44 sounds of English The Vowels

VOWELS Though there are many consonants in English (and in general), much more than can be individually represented by the 26 letters in the alphabet, vowels can sometimes be even harder to describe. While consonants can at least be described with precise terms and actions, vowels tend to be more of approximations in the IPA. This is because vowels tend to lie more on a spectrum than consonants, and also because vowels can change subtly from accent to accent and from language to language.

some of the following examples will mostly serve as a way to get you familiar with some of these IPA symbols. But even the same symbol can represent slightly different vowels, since, as mentioned before, vowels tend to lie on a spectrum. Really, it is best to use your ears to listen to how English is spoken by different people, and then compare that to the IPA symbols.

Three major factors in the production of vowels are the openness, or height, of the mouth, the position of the tongue, and the roundness of the lips. If a vowel is produced while the mouth is almost closed, it would be considered a close If the vowel is slightly more open, it would be considered a mid vowel. And if the mouth is open very tall, it would be considered an open vowel. If the tongue is positioned near the front of the mouth, any vowel produced would be a front If the tongue were set slightly more back in the mouth, the vowel would be a central vowel. If the tongue were set in the far back of the mouth, the vowel would be a back vowel. If a vowel is produced while the lips are tense and rounded, it would be considered a rounded. If the vowel is produced while the lips are relaxed, it would be considered an unrounded vowel.

/Æ/ Found in words like: cat, lad, bat Letters that usually represent it: “a” /Ɑ/ Found in words like: off, loss, cloth (General American) Letters that usually represent it: “o,” “a” Notice that this symbol is different from the symbol /a/, which some people pronounce in the word “father.” However, the symbol has been omitted from this list.

/Ɔ/ Found in words like: law, caught, all, talk Letters that usually represent it: “a,” “aw,” “au,” “al” At least in the General American accent, this is an interesting sound because it’s starting to fall out of usage. For example, there used to be a clear geographical distinction in the United States between people who pronounced the words “cot” and “caught” the same and those who pronounced with different vowels (/ɑ/ and /ɔ/). These days, however, there is a much blurrier distinction between these two pronunciations, and many more Americans are beginning to pronounce both “cot” and “caught” with the /ɑ/ vowel. This is what linguists call the “cot-caught merger” and is an example of how certain sounds are currently dying out of English pronunciations.

/Ə/ Found in words like: about, the, spotted, lemon, basil, analysis, acumen Letters that usually represent it: almost any vowel This symbol is known as the “schwa” and is often called the neutral vowel. Technically, it is the “mid central unrounded vowel,” and in English, it is only used for unstressed vowels. Stressed vowels that make a similar sound are represented by the /ʊ/ symbol. What’s interesting about the schwa is that almost any vowel letter in English can make this sound, probably because it is the neutral vowel, and therefore a logical go-to for any vowel that becomes weakened from a lack of stress.

/Ɪ/ Found in words like: sit, hidden, amiss Letters that usually represent it: “i,” “y” /I/ Found in words like: city, see, meat, theme, fluorine, people Letters that usually represent it: “ee,” “ea,” “y,” “i” This is one of the few IPA symbols where its uppercase counterpart is a separate symbol. Notice the difference between /i/ and /ɪ/.

/Ɛ/ Found in words like: bed, instead, friend Letters that usually represent it: “e,” “ea” In Australian and other accents, this sound is replaced entirely by the /e/ sound, which is a more close, front vowel and has a brighter sound.

/ɹ̩/ OR /ɚ/ Found in words like: burn, herd, earth, bird, worm, amateur, winner (General American) Letters that usually represent it: “er,” “ear,” “ir,” “or,” “ur,” “eur” These two symbols feature diacritics, which are small markings added to IPA symbols to modify their sounds. The small notch placed beneath the /ɹ/ symbol indicates that it can constitute its own syllable without the help of a vowel. Meanwhile the little tail added to the schwa colors it with the /ɹ/ sound.

/Ɜ/ Found in words like: burn, herd, earth, bird, worm (Received Pronunciation) Letters that usually represent it: “er,” “ear,” “ir,” “or,” “ur,” “eur” Not to be confused with the /ɛ/ symbol. /Ʌ/ Found in words like: run, won, flood, sudden, alumnus Letters that usually represent it: “u,” “o,” “oo”

/Ʊ/ Found in words like: put, look, would Letters that usually represent it: “oo,” “oul,” “u” Remember that this sound is very similar to the schwa sound, but it is typically reserved for stressed syllables. /U/ Found in words like: tube, you, choose, through, threw, issue Letters that usually represent it: “oo,” “u,” “ou,” “ew”

However, it is more accurate to use this symbol for sounds such as the “u” in the Spanish word “tú” or “luna,” where the vowel is much purer than in English. For a narrower transcription in English, you can use the symbols /ʊu/ or /əu/, depending on the accent.

