English phonology

Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and
from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely
similar (but not identical) phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have
vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that
distinguish fortis and lenis consonants (stops, affricates, and fricatives).

Phonological analysis of English often concentrates on or uses, as a reference point, one or

more of the prestige or standard accents, such as Received Pronunciation for England,
General American for the United States, and General Australian for Australia. Nevertheless,
many other dialects of English are spoken, which have developed independently from these
standardized accents, particularly regional dialects. Information about these standardized
accents functions only as a limited guide to all of English phonology, which one can later
expand upon once one becomes more familiar with some of the many other dialects of
English that are spoken.

Phonemes

A phoneme of a language or dialect is an abstraction of a speech sound or of a group of

different sounds which are all perceived to have the same function by speakers of that
particular language or dialect. For example, the English word through consists of three
phonemes: the initial "th" sound, the "r" sound, and a vowel sound. The phonemes in this and
many other English words do not always correspond directly to the letters used to spell them
(English orthography is not as strongly phonemic as that of many other languages).

The number and distribution of phonemes in English vary from dialect to dialect, and also
depend on the interpretation of the individual researcher. The number of consonant
phonemes is generally put at 24 (or slightly more depending on the dialect). The number of
vowels is subject to greater variation; in the system presented on this page there are 20–25
vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation, 14–16 in General American and 19–21 in
Australian English. The pronunciation keys used in dictionaries generally contain a slightly
greater number of symbols than this, to take account of certain sounds used in foreign words
and certain noticeable distinctions that may not be—strictly speaking—phonemic.

Consonants

The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English,
plus /x/, whose distribution is more limited. Fortis consonants are always voiceless,
aspirated in syllable onset (except in clusters beginning with /s/), and sometimes also
glottalized to an extent in syllable coda (most likely to occur with /t/, see T-glottalization),
while lenis consonants are always unaspirated and un-glottalized, and generally partially or
fully voiced. The alveolars are usually apical, i.e. pronounced with the tip of the tongue
touching or approaching the roof of the mouth, though some speakers produce them
laminally, i.e. with the blade of the tongue.[1]

Post-
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
alveolar

Nasal m[a] n[a] ŋ

Plosive/ fortis p t tʃ k
affricate lenis b d dʒ ɡ

fortis f θ[b] s ʃ x[c]

Fricative h[d]
[b]
lenis v ð z ʒ

Approximant l[a] r[e] j[f] w[g]

a. Most varieties of English have syllabic consonants in some words, principally [l̩, m̩ , n̩], for example at
the end of bottle, rhythm and button. In such cases, no phonetic vowel is pronounced between the
last two consonants, and the last consonant forms a syllable on its own. Syllabic consonants are
generally transcribed with a vertical line under the consonant letter, so that phonetic transcription of
bottle would be [ˈbɒtl̩], [ˈbɑɾl̩], or [ˈbɔɾl̩] in RP, GA, and Australian respectively, and for button [ˈbʌʔn̩]. In
theory, such consonants could be analyzed as individual phonemes. However, this would add several
extra consonant phonemes to the inventory for English,[2] and phonologists prefer to identify syllabic
nasals and liquids phonemically as /əC/.[3][4] Thus button is phonemically /ˈbʌtən/ or /ˈbatən/ and
bottle is phonemically /ˈbɒtəl/, /ˈbɑtəl/, or /ˈbɔtəl/.

b. /θ, ð/ are realized as stops in accents affected by th-stopping, such as Hiberno-English, the New York
accent, and South Asian Englishes. They are merged with /f, v/ in accents affected by th-fronting,
 such as some varieties of Cockney and African American Vernacular English. See Pronunciation of
English ⟨th⟩.

c. The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is mainly used in Hiberno-English, Scottish, South African and Welsh
English; words with /x/ in Scottish accents tend to be pronounced with /k/ in other dialects. The velar
fricative sometimes appears in recent loanwords such as chutzpah. Under the influence of Welsh and
Afrikaans, the actual phonetic realization of /x/ in Welsh English and White South African English is
uvular [χ], rather than velar [x].[5][6][7] Dialects do not necessarily agree on the exact words in which /x/
appears; for instance, in Welsh English it appears in loanwords from Welsh (such as Amlwch /
ˈæmlʊx/), whereas in White South African English it appears only in loanwords from Afrikaans or
Xhosa (such as gogga /ˈxɒxə/ 'insect').[5][7]

d. This sound may not be a phoneme in H-dropping dialects.

