Sound correspondences between English accents
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Sound correspondences between English accents can be described systematically using phonetic realizations of diaphonemes. Though the descriptions of the phonemes in most accents of English often differ to some extent, in general there are systematic correspondences between them which can be described accordingly, just as their phonetic qualities can be described using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This page aims to sufficiently describe the phonetics and phonology of all documented varieties of English, including obsolete accents like Older Southern American English.
Consonants
| Diaphoneme[lower-roman 1] | Phones | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| p | pʰ | pen |
| p | spin, tip | |
| b | b | but |
| b̥ | web | |
| t | t, tʰ | sting, two |
| ɾ,[lower-roman 2] ʔ,[lower-roman 3] t̞[lower-roman 4] | better | |
| d | d | do |
| d̥, ɾ[lower-roman 5] | odd, daddy | |
| tʃ | tʃʰ | chair |
| tʃ | teach, nature | |
| dʒ | dʒ | gin, joy |
| d̥ʒ̊ | edge | |
| k | k | skin, unique, thick |
| kʰ | cat, kill, queen | |
| ɡ | ɡ | go, get |
| ɡ̊ | beg | |
| f | f, ɸ[lower-roman 6] | fool, enough, leaf, off, photo |
| v | v, β[lower-roman 7] | voice, verve |
| v̥ | have, of, verve | |
| θ | θ, t̪, f[lower-roman 8] | thing, teeth |
| ð | ð, ð̥, d̪, v[lower-roman 9] | this, breathe, father |
| s | s | see, city, pass |
| z | z | zoo |
| z̥ | rose | |
| ʃ | ʃ | she, sure, session, emotion, leash |
| ʒ | ʒ | genre, pleasure, equation, seizure |
| ʒ̊ | beige | |
| h | h, ɦ,[lower-roman 10] ç[lower-roman 11] | ham, hue |
| m | m, ɱ[lower-roman 12] | man, ham |
| n | n | no, tin |
| ŋ | ŋ | ringer, sing,[lower-roman 13] finger, drink |
| l | l, ɫ,[lower-roman 14] l̥, ɫ̥,[lower-roman 15] ɤ, o,[lower-roman 16] | left, bell, sable, please |
| r | ɹʷ, ɹ, ɾ,[lower-roman 17] r,[lower-roman 18] ɻ, ɹ̥ʷ, ɹ̥, ɾ̥, ɻ̊,[lower-roman 15] ʋ[lower-roman 19] | run, very, probably |
| w | w, ʍ[lower-roman 15] | we, queen |
| j | j | yes, Mayan |
| hw | ʍ, w[lower-roman 20] | what |
| Marginal consonants | ||
| x | x, χ, k, kʰ, h, ɦ | loch,[lower-roman 21] ugh[lower-roman 22] |
| ç | ç[lower-roman 23] | Hugh |
| ʔ | ʔ | uh-oh |
| ɬ | ɬ, l | Llangefni,[lower-roman 24] hlala gahle[lower-roman 25][1] |
| ɮ | ɮ | ibandla[lower-roman 25][2] |
- ↑ This is a compromise IPA transcription, which covers most dialects of English.
- ↑ /t/, is pronounced [ɾ] in some positions in American English, Australian English, and sometimes in English English.
- ↑ /t/ is pronounced [ʔ] in some positions in Scottish English, English English, American English and Australian English.
- ↑ /t/ is pronounced [t̞] non-initially in Hiberno-English.
- ↑ /d/ is pronounced [ɾ] if preceded and followed by vowels in General American and Australian English.
- ↑ The labiodental fricative /f/ is often pronounced as bilabial [ɸ] after the bilabials /p/, /b/, and /m/, as in up-front GA: [ʌpˈɸɹʌnt], Cub fan GA: [ˈkʰʌbɸæn], tomfoolery GA: [ˌtʰɑmˈɸuɫəɹi].
- ↑ The labiodental fricative /v/ is often pronounced as bilabial [β] after the bilabials /p/, /b/, and /m/, as in upvote GA: [ˈʌpβəʊt], obviate GA: [ˈɑbβiˌeɪt], Humvee GA: [ˈhʌmβi].
- ↑ /θ/ is pronounced as a dental stop [t̪] in Hiberno-English, Newfoundland English, Indian English, and New York English, merges with /f/ in some varieties of English English, and merges with /t/ in some varieties of Caribbean English. The dental stop [t̪] also occurs in other dialects as an allophone of /θ/.
- ↑ /ð/ is pronounced as a dental stop [d̪] in Hiberno-English, Newfoundland English, Indian English, and New York English, merges with /v/ in some varieties of English English, and merges with /d/ in some varieties of Caribbean English. [d̪] also occurs in other dialects as an allophone of /ð/.
- ↑ The glottal fricative /h/ is often pronounced as voiced [ɦ] between vowel sounds and after voiced consonants. Initial voiced [ɦ] occurs in some accents of the Southern Hemisphere.
- ↑ /h/ is pronounced [ç] before the palatal approximant /j/, sometimes even replacing the cluster /hj/, and sometimes before high front vowels.
