spelling alphabet british english vowels

The choice around these two symbols is focussed on whether /ɜː/ is a long version of the schwa /ə/.Īlthough it is true that the different symbols can to some extent represent a more modern or a more old-fashioned pronunciation, there isn’t actually much difference between them. əː/ or /ɜː/?Ģ symbols that don’t represent a big difference in position are those found in TURN. The king’s symbols represent a more old-fashioned ‘Received Pronunciation’ accent, and the singer’s symbols fit a more modern GB English accent. This explains why dictionaries have ended up with these different transcriptions for the words: Since both the orange and the blue pronunciations are considered ‘standard’, you could choose the closest symbol to either of them. This occurs in other vowel sounds (the vowel grid shows the pronunciation of the vowel in each word):

The blue pronunciation is closest to /e/, and the orange is closest to /ɛ/.

Not all choices are as clear as the SHIP/SHEEP vowels.įor example, look at two different pronunciations of British English speakers for the vowel sound in P EN: This choice was fairly clear and in this case, we haven’t had to use any unusual symbols, the SHEEP phoneme is small /i/ and SHIP is a little capital /ɪ/. Additionally as /i/ is generally a bit longer, most publishers choose to show this using the symbols for length /ː/ further helping to distinguish the sounds: So publishers can use these symbols to show these two different sounds. Some of the choices seem fairly straight-forward, if we say the vowel sounds in SHEEP and SHIP, they are somewhere around these positions: So in total we need roughly 20 phonemes for English vowel sounds. We also need combinations of symbols for the 6 to 8 diphthongs, the vowel sounds that move from one position to another in the same sound. English has about 12 single vowel sound positions (monophthongs) so we need a symbol from the vowel grid for each one. In a phonemic chart, there is one symbol for one sound. So the /iː/ in English SH EEP is not exactly the same as the on the vowel grid. This means that the symbol on the IPA chart is not exactly the same sound as the one found in a dictionary transcription of a language. Languages don’t replicate the positions of these symbols exactly, as we tend to stay more in the central areas as we speak: So is not rounded but is rounded because it is on the right side of 2 symbols. The horizontal lines are the tongue, and the vertical lines represent are jaw.Īt the left of the grid, the tongue is at the front of the mouth :Īnd if we go to the right, the tongue is towards the back which normally causes lip rounding in English:Įach symbol represents a mouth position, and where you can see 2 symbols in one place, the one on the right side is made with rounded lips. In order to understand what’s going on, we need to look at the vowel grid from the International Phonetic Alphabet:

Spelling alphabet british english vowels