e. This phoneme is conventionally transcribed with the basic Latin letter ⟨r⟩ (the IPA symbol for the
alveolar trill), even though its pronunciation is usually a postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠]. The trill does
exist but it is rare, found only in some Scottish, Welsh,[8] South African[9] and Indian[10] dialects. See
Pronunciation of English /r/.

f. The sound at the beginning of huge in most British accents[11] is a voiceless palatal fricative [ç], but
this is analysed phonemically as the consonant cluster /hj/ so that huge is transcribed /hjuːdʒ/. As
with /hw/, this does not mean that speakers pronounce [h] followed by [j]; the phonemic transcription
/hj/ is simply a convenient way of representing the single sound [ç].[12] The yod-dropping found in the
Norfolk dialect means that the traditional Norfolk pronunciation of huge is [hʊudʒ] and not [çuːdʒ].

g. In some conservative accents in Scotland, Ireland, the southern United States, and New England, the
digraph ⟨wh⟩ in words like which and whine represents a voiceless w sound [ʍ], a voiceless labiovelar
fricative[13][14][15] or approximant,[16] which contrasts with the voiced w of witch and wine. In most
dialects, this sound is lost, and is pronounced as a voiced w (the wine–whine merger). Phonemically
this sound may be analysed as a consonant cluster /hw/, rather than as a separate phoneme */ʍ/, so
which and whine are transcribed phonemically as /hwɪtʃ/ and /hwaɪn/. This does not mean that such
speakers actually pronounce [h] followed by [w]: this phonemic transcription /hw/ is simply a
convenient way of representing a single sound [ʍ] when such dialects are not analysed as having an
extra phoneme.[12]

Consonant examples

The following table shows typical examples of the occurrence of the above consonant
phonemes in words, using minimal pairs where possible.
 Fortis Lenis

/p/ pit /b/ bit

/t/ tin /d/ din

/k/ cut /ɡ/ gut

/tʃ/ cheap /dʒ/ jeep

/f/ fat /v/ vat

/θ/ thigh /ð/ thy

/s/ sap /z/ zap

/ʃ/ mesher /ʒ/ measure

/x/ loch

/h/ ham

/m/ Tim

/n/ tin

/ŋ/ ting

/j/ your

/w/ wore

/r/ rump

/l/ lump

Sonorants

The pronunciation of /l/ varies by dialect:

Received Pronunciation has two main allophones of /l/: the clear or plain [l] (the "light
L"), and the dark or velarized [ɫ] (the "dark L"). The clear variant is used before vowels
when they are in the same syllable, and the dark variant when the /l/ precedes a
consonant or is in syllable-final position before silence.

In South Wales, Ireland, and the Caribbean, /l/ is usually clear, and in North Wales,
Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand it is usually dark.

In General American and Canada, /l/ is generally dark, but to varying degrees: before
stressed vowels it is neutral or only slightly velarized.[17] In southern U.S. accents it is
noticeably clear between vowels, and in some other positions.[18]

In urban accents of Southern England, as well as New Zealand and some parts of the
United States, /l/ can be pronounced as an approximant or semivowel ([w], [o], [ʊ]) at
the end of a syllable (l-vocalization).
 Depending on dialect, /r/ has at least the following allophones in varieties of English
around the world (see Pronunciation of English /r/):
postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠] (the most common realization of the /r/ phoneme,
occurring in most dialects, RP and General American included)

retroflex approximant [ɻ] (occurs in most Irish dialects and some American dialects)

labiodental approximant [ʋ] (occurs in south-east England and some London accents;
known as r-labialization)

alveolar flap [ɾ] (occurs in most Scottish, Welsh,[19] Indian[10] and some South African
dialects, some conservative dialects in England and Ireland; not to be confused with
flapping of /t/ and /d/)

alveolar trill [r] (occurs in some very conservative Scottish dialects and some Indian,
South African and Welsh accents)[10][9][8]

voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] (occurs in northern Northumbria, largely disappeared; known
as the Northumbrian burr)

In most dialects /r/ is labialized [ɹ̠ʷ] in many positions, as in reed [ɹ̠ʷiːd] and tree [t̠ɹ̠̊ʷiː]; in the
latter case, the /t/ may be slightly labialized as well.[20]

In some rhotic accents, such as General American, /r/ when not followed by a vowel is
realized as an r-coloring of the preceding vowel or its coda: nurse [ˈnɚs], butter [ˈbʌɾɚ].

