Chapter 4

TRANSCRIPTION AND PHONETIC DICTIONARIES

The vowels of English can be transcribed in many different ways, partly because

accents of English differ greatly in the vowels they use, and partly because there

is no one right way of transcribing even a single accent of English. The set of

symbols used depends on the reason for making the transcription. If one is aiming

to reduce English to the smallest possible set of symbols, then sheep and

ship, Luke and look, and all the other pairs of vowels that differ in length could

be transcribed using one symbol per pair plus a length mark [ : ], as [ Si…p, Sip ],

[ lu…k, luk ], and so on.

VOWEL QUALITY

In order to appreciate the fact that vowel

sounds form a continuum, try gliding from one vowel to another. Say [ oe ] as in

had and then try to move gradually to [ i ] as in he. Do not say just [ oe–i ], but try

to spend as long as possible on the sounds between them. If you do this correctly,

you should pass through sounds that are something like [ ” ] as in head and [ eI ]

as in hay. If you have not achieved this effect already, try saying [ oe–”–eI–i ]

again, slurring slowly from one vowel to another. Now do the same in the reverse direction, going slowly and smoothly from [ i ]

as in he to [ oe ] as in had. Take as long as possible over the in-between sounds.

You should learn to stop at any point in this continuum so that you can make,

for example, a vowel like [ ” ] as in head, but slightly closer to [ oe ] as in had.

Next, try going from [ oe ] as in had slowly toward [ A ] as in father. When you say

[ oe–A ], you probably will not pass through any other vowel of your own speech.

But there is a continuum of possible vowel sounds between these two vowels.

You may be able to hear sounds between [ oe ] and [ A ] that are more like those

used by people with other accents in had and father.

THE AUDITORY VOWEL SPACE

The vowel [ i ] as in heed is called high front, meaning,

roughly, that the tongue is high and in the front of the mouth but, more precisely,

that it has the auditory quality we will call high, and the auditory quality

front. Similarly, the vowel [ oe ] as in had has a low tongue position and, more

important, an auditory quality that may be called low front. The vowel [ ” ] as in

head sounds somewhere between [ i ] and [ oe ], but a little nearer to [ oe ], so we

call it mid-low front. (Say the series [ i, ”, oe ] and check for yourself that this is

true.) The vowel [ A ] as in father has a tongue position that is low and back in

the mouth and auditory qualities that we will call low back. Last, the vowel [ u ]

in who is a high, fairly back vowel. The four vowels [ i, oe, A, u ]

AMERICAN AND BRITISH VOWELS

the solid points represent

the vowels that we are treating as monophthongs, and the lines represent the

movements involved in the diphthongs. The symbols labeling the diphthongs are

placed near their origins. There is a good scientific basis for placing the vowels

as shown here. The positions of both monophthongs and diphthongs are not just

the result of auditory impressions. The data are taken from the acoustic analyses

of a number of authorities . The vowels [ A, u ] as in good, food also vary considerably. Many speakers

have a very unrounded vowel in good and a rounded but central vowel in food.

Look in a mirror and observe your own lip positions in these two vowels.

Both British and American English speakers have a mid-low central vowel

[ O ] as in bud. In many forms of British English, this vowel may be a little lower

than in American English. In this way, it is distinct from the British English central vowel [ Π ] in bird.

DIPHTHONGS

both of the diphthongs [ aI, aA ], as in high,

how, start from more or less the same low central vowel position, midway between

[ oe ] and [ A ] and, in BBC English, closer to [ O ] than to any of the other

vowels. (The Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English transcribes

the American [ aI ] as [ OI ] in British English.) Say the word eye very

slowly and try to isolate the first part of it. Compare this sound with the vowels

[ oe, O, A ] as in bad, bud, father. Now make a long [ A ] as in father, and then say

the word eye as if it began with this sound. The result should be something like

some forms of New York or London Cockney English pronunciations of eye. Try

some other pronunciations, starting, for example, with the vowel [ oe ] as in bad.

