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English phonology is the study of the phonology (i.e. 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. Phonemes See IPA chart for English for concise and International Phonetic Alphabet for English for more detailed charts of the English phonemes. 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. 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 *. 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 as in thought and as in lot, which have merged with as in father in this accent through the father-bother and cot-caught mergers. æ-tensing æ-tensing is a phenomenon found in many varieties of American English by which the vowel has a longer, higher, and usually diphthongal pronunciation in some environments, usually to something like . In some American accents, and are apparently now separate phonemes. 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 in words like bad contrasts with a short in words like lad. 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. 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. 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: Phonotactics Note: This information applies to RP. Other than variations in the possible onsets with or without final , and the presence or absence of the phoneme , it also applies to the other main varieties of English. only occurs syllable-initial and does not occur in clusters. Syllable structure The syllable structure in English is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). Onset There is an on-going sound change (yod-dropping) by which as the final consonant in a cluster is being lost. In RP, words with and can usually be pronounced with or without this sound, e.g., or . For some speakers of English, including some British speakers, the sound change is more advanced and so, for example, in General American is also not present after , and . In Welsh English it can occur in more combinations, for example in . The following can occur as the onset: Note: A few onsets occur infrequently making it uncertain whether they are native pronunciations or merely non-assimilated borrowings, e.g. (svelt), (Sri Lanka), (oeuvre), (schwa), (smew), and (sphragistics). Nucleus The following can occur as the nucleus: Coda Most, and in theory all, of the following except those which end with , , , , or can be extended with or representing the morpheme -s/z-. Similarly most, and in theory all, of the following except those which end with or can be extended with or representing the morpheme -t/d-. The following can occur as the coda: Note: For some speakers, a fricative before is elided so that these never appear phonetically: becomes , becomes , becomes . Syllable-level rules Word-level rules History of English pronunciation See also Phonological history of the English language Around the late 14th century, English began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift, in which The other long vowels became higher: Later developments complicate the picture: whereas in Geoffrey Chaucer's time food, good, and blood all had the vowel and in William Shakespeare's time they all had the vowel , in modern pronunciation good has shortened its vowel to and blood has shortened and lowered its vowel to 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. See also | |||||||
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