The distinctions between the nasals are neutralized in some environments. For example,
before a final /p/, /t/ or /k/ there is nearly always only one nasal sound that can appear in
each case: [m], [n] or [ŋ] respectively (as in the words limp, lint, link – note that the n of link
is pronounced [ŋ]). This effect can even occur across syllable or word boundaries,
particularly in stressed syllables: synchrony is pronounced [ˈsɪŋkɹəni] whereas synchronic
may be pronounced either as [sɪŋˈkɹɒnɪk] or as [sɪnˈkɹɒnɪk]. For other possible syllable-final
combinations, see § Coda in the Phonotactics section below.

Obstruents

In most dialects, the fortis stops and affricate /p, t, tʃ, k/ have various different allophones,
and are distinguished from the lenis stops and affricate /b, d, dʒ, ɡ/ by several phonetic
features.[21]

The allophones of the fortes /p, t, tʃ, k/ include:

aspirated [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] when they occur in the onset of a stressed syllable, as in potato. In
clusters involving a following liquid, the aspiration typically manifests as the devoicing
of this liquid. These sounds are unaspirated [p, t, k] after /s/ within the same syllable,
as in stan, span, scan, and at the ends of syllables, as in mat, map, mac.[22] The
 voiceless fricatives are always unaspirated, but a notable exception to this are English-
speaking areas of Wales, where they are often aspirated.[23]

In many accents of English, fortis stops /p, t, k, tʃ/ are glottalized in some positions.
This may be heard either as a glottal stop preceding the oral closure ("pre-
glottalization" or "glottal reinforcement") or as a substitution of the glottal stop [ʔ] for
the oral stop (glottal replacement). /tʃ/ can only be pre-glottalized. Pre-glottalization
normally occurs in British and American English when the fortis consonant phoneme
is followed by another consonant or when the consonant is in final position. Thus
football and catching are often pronounced [ˈfʊʔtbɔːl] and [ˈkæʔtʃɪŋ], respectively.
Glottal replacement often happens in cases such as those just given, so that football
is frequently pronounced [ˈfʊʔbɔːl]. In addition, however, glottal replacement is
increasingly common in British English when /t/ occurs between vowels if the
preceding vowel is stressed; thus better is often pronounced by younger speakers as
[ˈbeʔə].[24] Such t-glottalization also occurs in many British regional accents, including
Cockney, where it can also occur at the end of words, and where /p/ and /k/ are
sometimes treated the same way.[25]

Among stops, both fortes and lenes:

May have no audible release [p̚, b̚, t̚, d̚, k̚, ɡ̚] in the word-final position.[26][27] These
allophones are more common in North America than Great Britain.[26]

Always have a 'masked release' before another plosive or affricate (as in rubbed
[ˈɹʌˑb̚d̥]), i.e. the release of the first stop is made after the closure of the second stop.
This also applies when the following stop is homorganic (articulated in the same
place), as in top player.[28] A notable exception to this is Welsh English, where stops
are usually released in this environment.[23]

The affricates /tʃ, dʒ/ have a mandatory fricative release in all environments.[29]

Very often in the United States and Canada, and less frequently in Australia[30] and New
Zealand,[31] both /t/ and /d/ can be pronounced as a voiced flap [ɾ] in certain positions:
when they come between a preceding stressed vowel (possibly with intervening /r/) and
precede an unstressed vowel or syllabic /l/. Examples include water, bottle, petal, peddle
(the last two words sound alike when flapped). The flap may even appear at word
boundaries, as in put it on. When the combination /nt/ appears in such positions, some
American speakers pronounce it as a nasalized flap that may become indistinguishable
from /n/, so winter [ˈwɪɾ̃ɚ] may be pronounced similarly or identically to winner [ˈwɪnɚ].[32]