- ↑ The bilabial nasal /m/ is often pronounced as labiodental [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/, as in symphony GA: [ˈsɪɱfəni], circumvent GA: [ˌsɝkəɱˈvɛnt], some value GA: [ˌsʌɱ‿ˈvæɫju̟].
- ↑ In some dialects, such as Brummie, words like ringer [ˈɹɪŋə], sing [sɪŋ], which have a velar nasal [ŋ] in most dialects, are pronounced with an additional /ɡ/, like "finger": [ˈɹɪŋɡə].
- ↑ Velarized [ɫ] traditionally does not occur in Hiberno-English; clear or plain [l] does not occur in Australian, New Zealand, Scottish, or American English. RP, some other English accents, and South African English, however, have clear [l] in syllable onsets and dark [ɫ] in syllable rimes.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Sonorants are voiceless after a fortis (voiceless) stop at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
- ↑ L-vocalization in which l is pronounced as a kind of a back vowel ([ɤ] or [o], or non-syllabic [ɤ̯, o̯], forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel) occurs in New Zealand English and many regional accents, such as AAVE, Cockney, New York English, Estuary English, Pittsburgh English, Standard Singapore English.
- ↑ /r/ is pronounced as a tap [ɾ] in some varieties of Scottish, Irish, Indian, Welsh, Northern England and South African English.
- ↑ The alveolar trill [r] only occurs in some varieties of Scottish, Welsh, Indian and South African English.
- ↑ R-labialization, in which r is pronounced as [ʋ], is found in some accents in Southern England.
- ↑ Some dialects, such as Scottish English, Irish English, and many American South and New England dialects, distinguish voiceless [ʍ] from voiced [w]; see wine–whine merger and voiceless labiovelar approximant.
- ↑ Marginal in most accents, and otherwise merged with /k/, see Lock–loch merger.
- ↑ This common English interjection is usually pronounced with [x] in unscripted spoken English, but it is most often read /ʌɡ/ or /ʌk/
- ↑ /hj/ can be /ç/ in Conservative RP.
- ↑ ɬ exists in Welsh English as an allophone of /l/ in Welsh loan words. Other dialects usually replace it with l.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 This sound exists in South African English in Zulu loan words.
Vowels
This section uses Wells' lexical sets as a baseline analysis for the different diaphonemes of English, following their widespread use. Since their exclusive basis in the prestige accents of the UK and the US makes them inadequate for describing many other accents, the tables below make up for their shortcomings, where they occur.
Formatting
For ease of navigation, Wells' sets are split up into checked and free vowels, vowels before historical /r/ and reduced vowels, then alphabetized according to the spellings of their respective vowels.
In each table, there are three columns next to each accent, which include as many or as few of these options as necessary:
- The phonetic Realizations of the table's set using IPA, which are split up further into
- Existing sets which make up Wells' set: sets which Wells merged in creating his sets,
- Allophonic splits: splits which are purely conditioned by their environment and therefore not phonemic,
- and Phonemic splits: splits which vary more than their environment can account for and therefore not allophonic.
- Splits which may occur inside the table's set are split up further into
- those which split Inside Wells' sets,
- and those which split Into Wells' sets.
- Mergers which may include the table's set are split up further into
- those which alter the merged set's realization Towards [the table's set]: so the realization of the table's set becomes the new realization of the merged set,
- those which alter the set's realization Away from [the table's set]: so the realization of the merged set becomes the new realization of the table's set,
- and those which alter the set's realization Towards a new realization: so both the merged and the table's set's realizations become a new realization.
The Splits and Mergers columns use 
, 
, and 
to indicate that the split/merger is present (), is not present (), or is partially present ( + a note). These columns may not be merged horizontally because this would lead to prioritizing one accent's description over a region's, which would make it harder to compare accents at a glance, thus contradicting the purpose of this article. For example, merging horizontally might make it easier to see that one accent has several mergers while making it harder to see if several accents all have the same merger.
Checked vowels
TRAP
The TRAP lexical set originally included the BATH lexical set, though Wells' sets separate it since it merged independently with PALM in RP following the TRAP-BATH split.[3] In some parts of England and Wales, and accordingly in Australian English, TRAP further split into bad and lad (described in the table as ham&bad-lad).[4] In some parts of the US and Canada, TRAP instead split into ham and not-ham (described in the table as ham-bad&lad).[5] Most other accents preserve TRAP (and even the earlier TRAP&BATH) whole.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 In most of the United States (with high dialectal variation), and to a lesser degree in Canada, special /æ/ tensing systems occur.
- ↑ Wells (1982, p.387): "The situation in the BATH words is not altogether clear. In general the short vowel predominates, so that the situation in most of Wales is like that in the North of England [...]. In the south-east of the country, however, including Cardiff, the long vowel is established in at least some of the BATH words e.g. class, grass, while in others there is sociolinguistic variation between long and short , e.g. chance, fast." See also Robert Penhallurick's A Handbook of Varieties of English, Volume 1.
