PRONOUNCING ENGLISH VOWELS

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 /ɔː/)
• / /: bear (sometimes transcribed /ɛː/)
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