Yod-coalescence is a process that palatalizes the clusters /dj/, /tj/, /sj/ and /zj/ into [dʒ],
[tʃ], [ʃ] and [ʒ] respectively, frequently occurring with clusters that would be considered to
span a syllable boundary.[33]
 Yod-coalescence in stressed syllables, such as in tune and dune, occurs in Australian,
Cockney, Estuary English, Hiberno-English (some speakers), Newfoundland English,
South African English, and to a certain extent in New Zealand English and Scottish
English (many speakers). This can lead to additional homophony; for instance, dew
and due come to be pronounced the same as Jew.[34]

In certain varieties—such as Australian English, South African English, and New

Zealand English—/sj/ and /zj/ in stressed syllables can coalesce into [ʃ] and [ʒ],
respectively. In Australian English for example, assume is pronounced [əˈʃʉːm] by
some speakers.[35] Furthermore, some British, Canadian, American, New Zealand and
Australian speakers may change the /s/ sound to /ʃ/ before /tr/,[36] so that a word
having a cluster of ⟨str⟩ like in strewn would be pronounced [ʃtruːn].[37]

The postalveolar consonants /tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ/ are strongly labialized: [tʃʷ dʒʷ ʃʷ ʒʷ].[38]

In addition to /tʃ, dʒ/, clusters /ts, dz, tr, dr, tθ, dð, pf, bv/ also have affricate-like
realizations in certain positions (as in cats, roads, tram, dram, eighth, behind them, cupful,
obvious; see also § Onset), but usually only /tʃ, dʒ/ are considered to constitute the
monophonemic affricates of English because (among other reasons) only they are found in
all of morpheme-initial, -‍internal, and -‍final positions, and native speakers typically perceive
them as single units.[39][40][41]

Vowels

English, much like other Germanic languages, has a particularly large number of vowel
phonemes, and in addition the vowels of English differ considerably between dialects.
Consequently, corresponding vowels may be transcribed with various symbols depending on
the dialect under consideration. When considering English as a whole, lexical sets are often
used, each named by a word containing the vowel or vowels in question. For example, the LOT
set consists of words which, like lot, have /ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation and /ɑ/ in General
American. The "LOT vowel" then refers to the vowel that appears in those words in whichever
dialect is being considered, or (at a greater level of abstraction) to a diaphoneme, which
represents this interdialectal correspondence. A commonly used system of lexical sets,
devised by John C. Wells, is presented below; for each set, the corresponding phonemes are
given for RP and General American, using the notation that will be used on this page.


Full monophthongs Potential Full diphthongs Vowels before historical /r/

LS RP GA diphthongs[42] LS RP GA LS RP GA

TRAP æ LS RP GA PRICE aɪ NURSE ɜː ɜr

BATH æ FACE eɪ CHOICE ɔɪ START ɑː ɑr

ɑː
PALM GOAT əʊ oʊ MOUTH aʊ NORTH ɔr
ɑ ɔː
LOT FLEECE iː i FORCE ɔr, oʊr
ɒ
CLOTH GOOSE uː u NEAR ɪə ir
ɔ, ɑ
THOUGHT ɔː SQUARE ɛː ɛr

KIT ɪ CURE ʊə, ɔː ʊr

DRESS e ɛ

STRUT ʌ

FOOT ʊ

Reduced vowels

LS RP GA

COMMA ə
ə
LETTER ər

HAPPY i

For a table that shows the pronunciations of these vowels in a wider range of English
dialects, see IPA chart for English dialects.

The following tables show the vowel phonemes of three standard varieties of English. The
notation system used here for Received Pronunciation (RP) is fairly standard; the others less
so. The feature descriptions given here (front, close, etc.) are abstracted somewhat; the
actual pronunciations of these vowels are somewhat more accurately conveyed by the IPA
symbols used (see Vowel for a chart indicating the meanings of these symbols; though note
also the points listed below the following tables). The symbols given in the table are
traditional but redirect to their modern implementation.