BATH
- ↑ Wells (1982, p.387): "The situation in the BATH words is not altogether clear. In general the short vowel predominates, so that the situation in most of Wales is like that in the North of England [...]. In the south-east of the country, however, including Cardiff, the long vowel is established in at least some of the BATH words e.g. class, grass, while in others there is sociolinguistic variation between long and short , e.g. chance, fast." See also Robert Penhallurick's A Handbook of Varieties of English, Volume 1.
DRESS
KIT
LOT
- ↑ The cot-caught merger necessarily undoes a previous LOT-CLOTH split.
CLOTH
- ↑ The LOT-CLOTH split must not have taken place for the CLOTH-PALM merger to occur.
FOOT
STRUT
Free vowels
PALM
- ↑ The father-bother merger must have taken place for the cot-caught merger to occur. Therefore 'cot' refers to the result of that merger.
FACE
FLEECE
PRICE
GOAT
CHOICE
GOOSE
MOUTH
THOUGHT
- ↑ The cot-caught merger necessitates that CLOTH and THOUGHT are also merged
Vowels + historical /r/
START
SQUARE
NEAR
NORTH
FORCE
NURSE
CURE
Reduced vowels
commA
- ↑ It is not clear whether this a true phonemic split, since the distribution of the two sounds is predictable; see Kit–bit split.
lettER
happY
References
- ↑ Dictionary Unit for South African English (2023). "‖hlala kahle". Dictionary of South African English. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
- ↑ Dictionary Unit for South African English (2023). "ibandla". Dictionary of South African English. Retrieved 2024-04-20.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 100–101, 134, 232–233.
- ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 288–289, 596.
- ↑ Boberg, Charles (Spring 2001). "Phonological Status of Western New England". American Speech, Volume 76, Number 1. pp. 3-29 (Article). Duke University Press. p. 11: "The vowel /æ/ is generally tensed and raised [...] only before nasals, a raising environment for most speakers of North American English".
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Kenyon & Knott (1953)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Kenyon (1950)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Harrington, Cox & Evans (1997)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Cox & Palethorpe (2007)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Boberg (2004)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Todd, Loreto (1982). Cameroon. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 9789027286703. Search this book on
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 Wells (1982:387)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Fox, Susan (2015). The New Cockney: New Ethnicities and Adolescent Speech in the Traditional East End of London. Search this book on
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Roach (2004:241–243)
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "Case Studies – Received Pronunciation Phonology – RP Vowel Sounds". British Library. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2013-05-26. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "The British English vowel system". 8 March 2012.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Wells (1982:422)
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Sailaja (2009:19–26)
- ↑ 20.00 20.01 20.02 20.03 20.04 20.05 20.06 20.07 20.08 20.09 20.10 Wells (1982), p. 499.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Bauer et al. (2007:97–102)
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7)
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Bekker (2008)
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Lass (2002:111–119)
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Suzanna Bet Hashim and Brown, Adam (2000) 'The [e] and [æ] vowels in Singapore English'. In Adam Brown, David Deterding and Low Ee Ling (eds.) The English Language in Singapore: Research on Pronunciation, Singapore: Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics ISBN 981-04-2598-8 Search this book on ., pp. 84–92.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Coupland & Thomas (1990:93–136)
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 28.6 Kenyon & Knott (1953)
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 29.6 Kenyon (1950)
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 30.6 Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 31.5 31.6 Harrington, Cox & Evans (1997)
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 32.6 Cox & Palethorpe (2007)
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 33.5 33.6 Boberg (2004)
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.6 Todd, Loreto (1982). Cameroon. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 9789027286703. Search this book on
- ↑ 35.00 35.01 35.02 35.03 35.04 35.05 35.06 35.07 35.08 35.09 35.10 35.11 35.12 35.13 Wells (1982:387)
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 36.3 36.4 36.5 36.6 Fox, Susan (2015). The New Cockney: New Ethnicities and Adolescent Speech in the Traditional East End of London. Search this book on
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 37.4 37.5 37.6 Roach (2004:241–243)
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 38.4 38.5 38.6 "Case Studies – Received Pronunciation Phonology – RP Vowel Sounds". British Library. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2013-05-26. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 39.4 39.5 39.6 "The British English vowel system". 8 March 2012.
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 40.4 40.5 40.6 Wells (1982:422)
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 41.3 41.4 41.5 41.6 Sailaja (2009:19–26)
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 42.4 42.5 42.6 Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 43.4 43.5 43.6 Bauer et al. (2007:97–102)
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 44.4 44.5 44.6 Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7)
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 45.4 45.5 45.6 Bekker (2008)
- ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 46.3 46.4 46.5 46.6 Lass (2002:111–119)
- ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 47.4 47.5 47.6 Suzanna Bet Hashim and Brown, Adam (2000) 'The [e] and [æ] vowels in Singapore English'. In Adam Brown, David Deterding and Low Ee Ling (eds.) The English Language in Singapore: Research on Pronunciation, Singapore: Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics ISBN 981-04-2598-8 Search this book on ., pp. 84–92.
- ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 48.3 48.4 48.5 48.6 Coupland & Thomas (1990:93–136)
[[Category:International Phonetic Alphabet|Chart for English dialects]] [[Category:English phonology]] [[Category:Comparison of forms of English]]
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