English phonology

Subject classification: this is an English language and literature resource.

Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system.. The pronunciations given have been checked in dictionaries like Oxford Learner's, Merriam Webster. It is meant to be concise and is here to be useful and to be improved (originally posted as Sounds of English ).

A thorough print reference on the subject is J.C. Wells, Accents of English (3 volumes).

Vowels

Vowels are always voiced (which means the vocal cords vibrate when the sound is made).
vaʊ əlz ər ɔːl wəz vɔɪst

Long "pure" vowels

/ɑ:/

• R, star, car, far
• father, bother ^US, bottle ^US, knowledge ^US
• clerk ^UK, bath ^UK, laughter ^UK, draught ^UK

/i:/

• B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z ^US
• he, she, me, we
• sea, tea, seem, feet, (-)teen, key
• apostrophe, Socrates, catastrophe /kə tæ strə fi/ ; suffix-final "y" (as in stormy, safety, slowly) is also pronounced with a shorter /i/

/u:/

• 2, Q, U, W, you
• choose, use
• new, flew, grew, knew, true, blue
• to ^{strong form}, through

/ɔː/

• 4, 40
• door, floor, shore, store (US /ɔːr/ )
• daughter, caught, thought, fought
• law, saw, lawyer /ˈlɔː jər/
• fluorine, chlorine
• sort, sword (US /ɔːr/ )

/ɜː/

• first, third, 30, 30^th
• shirt, clerk, certification, learn
• Some people sometimes pronounce words like sure & pure with this sound rather than ʃʊr, pjʊr, (myself included).

Short vowels

/ɒ/

Primarily UK. various US accents substitute a low back vowel, usually /ɑ:/, but sometimes ɔ:. Short ʌ in high frequency functional words like what and of.

• what ^{UK 1}
• bottle ˈbɒ tl, throttle ˈθrɒ tl
• shot, spot, lots, of ^{UK 1}, pots, across
• knowledge ˈnɒl ɪdʒ

^{US 1} = ʌ in what and of, ɑ: in the other examples.

/ʌ/

• 1, 100
• sun, but, mud, uncle
• son, won, brother, other, another, above
• flood, blood
• tough, rough, enough /ɪ nʌf/

/ʊ/

• Look!, a good cookbook
• put, push, pull
• woman /wʊ mən/

/ɪ/

• 6, 15, 16, 50, 60, him, this, finish, minute (n.)
• been, again
• below, behind, between, beneath, bemoan, belabor, besmirch, etc.
• women /wɪ mɪn/, electric /ɪ lek trɪk/, elegance /el ɪ ɡəns/, enough /ɪ nʌf/
• -age ¹, -e(d)ge /ɪdʒ/ (village, marriage, storage, baggage, luggage, mortgage /mɔː ɡɪdʒ/, college, knowledge)

¹ Exceptions include more recent borrowings from French, e.g. garage /ɡə rɑːʒ/ ^US /ɡær ɪdʒ/ ^UK, fuselage /fjuː sə lɑːʒ/, triage, montage, etc.

/e/

The precise realization of this form varies. In South Africa the sound is closer to /e/, while in the US it is closer to /ɛ/. (fête, bête, lait, aime pouvaient). Since the distinction is not considered phonemic (since the long "A" sound is realized as the diphthong /eɪ/), the standard transcription is /e/ though the sound is closer to /ɛ/ than /e/ (fée, pourrai, pouvez, aimer.)

• 7, 10, 12, F, L, M, N, S, X, zed
• health, wedding, nephew, elementary /ˌel ɪ men tri/
• says, said

/ə/

The most common vowel sound in English (also the most central vowel) (quite lax) uh... (French "euh" is very similar, but with rounded lips)

• around, about, above, across, ago, asleep, etc.
• perpetual, residual, science, electric, elegant, woman, sermon
• to ^{weak form}, them ^{weak form}, that ^{weak form}, a, the ^{weak form}
• -ous (famous, gelatinous, disastrous)
• -er (safer, cheaper, etc.)
• -able, -ible (understandable, comfortable ¹, legible, incredible)
• -ate (in ADJ and N): chocolate (n.) /tʃɑː klət/, corporate (adj.), conglomerate (adj.), associate (n.), etc.
• Some transcribe the sound of the suffix -ion as /ən/, though most dictionaries simply use "syllabic" /n/. More terminology wars... :) e.g. nation, ration, consideration, fashion /fæʃ n/, etc.

¹ Most commonly the first schwa is dropped entirely. kʌmf təbl / kʌmf ə təbl, cf. "comfy" :)

/æ/

• bad, faster, fastest, that ¹
• laughter ^{US + parts of UK}, draught ^{US + parts of UK} (fr. courant d'air)

¹ As a demonstrative pronoun / determiner that is pronounced /ðæt/, as a relative pronoun, that is usually pronounced /ðət/, though it may be dropped entirely.

Diphthongs

/eɪ/

• A, H, J, K, 8
• they, grey
• take, plane, fate
• main, rain, paid, said /səd/
• day, way, say, says /səz/
• weigh, neighbour, freight
• vein
• aviation, (un)able, Asia (/eɪ ʒə/)

/ɑɪ/

• I, Y, 5, 9
• rice, mice
• guide, quite quiet /kwɑɪt kwɑɪ ət/, choir /kwɑɪ ər/
• kind, mind, behind
• light, sight, sigh, height
• align, benign, sign

/əʊ / oʊ/

• O, 0, (zero)
• close, clothes /kləʊðz/, chose, chosen
• though, although, thorough /θɜː roʊ/ ^US /θʌ rə/ ^UK, borough /bɜː roʊ/ ^US /bʌ rə/ ^UK
• own, grow, known, flown
• soap, foam

/ɑʊ/

• 1000
• out, about, around, announce, pounce
• how, now, power, tower, town

/ɔɪ/

• noisy, oil
• toys, boys

/eə/

Mostly UK. North American English (NAME) is usually /er/

• there, where
• hair, pair
• share, care
• heir

/ʊə/

Mostly UK. North American English (NAME) is usually /ʊr/

• poor ¹, tour (guide)
• sure ¹, (al)lure

¹ both "poor" and "sure" can be pronounced with ɔː i.e. ʃɔː, pɔː

/ɪə/

• Mostly UK. North American English (NAME) is usually /ɪr/
• dear, near
• here
• beer, peer, tier

Consonants

Consonants in English are not atypical of the consonants found in Western languages, and consonants found elsewhere are not too foreign, with the exception of the clicks and whirrs found in African languages. And the alphabet writing system helps to fortify the organized usage of consonant clusters, of which English has a great number, such that words with similar semantic roots can be constructed from a base consonant pair; glisten, gleam, glamour, glass, all have the idea of light in them, though, on the other hand words like glade, and glide do not.

'

Most consonants are paired: at each position one can make two sounds (one voiced, one unvoiced). For example:

	Voiced		Unvoiced
ð	these, that, bathe	θ	think, bath, -th
b	big	p	pig
v	even Stephen	f	enough phonetics
d	stewed	t	cooked
z	reads	s	writes
ʒ	pleasure	ʃ	sure
dʒ	badge, joke	tʃ	batch, choke
g	agree	k	cake, second(s), chemistry

• Nasal consonants — m, n, ŋ — liquids — r, l — and glides — w, j (why, yellow) — are all voiced.
• Syllabic n and l are roughly equivalent to /ən/, /əl/. (fashion, bottle)

See Also

• Wikipedia: English phonology