Received Pronunciation[43][44] General American

Front Central Back Front Central Back

short long short long short long lax tense lax tense lax tense

Close ɪ iː ʊ uː[a] ɔː[a] Close ɪ i ʊ u

Mid e ɛː ə ɜː ɒ[a] Mid ɛ eɪ[b] ə (ɜ)[c] oʊ[b]

Open æ ʌ ɑː Open æ ʌ[c] ɑ (ɔ)[d]

Diphthongs eɪ   aɪ   ɔɪ   aʊ   əʊ   ɪə   ʊə Diphthongs aɪ   ɔɪ   aʊ

Triphthongs (eɪə   aɪə   ɔɪə   aʊə   əʊə)

General Australian

Front Central Back

short long short long short long

Close ɪ iː ʉː[a] ʊ oː[a]

Mid e eː ə ɜː ɔ[a]

Open æ (æː)[e] a aː

Diphthongs æɪ   ɑɪ   oɪ   æɔ   əʉ   ɪə   (ʊə)[f]

a. The modern RP vowels /uː/, /ɔː/ and /ɒ/ are very similar to the corresponding Australian phonemes /
ʉː/, /oː/ and /ɔ/. The difference between them lies mostly in transcription (the way they are
transcribed in RP is more conservative).

b. Although the notation /eɪ oʊ/ are used for the vowels of FACE and GOAT respectively in General
American, they are analysed as phonemic monophthongs and frequently transcribed as /e o/ in the
literature.

c. General American does not have the opposition between /ɜr/ and /ər/; therefore, the vowels in further
/ˈfɜrðər/ are typically realized with the same segmental quality as [ˈfɚðɚ].[45] This also makes the
words forward /ˈfɔrwərd/ and foreword /ˈfɔrwɜrd/ homophonous as [ˈfɔɹwɚd].[45] Therefore, /ɜ/ is not
a true phoneme in General American but merely a different notation of /ə/ preserved for when this
phoneme precedes /r/ and is stressed—a convention adopted in literature to facilitate comparisons
with other accents.[46] What is historically /ʌr/, as in hurry, is also pronounced [ɚ] (see hurry–furry
merger), so /ʌ/, /ɜ/ and /ə/ are all neutralized before /r/.[46]

d. Many North American speakers do not distinguish /ɔ/ from /ɑ/ and merge them into /ɑ/, except
before /r/ (see cot–caught merger).

e. Australian has the bad–lad split, with distinctive short and long variants in various words of the TRAP
set: a long phoneme /æː/ in words like bad contrasts with a short /æ/ in words like lad. (A similar
split is found in the accents of some speakers in southern England.)
 f. The vowel /ʊə/ is often omitted from descriptions of Australian, as for most speakers it has split into
the long monophthong /oː/ (e.g. poor, sure) or the sequence /ʉːə/ (e.g. cure, lure).[47]

The differences between these tables can be explained as follows:

General American lacks a phoneme corresponding to RP /ɒ/ (LOT, CLOTH), instead using /ɑ/
in the LOT words and generally /ɔ/ in the CLOTH words. In a few North American accents,
namely in Eastern New England (Boston), Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), and to some
degree in Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland) and Eastern Canadian English, LOT words do
not have the vowel of PALM (the father–bother merger has not occurred) but instead merge
with CLOTH/THOUGHT.[48][49][50][51]

Although the notation /ʌ/ is used for the vowel of STRUT in RP and General American, the
actual pronunciation is closer to a near-open central vowel [ɐ] in RP and advanced back [ʌ̟]
in General American.[52] The symbol ⟨ʌ⟩ continues to be used for reasons of tradition (it
was historically a back vowel) and because it is still back in other varieties.[53]

RP transcriptions use ⟨e⟩ rather than ⟨ɛ⟩ largely for convenience and historical tradition; it
does not necessarily represent a different sound from the General American phoneme,
although the RP vowel may be described as somewhat less open than the American
one.[54]

The different notations used for the vowel of GOAT in RP and General American (/əʊ/ and
/oʊ/) reflect a difference in the most common phonetic realizations of that vowel.

The triphthongs given in the RP table are usually regarded as sequences of two phonemes
(a diphthong plus /ə/); however, in RP, these sequences frequently undergo smoothing into
single diphthongs or even monophthongs.

