NORTH AMERICAN ENGLISH VOWEL SYSTEMS

Subsystems of English vowels

English vowels

Short Long

Upgliding Long and ingliding

Front upgliding

Back upgliding

THE PHONOTACTICS OF ENGLISH VOWELS

LONG VOWELSheat hate height quote hootheed hayed hide hoed who’dhe hay high hoe whoSHORT VOWELSpit pet pat pot putt putbid bead bad bod bud hood*[pɪ] *[pɛ] *[pæ] *[po] *[pʌ] *[pʊ]

The basic condition

English words cannot end with a stressed vowel

Phonemes of American English in broad IPA notation. (Kurath 1977: 18-19)

Checked Free

Front Back Front Central Back

/ɪ/ /ʊ/ /i/ /u/

/e/ /ʌ/ /e/ /ɜ˞/ /o/

/æ/ /ɑ/ /ɔ/

Diphthongs

/ai/

/au/

/oi/

see suesay so saw

sighsowsoy

ANAE notation for the word classes of North American English

kid could

Ked cud

cad cod

keyed

cade coy

hide

suit cooed

code

cowed

cawed

father

Distinctive features

JC Wells’ word classes for American English corresponding to ANAE notation

Representations of English vowels

iw uw

ow

aw

i u

e ʌ

æ o

iy

ey oy

ay

Short Long

UpglidingLong and ingliding

Front upgliding

Back upgliding

iɪeɛæɑɔʌoʊu

ai awoy

FLEECE KIT FACE DRESS TRAP LOT THOUGHT STRUT GOAT FOOT GOOSE PRICE MOUTH CHOICE

oh

æh ah

ih uh

eh oh

æh ah

r-less

Organization of the long and ingliding vowels in an r-ful Mid-Atlantic dialect

front backhigh ih uh

idea skua

mid eh ohyeah law

thoughtlow æ æh ah o

calve savvy salve balm bomb have halve calm Tom

salmon almond common rather father bother

baah spa *

Vowel sub-systems before R

ihr uhr

ehr ohr

ɔhr

ahr

beer boor

bare four

for

bar

iyrV uwrV

irV urV

eyrV

erV orV

ærV arV

nearer Jewry

mirror jury

Mary

merry Murray

marry

Coda Intervocalic

/ohr/ /ɔhr/ /ahr/ore or arefour for farhoarse horse sparsemourning morning darningsource force farcecore corps carcored cord cardpork storm park

JC Wells’ word classes for American English corresponding to ANAE notation

Mean values of 14 vowels for 21 North American dialects