/O/ Found in words like: no, toe, soap, throw, though Letters that usually represent it: “o,” “oe,” “oa,” “ow” Similar to /u/’s case, this symbol is acceptable to use in a broad transcription of English, but it really represents the sound that “o” makes in the Spanish word “hola” or “gato.” In English, the “o” is sound is typically more of a diphthong and can be represented with something like [oʊ]. In Australian English, the sound is more of an [ɔʊ].

DIPHTHONGS So far, we have seen mostly symbols for pure vowels, and with these symbols, we can represent almost any sound made in common accents of English. However, English is a language known for being full of diphthongs (double vowels) that are represented by combinations of symbols.

/AJ/ Found in words like: my, wise, high, Thai, island Letters that usually represent it: “i,” “y,” “igh,” “ai” In Received Pronunciation, the diphthong is more of a /ɑj/ sound. /EJ/ Found in words like: date, day, pain, whey, rein, neighbor Letters that usually represent it: “a,” “ay,” “ai,” “ey,” “ei,” “eigh” In Received Pronunciation, this diphthong is more of a /ɛj/ sound.

/ƆJ/ Found in words like: boy, noise, Euler Letters that usually represent it: “oy,” “oi” Oftentimes, this is pronounced as /oj/ instead. /AW/ Found in words like: now, trout, Laos Letters that usually represent it: “ow,” “ou” Americans often pronounce this as a /æw/ sound.

/JU/ Found in words like: cute, ewe, use, new (in some accents), you Letters that usually represent it: “u,” “ew” Though the /j/ sound can be combined with mostly any vowel, it appears very often before the /u/ sound, even without the appearance of the letter “y.”

The IPA symbols presented here are probably enough to be overwhelming to any language learner, or a nice review for anyone already familiar with the system. However, the symbols alone do not cover nearly every facet of English pronunciation. You’ve already encountered a couple diacritics that slightly change the nuances of certain sounds, but there are plenty more that can be useful in English. Though I won’t go too in depth with them, here are a few more IPA features, just to give you a general idea of what they do.

1. BRACKETS As transcription becomes narrower, or more precise, it is more common to use brackets to surround IPA symbols than slashes, which you have noticed already. The reason for this is a distinction between phonetics and phonemics, but that’s a topic of linguistics beyond the scope of this article. 2. STRESS Sometimes, an apostrophe is placed before the syllable that is primarily stressed in the word. For example, the word “because” would be transcribed as /bəˈkʌz/ with the apostrophe before the second syllable. If there is a secondary stress in the syllable, then you would use a symbol that looks somewhat like a comma.

For example, “pronunciation” would be written as /prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/. It is typical to transcribe IPA using stress markers, though it is not always required.

3. LENGTH You might have heard of long vowels and short vowels as a feature of languages such as Finnish, Japanese, or Ancient Greek. However, English also features length in its vowels, though in a subtler way. Think of the difference in vowel length between “city” and “clean.” To mark a vowel as long, linguists use a colon-like symbol. For example, “clean” would be written as [kliːn], while “city” would remain [ˈsɪti] (or [ˈsɪɾi], if you’re American).

4. SYLLABIC CONSONANTS A syllabic consonant is a consonant that can act as a syllable without the help of a vowel, and is indicated by a small notch below the IPA symbol. You’ve already seen this with /ɹ̩/, but /l/, which is also a liquid, as well as nasals like /m/ and /n/ can become syllabic. For example, the word “table” features a syllabic consonant and is therefore written as /ˈtejbl̩/. Similarly, the word “hidden” can be written as /ˈhɪɾn̩/. However, an alternative to this convention is to use the schwa, since it serves as a neutral vowel. Thus, “hidden” can be transcribed as both /ˈhɪɾn̩/ and /ˈhɪɾən/.

5. NASALIZATION In some accents, especially American accents, the /æ/ vowel is not always completely pure. When it comes directly before a nasal consonant, it becomes a bit distorted, or “nasalized,” as if it is anticipating the consonant that comes after it. For example, though a British person would say the word “man” with a clean /æ/, an American would nasalize the /æ/, making it sound almost like an [eə] sound. To indicate nasalization, you can put a tilde above the vowel, so /mæn/ would become [mæ̃n].

6. ASPIRATION Aspiration is the breathiness given to a consonant, typically a voiceless stop, making it sound harsher. If you hold your hand up to your face and pronounce the word “pan,” you might feel a burst of air come from your mouth. Now, pronounce the word “span,” and notice that some of that breathiness might go away. This is the phenomenon of aspiration, and it makes a huge difference in the meaning of Korean words, for example. However, it is not such a big deal in English, which is why the indication of aspiration in IPA is considered part of a narrower transcription. It is indicated by a small “h” next to the IPA symbol, so a sound like /t/ would become [th] in most cases.

8. UNRELEASED STOPS It is also typical for stop sounds to not have a release when they occur at the ends of words. For example, even though /p/ is typically aspirated as [ph], when it comes at the end of a word like “stop,” the sound has no audible release and there is no sound of aspiration. To represent this, we would write /p/ as [p ̚]. With the /t/ sound in American English, it becomes so extreme that it is replaced entirely by a glottal stop.