

However, these rules do not predict the following phonetic forms:

Word	Underlying phonological form	Phonetic form
anger	/ˈænɡər/	['æŋɡər]
finger	/ˈfɪnɡər/	['fɪŋɡər]
hunger	/ˈhʌnɡər/	['hʌŋɡər]

In the above cases, the/ɡ/is not deleted. The words are all singlemorphemes,unlikesingerandsingingwhich are composed of two morphemes,singplus-eror-ing.Rule 2 can be amended to include a symbol # for a morpheme boundary (including word boundary):

2./ɡ/→∅/[ŋ]___#

This rule then applies tosing,singerandsingingbut not toanger,finger,orhunger.

According to this rule, the wordshangar('shed for aircraft'), which contains no internal morpheme boundary, andhanger('object for hanging clothes'), which comprises two morphemes, are expected to constitute a minimal pair ashangar[ˈhæŋɡə]versushanger[ˈhæŋə];in actuality, their pronunciations are not consistently distinguished in this manner, ashangaris frequently pronounced[ˈhæŋə].

Additionally, there are exceptions in the form of comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, where Rule 2 must be prevented from applying. The ending-ishis another possible exception.

Word	Underlying phonological form	Phonetic form
long	/lɒnɡ/	[lɒŋ]
longer	/ˈlɒnɡər/	['lɒŋɡər]
longest	/ˈlɒnɡɪst/	['lɒŋɡəst]
longish	/ˈlɒnɡɪʃ/	['lɒŋɡɪʃ]or['lɒŋɪʃ]

As a result, there is, in theory, a minimal pair consisting oflonger([lɒŋɡər]'more long') andlonger([lɒŋər]'person who longs'), though it is doubtful that native speakers make this distinction regularly.Names of persons and places, and loanwords, are less predictable.Singaporemay be pronounced with or without[ɡ];bungalowusually has[ɡ];andIngemay or may not have[ɡ].

Vowel system

It is often stated that English has a particularly large number of vowel phonemes and that there are 20 vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation,14–16 in General American, and 20–21 in Australian English. These numbers, however, reflect just one of many possible phonological analyses. A number of "biphonemic" analyses have proposed that English has a basic set of short (sometimes called "simple" or "checked" ) vowels, each of which can be shown to be a phoneme and can be combined with another phoneme to form long vowels and diphthongs. One of these biphonemic analyses asserts that diphthongs and long vowels may be interpreted as comprising a short vowel linked to a consonant. The fullest exposition of this approach is found inTrager & Smith (1951),where all long vowels and diphthongs ( "complex nuclei" ) are made up of a short vowel combined with either/j/(for which the authors use the symbol⟨y⟩),/w/or/h/(plus/r/forrhoticaccents), each thus comprising two phonemes.Using this system, the wordbitewould be transcribed/bajt/,boutas/bawt/,baras/bar/andbraas/brah/.One attraction that the authors claim for this analysis is that it regularizes the distribution of the consonants/j/,/w/,and/h/(as well as/r/in non-rhotic accents), which would otherwise not be found in syllable-final position.Trager & Smith (1951)suggest nine simple vowel phonemes to allow them to represent all the accents of American and British English they surveyed, symbolized/i,e,æ/(front vowels);/ᵻ,ə,a/(central vowels); and/u,o,ɔ/(back vowels).

The analysis fromTrager & Smith (1951)came out of a desire to build an "overall system"to accommodate all English dialects, with dialectal distinctions arising from differences in the ordering of phonological rules,as well as in the presence or absence of such rules.Another category of biphonemic analyses of English treats long vowels and diphthongs as conjunctions of two vowels. Such analyses, as found inSweet (1877)orKreidler (2004)for example, are less concerned with dialectal variation. InMacCarthy (1957),for example, there are seven basic vowels and these may be doubled (geminated) to represent long vowels, as shown in the table below:

Short vowel	Long vowel
i (bit)	ii (beet)
e (bet)
a (cat)	aa (cart)
o (cot)	oo (caught)
u (pull)	uu (pool)
ə (collect)	əə (curl)

Some of the short vowels may also be combined with/i/(/ei/bay,/ai/buy,/oi/boy), with/u/(/au/bough,/ou/beau) or with/ə/(/iə/peer,/eə/pair,/uə/poor). The vowel inventory of English RP in MacCarthy's system therefore totals only seven phonemes. Analyses such as these could also posit six vowel phonemes, if the vowel of the final syllable incommais considered to be an unstressed allophone of that ofstrut.These seven vowels might be symbolized/i/,/e/,/a/,/o/,/u/,/ʌ/and/ə/.Six or seven vowels is a figure that would put English much closer to the average number of vowel phonemes in other languages.

