English phonology is the study of the phonology (ie the sound system) of the English language. Like all languages, spoken English has wide variation in its pronunciation both diachronically and synchronically from dialect to dialect. This variation is especially salient in English, because the language is spoken over such a wide territory, being the predominant language in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States in addition to being spoken as a first or second language by people in countries on every continent. With no conclusive, internationally recognized standards for English, even the English spoken in different countries can occasionally prove to be an impediment to understanding what is said, although for the most part the different regional accents of English are mutually intelligible. The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ... Descriptive linguistics is the work of analyzing and describing how language is actually spoken now (or how it was actually spoken in the past), by any group of people. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...

Phonemes

See IPA chart for English for concise and International Phonetic Alphabet for English for more detailed charts of the English phonemes. This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... Symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet as used for English. ...

Although there are many dialects of English, the following are usually used as prestige or standard accents: Received Pronunciation for the UK, General American for the USA and General Australian for Australia. Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Australian English (AuE) is the form of the English language used in Australia. ...

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. The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary by John C. Wells, for example, using symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, denotes 24 consonants and 23 vowels used in Received Pronunciation, plus two additional consonants and four additional vowels used in foreign words only. For General American it provides for 25 consonants and 19 vowels, with one additional consonant and three additional vowels for foreign words. The American Heritage Dictionary, on the other hand, suggests 25 consonants and 18 vowels (including r-colored vowels) for American English, plus one consonant and five vowels for non-English terms [1]. John Christopher Wells, MA (Cantab), Ph. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) is a dictionary of American English published by Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ... Spectrogram of a regular vowel and its rhotacized counterpart. ...

A chart showing the positions of the stressed monophthongs of one accent of English, namely southern California English (based on Ladefoged 1999), is shown below. Notable is the absence of /ɔ/ as in thought and /ɒ/ as in lot, which have merged with /ɑ/ as in father in this accent through the father-bother and cot-caught mergers. In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis given to certain syllables in a word. ... A monophthong (in Greek μονόφθογγος = single note) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong. ... California English is a dialect of the English language spoken in the U.S. state of California. ... Peter Nielsen Ladefoged (September 17, 1925 – January 24, 2006) was a British-American linguist phonetician who traveled the world to document the distinct sounds of endangered languages and pioneered ways to collect and study data. ... // Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English (exceptions are accents in Eastern New England (such as the Boston accent) and New York-New Jersey English. ... // Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English (exceptions are accents in Eastern New England (such as the Boston accent) and New York-New Jersey English. ...

Image File history File links California_English_vowel_chart. ...

æ-tensing

æ-tensing is a phenomenon found in many varieties of American English by which the vowel /æ/ has a longer, higher, and usually diphthongal pronunciation in some environments, usually to something like [eə]. In some American accents, /æ/ and /eə/ are apparently now separate phonemes. // Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation), in the Boston accent, and in the Southern Hemisphere accents (Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English), by which the Early Modern English phoneme was lengthened... American English (AmE) is the dialect of the English language used mostly in the United States of America. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek and ending tongue positions. ...

Bad-lad split

The bad-lad split refers to the situation in some varieties of southern English English and Australian English, where a long phoneme /æː/ in words like bad contrasts with a short /æ/ in words like lad. // Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation), in the Boston accent, and in the Southern Hemisphere accents (Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English), by which the Early Modern English phoneme was lengthened... English English is a term that has been applied to the English language as spoken in England. ... Australian English is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native-born Australians. ...

Cot-caught merger

The cot-caught merger is a sound change by which the vowel of words like cot, rock, and doll is pronounced the same as the vowel of words like caught, talk, and tall. This merger is widespread in North American English, being found in approximately 40% of American speakers and virtually all Canadian speakers. // Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels and that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English (exceptions are accents in Eastern New England (such as the Boston accent) and New York-New Jersey English. ... North American English is a collective term used for the varieties of the English language that are spoken in the United States and Canada. ...

Phonological processes

Some noteworthy phonological processes in English:

Stress changes in many English words came about when the word was used as either a noun or a verb. For example, a rebel [ˈɹɛ·bɫ̩] (stress on the first syllable) is inclined to rebel [ɹɪ·ˈbɛɫ] (stress on the second syllable) against the powers that be. The number of words using this pattern as opposed to only stressing the second syllable in all circumstances doubled every century or so, now including the English words object, convict, and addict. A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech (a word or phrase) which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ...