In this case, the result is a somewhat affected pronunciation.

The diphthong [ aI ], as in high, buy, moves toward a high front vowel, but

in most forms of English, it does not go much beyond a mid-front vowel. Say

a word such as buy, making it end with the vowel [ ” ] as in bed (as if you were

saying [ ba” ]). A diphthong of this kind probably has a smaller change in quality

than occurs in your normal pronunciation (unless you are one of the speakers

from Texas or elsewhere in the South and Southwest who make such words as

by, die into long monophthongs—[ ba…, da… ]). Then say buy, deliberately making

it end with the vowel [ I ] as in bid. This vowel is usually slightly higher than the

ending of this diphthong for many speakers of English. Finally, say buy with the

vowel [ i ] as in heed at the end. This is a much larger change in quality than normally

occurs in this word. But some speakers of Scottish English and Canadian

English have a diphthong of this kind in words such as sight, which is different

from the diphthong that they have in side.

RHOTIC VOWELS

The only common stressed vowel of American English not shown in Figure 4.2

is [ Π± ] as in sir, herd, fur. This vowel does not fit on the chart because it cannot

be described simply in terms of the features high–low, front–back, and rounded–

unrounded. The vowel [ Π± ] can be said to be r-colored. It involves an additional

feature called rhotacization.

The most noticeable difference among accents of English is in whether they

have r-colored vowels. In many forms of American English, rhotacization occurs

when vowels are followed by [ r ], as in beard, bared, bard, board, poor, tire,

hour. Accents that permit some form of [ r ] after a vowel are said to be rhotic.

UNSTRESSED SYLLABLES

at the end of the words sofa, China [ "soAfE, "tSaInE ], and, for most

British speakers, better, farmer [ "b”tE, "fAmE ]. In American English, the vowel

at the end of words with the -er spelling is usually [ E± ], a very similar quality,

but with added r-coloring. The rules accounting for the allophones are very general in the sense that they

account for thousands of similar alternations among English words. But they are

also very complicated. They have to account for the blanks in the fourth column,

which show that some vowels can be completely reduced but others cannot.

There is, for example, a completely reduced vowel in explanation, demonstration,

recitation, but not, for most people, in the very similar words exploitation,

computation.

TENSE AND LAX VOWELS

The vowels of English can be divided into what may be called tense and lax

sets. These terms are really just labels used to designate two groups of vowels

that behave differently in English words. There are phonetic differences between

the two groups, but they are not simply a matter of muscular tenseness versus

laxness. To some extent, the differences between the two sets are due to developments

in the history of the English language that are still represented in the

spelling. The tense vowels occur in the words with a final, so-called silent e in

the spelling, e.g., mate, mete, kite, cute. The lax vowels occur in the corresponding

words without a silent e: mat, met, kit, cut. In addition, the vowel in good,

which, for reasons connected with the history of English, has no silent e partner,

is also a member of the lax set. This spelling-based distinction is, however, only

a rough indication of the difference between the two sets. None of the vowels [ I, ”, oe, A, O ] as in bid, bed, bad, good, bud can appear in

stressed open syllables. This is the set of vowels that may be called lax vowels,

as opposed to the tense vowels in the other words. To characterize the differences

between tense and lax vowels,

RULES FOR ENGLISH VOWEL ALLOPHONES

(1) Other things being equal, a given vowel is longest in an open syllable,

next longest in a syllable closed by a voiced consonant, and shortest in a

syllable closed by a voiceless consonant

(2) Other things being equal, vowels are longer in stressed syllables

(3) Other things being equal, vowels are longest in monosyllabic words, next

longest in words with two syllables, and shortest in words with more than

two syllables.

(4) A reduced vowel may be voiceless when after a voiceless stop (and before

a voiceless stop).

(5) Vowels are nasalized in syllables closed by a nasal consonant

(6) Vowels are retracted before syllable final [ : ].