A radically different approach to the English vowel system was proposed byChomskyandHalle.TheirSound Pattern of English(Chomsky & Halle 1968) proposed that English has lax and tense vowel phonemes, which are operated on by a complex set of phonological rules to transform underlying phonological forms into surface phonetic representations. This generative analysis is not easily comparable with conventional analyses, but the total number of vowel phonemes proposed falls well short of the figure of 20 often claimed as the number of English vowel phonemes.

See also

• Australian English phonology
• English orthography
• English pronunciation of Greek letters
• General American
• Non-native pronunciations of English
• Old English phonology
• Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers
• Phonological development
• Phonological history of English vowels
• Phonological history of English consonants
• Pronunciation of English ⟨th⟩
• Received Pronunciation
• Regional accents of English
• Rhoticity in English
• T-glottalization
• R-colored vowel
• International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects
• Category:Splits and mergers in English phonology

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Further reading

• Bacsfalvi, P. (2010). "Attaining the lingual components of /r/ with ultrasound for three adolescents with cochlear implants".Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.3(34): 206–217.
• Ball, M.; Lowry, O.; McInnis, L. (2006). "Distributional and stylistic variation in /r/-misarticulations: A case study".Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics.2–3(20).
• Campbell, F., Gick, B., Wilson, I., Vatikiotis-Bateson, E. (2010), "Spatial and Temporal Properties of Gestures in North American English /r/".Child's Language and Speech,53 (1): 49–69
• Cercignani, Fausto (1981),Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation,Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Crystal, David(1969),Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Dalcher Villafaña, C., Knight, R.A., Jones, M.J., (2008), "Cue Switching in the Perception of Approximants: Evidence from Two English Dialects".University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics,14 (2): 63–64
• Espy-Wilson, C. (2004), "Articulatory Strategies, speech Acoustics and Variability".From Sound to SenseJune 11 – June 13 at MIT: 62–63
• Fudge, Erik C. (1984),English Word-stress,London: Allen and Unwin
• Gimson, A.C. (1962),An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English,London: Edward Arnold
• Hagiwara, R., Fosnot, S. M., & Alessi, D. M. (2002). "Acoustic phonetics in a clinical setting: A case study of /r/-distortion therapy with surgical intervention".Clinical linguistics & phonetics,16 (6): 425–441.
• Halliday, M.A.K. (1970),A Course in Spoken English: Intonation,London: Oxford University Press
• Hoff, Erika, (2009),Language Development.Scarborough, Ontario. Cengage Learning, 2005.
• Howard, S. (2007), "The interplay between articulation and prosody in children with impaired speech: Observations from electropalatographic and perceptual analysis".International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology,9 (1): 20–35.
• Kingdon, Roger (1958),The Groundwork of English Intonation,London: Longman
• Locke, John L., (1983),Phonological Acquisition and Change.New York, United States. Academic Press, 1983. Print.
• O'Connor, J. D.; Arnold, Gordon Frederick (1961),Intonation of Colloquial English,London: Longman
• Pike, Kenneth Lee(1945),The Intonation of American English,Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
• Sharf, Donald J.; Benson, Peter J. (1982-04-01)."Identification of synthesized /r–w/ continua for adult and child speakers".J. Acoust. Soc. Am.71(4): 1008–1015.doi:10.1121/1.387652.Retrieved2024-06-07.
• Wise, Claude Merton (1957),Applied Phonetics,Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

External links

• University of Glasgow Dynamic Dialects Accent Map
• IPA Phonetics Chart of English