Although regional variation is very great across English dialects, some generalizations can be made about pronunciation in all (or at least the vast majority) of English accents: Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

• The voiceless stops /p t k/ are aspirated at the beginnings of words (for example tomato) and at the beginnings of word-internal stressed syllables (for example potato).
• A distinction is made between tense and lax vowels in pairs like beet/bit and bait/bet, although the exact phonetic implementation of the distinction varies from accent to accent.
• Wherever [ɹ] originally followed a tense vowel or diphthong (in Early Modern English) a schwa offglide was inserted, resulting in centering diphthongs like [iə] in beer [biəɹ], [uə] in poor [puəɹ], [aɪə] in fire [faɪəɹ], [aʊə] in sour [saʊəɹ], and so forth. This phenomenon is known as breaking. The subsequent history depends on whether the accent in question is rhotic or not: In non-rhotic accents like RP the postvocalic [ɹ] was dropped, leaving [biə, puə, faɪə, saʊə] and the like (now usually transcribed [bɪə, pʊə] and so forth). In rhotic accents like General American, on the other hand, the [əɹ] sequence was coalesced into a single sound, a non-syllabic [ɚ], giving [biɚ, puɚ, faɪɚ, saʊɚ] and the like (now usually transcribed [bɪɹ, pʊɹ, faɪɹ, saʊɹ] and so forth). As a result, originally monosyllabic words like those just mentioned came to rhyme with originally disyllabic words like seer, doer, higher, power.
• In many (but not all) accents of English, a similar breaking happens to tense vowels before [ɫ], resulting in pronunciations like [piəɫ] for peel, [puəɫ] for pool, [peəɫ] for pail, and [poəɫ] for pole.

Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... In linguistics, stress is the emphasis given to some syllables (often no more than one in each word, but in many languages, long words have a secondary stress a few syllables away from the primary stress, as in the words cóunterfòil or còunterintélligence. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... Tenseness is a term used in phonology to describe a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... The alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... Early Modern English refers to the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period (the later half of the 1400s) to 1650. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides, though these are now dispreferred) are non-syllabic vowels that form diphthongs with syllabic vowels. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek and ending tongue positions. ... English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme (the letter r, equivalent to Greek rho) is pronounced. ... Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A non-syllabic vowel is a vowel that is not the nucleus of a syllable or mora. ... Spectrogram of a regular vowel and its rhotacized counterpart. ... Tenseness is a term used in phonology to describe a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The velarized alveolar lateral approximant (also known as dark l) is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

Phonotactics

Note: This information applies to RP. Other than variations in the possible onsets with or without final /j/, and the presence or absence of the phoneme /ʍ/, it also applies to the other main varieties of English. /ʍ/ only occurs syllable-initial and does not occur in clusters. Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ...

Syllable structure

The syllable structure in English is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ...

Onset

There is an on-going sound change (yod-dropping) by which /j/ as the final consonant in a cluster is being lost. In RP, words with /sj/ and /lj/ can usually be pronounced with or without this sound, e.g., [suːt] or [sjuːt]. For some speakers of English, including some British speakers, the sound change is more advanced and so, for example, in General American /j/ is also not present after /n/, /t/ and /d/. In Welsh English it can occur in more combinations, for example in /tʃj/. // H-cluster reductions The h-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English involving consonant clusters beginning with /h/ that have lost the /h/ in certain dialects. ... In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

The following can occur as the onset: In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus. ...

Note: A few onsets occur infrequently making it uncertain whether they are native pronunciations or merely non-assimilated borrowings, e.g. /sv/ (svelt), /sr/ (Sri Lanka), /vr/ (oeuvre), /ʃw/ (schwa), /smj/ (smew), and /sfr/ (sphragistics).

Nucleus

The following can occur as the nucleus: In phonetics and phonology, the nucleus is the central part of the syllable, mostly commonly a vowel. ...

• All vowel sounds
• /m/, /n/ and /l/ in certain situations (see below under word-level rules)
• /r/ in rhotic varieties of English (eg General American) in certain situations (see below under word-level rules)

English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme (the letter r, equivalent to Greek rho) is pronounced. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Coda

Most, and in theory all, of the following except those which end with /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ can be extended with /s/ or /z/ representing the morpheme -s/z-. Similarly most, and in theory all, of the following except those which end with /t/ or /d/ can be extended with /t/ or /d/ representing the morpheme -t/d-. In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

The following can occur as the coda: Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

Note: For some speakers, a fricative before /θ/ is elided so that these never appear phonetically: /fɪfθ/ becomes [fɪθ], /siksθ/ becomes [sikθ], /twelfθ/ becomes [twelθ]. English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme (the letter r, equivalent to Greek rho) is pronounced. ...

Syllable-level rules

• Both the onset and the coda are optional
• /j/ at the end of an onset (/pj/, /bj/, /tj/, /dj/, /kj/, /fj/, /vj/, /θj/, /sj/, /zj/, /hj/, /mj/, /nj/, /lj/, /spj/, /stj/, /skj/) must be followed by /u:/ or /ʊə/
• Long vowels and diphthongs are not followed by /ŋ/
• /ʊ/ is rare in syllable-initial position

Word-level rules

• /ə/ does not occur in stressed syllables
• /ʒ/ does not occur in word-initial position in native English words although it can occur syllable-initial, eg /trɛʒə/
• /θj/ does not occur in word-initial position except in the archaic word thew
• /m/, /n/, /l/ and, in rhotic varieties, /r/ can be the syllable nucleus (ie a syllabic consonant) in an unstressed syllable following another consonant, especially /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/
• Certain short vowel sounds, called checked vowels, cannot occur without a coda in a single syllable word. In RP, the following short vowel sounds are checked: /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɒ/ and /ʌ/.

English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme (the letter r, equivalent to Greek rho) is pronounced. ... A syllabic consonant is a consonant which constitutes either a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ... In English phonetics and phonology, checked vowels are those that usually must be followed by a consonant in a stressed syllable, while free vowels are those that may stand in a stressed open syllable with no following consonant. ... Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ...

History of English pronunciation

See also Phonological history of the English language Within each section, changes are in approximate chronological order. ...

Around the late 14th century, English began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift, in which This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language, generally accomplished in the 15th century, although evidence suggests it began as early as the 14th century. ...

• the high long vowels [iː] and [uː] in words like price and mouth became diphthongized, first to [əɪ] and [əʊ] (where they remain today in some environments in some accents such as Canadian English) and later to their modern values [aɪ] and [aʊ].

The other long vowels became higher: Canadian English (CaE) is a variety of English used in Canada. ...

• [eː] became [iː] (for example meet),
• [aː] became [eː] (later diphthongized to [eɪ], for example name),
• [oː] became [uː] (for example goose), and
• [ɔː] become [oː] (later diphthongized to [oʊ], for example bone).

Later developments complicate the picture: whereas in Geoffrey Chaucer's time food, good, and blood all had the vowel [oː] and in William Shakespeare's time they all had the vowel [uː], in modern pronunciation good has shortened its vowel to [ʊ] and blood has shortened and lowered its vowel to [ʌ] in most accents. In Shakespeare's day (late 16th-early 17th century), many rhymes were possible that no longer hold today. For example, in his play The Taming of the Shrew, shrew rhymed with row. Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... Taming of the Shrew by Augustus Egg The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare. ...

See also

• Phonological history of the English language
• Phonological history of English vowels
• Phonological history of English consonants
• Received Pronunciation
• General American
• Accent reduction
• Australian English phonology
• Rhotic and non-rhotic accents
• Pronunciation of English th
• English spelling
• Category:Splits and mergers in English phonology

Within each section, changes are in approximate chronological order. ... // Phonological history of the low front vowels æ-tensing Bad-lad split Trap-bath split Phonological history of the low back vowels Main article: Phonological history of the low back vowels Father-bother merger Lot-cloth split Cot-caught merger Phonological history of the high back vowels Foot-goose merger and... // H-cluster reductions The h-cluster reductions are various consonant clusters beginning with /h/ that have in the occurred in the history of English that have lost the /h/ in certain dialects. ... Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Australian English is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native-born Australians. ... English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups, the rhotic and the non-rhotic, depending on when the phoneme (the letter r, equivalent to Greek rho) is pronounced. ... In English, the digraph <th> represents two phonemes, the voiced dental fricative /ð/ (as in this) and the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ (thing). ... It has been suggested that Letter-sound pairs in English be merged into this article or section. ...

References

• Ladefoged, Peter (1999). "American English." In Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, 41–44, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
• Roach, Peter (2000). English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: CUP.

Peter Nielsen Ladefoged (September 17, 1925 – January 24, 2006) was a British-American linguist phonetician who traveled the world to document the distinct sounds of endangered languages and pioneered ways to collect and study data. ...

External links

• The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet (www.antimoon.com). Includes mp3 audio samples of all the English phonemes.
• The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité. A classic English poem containing about 800 of the worst irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.
• British and American English pronunciation courses