The different notations used here for some of the Australian vowels reflect the phonetic
realization of those vowels in Australian: a central [ʉː] rather than [uː] in GOOSE, a more
closed [e] rather than [ɛ] in DRESS, a close-mid [oː] rather than traditional RP's [ɔː] in
THOUGHT, an open-mid [ɔ] rather than traditional RP's [ɒ] in LOT, an opener [a] rather than
somewhat closer [ʌ] in STRUT, a central [aː] rather a back [ɑː] in CALM and START, and
somewhat different pronunciations of most of the diphthongs. Note that central [ʉː] in
GOOSE, close-mid [oː] in THOUGHT and open-mid [ɔ] in LOT are standard realizations in
modern RP and the difference between modern RP and Australian English in these vowels
lies almost only in transcription rather than pronunciation.[55][43][56]

Both Australian /eː/ and RP /ɛː/ are long monophthongs, the difference between them
being in tongue height: Australian /eː/ is close-mid [eː], whereas the corresponding RP
vowel is open-mid [ɛː].[57][56]

Other points to be noted are these:

 The vowel /æ/ is coming to be pronounced more open (approaching [a]) by many modern
RP speakers. In American speech, however, there is a tendency for it to become more
closed, tenser and even diphthongized (to something like [eə]), particularly in certain
environments, such as before a nasal consonant.[58] Some American accents, for example
those of New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore, make a marginal phonemic distinction
between /æ/ and /eə/, although the two occur largely in mutually exclusive environments.
See /æ/ raising.

A significant number of words (the BATH group) have /æ/ in General American, but /ɑː/ in
RP. The pronunciation varies between /æ/ and /aː/ in Australia, with speakers from South
Australia using /aː/ more extensively than speakers from other regions.

In General American and Canadian (which are rhotic accents, where /r/ is pronounced in
positions where it does not precede a vowel), many of the vowels can be r-colored by way
of realization of a following /r/. This is often transcribed phonetically using a vowel symbol
with an added retroflexion diacritic [ ˞ ]; thus the symbol [ɚ] has been created for an r-
colored schwa (sometimes called schwar) as in LETTER, and the vowel of START can be
modified to make [ɑ˞] so that the word start may be transcribed [stɑ˞t]. Alternatively, the
START sequence might be written [stɑɚt] to indicate an r-colored offglide. The vowel of
NURSE is generally always r-colored in these dialects, and this can be written [ɚ] (or as a
syllabic [ɹ̩]).

In modern RP and other dialects, many words from the CURE group are coming to be
pronounced by an increasing number of speakers with the NORTH vowel (so sure is often
pronounced like shore).[59]

The vowels of FLEECE and GOOSE are commonly pronounced as narrow diphthongs,
approaching [ɪi] and [ʊu], in RP. Near-RP speakers may have particularly marked
diphthongization of the type [əi] and [əu ~ əʉ], respectively. In General American, the
pronunciation varies between a monophthong and a diphthong.[42]
Allophones of vowels

Listed here are some of the significant cases of allophony of vowels found within standard
English dialects.

Vowels are shortened when followed in a syllable by a voiceless (fortis) consonant.[60] This
is known as pre-fortis clipping. Thus in the following word pairs the first item has a
shortened vowel while the second has a normal length vowel: 'right' /raɪt/ – 'ride' /raɪd/;
'face' /feɪs/ – 'phase' /feɪz/; 'advice' /ədvaɪs/ – 'advise' /ədvaɪz/.

In many accents of English, tense vowels undergo breaking before /l/, resulting in
pronunciations like [pʰiəɫ] for peel, [pʰuəɫ] for pool, [pʰeəɫ] for pail, and [pʰoəɫ] for pole.
 In RP, the vowel /əʊ/ may be pronounced more back, as [ɒʊ], before syllable-final /l/, as in
goal. In standard Australian English the vowel /əʉ/ is similarly backed to [ɔʊ] before /l/. A
similar phenomenon may occur in Southern American English.

The vowel /ə/ is often pronounced [ɐ] in open syllables.[61]

The PRICE and MOUTH diphthongs may be pronounced with a less open starting point when
followed by a voiceless consonant;[62] this is chiefly a feature of Canadian speech
(Canadian raising), but is also found in parts of the United States.[63] Thus writer may be
distinguished from rider even when flapping causes the /t/ and /d/ to be pronounced
identically.

Unstressed syllables

Unstressed syllables in English may contain almost any vowel, but in practice vowels in
stressed and unstressed syllables tend to use different inventories of phonemes. In
particular, long vowels are used less often in unstressed syllables than stressed syllables.
Additionally there are certain sounds—characterized by central position and weakness—that
are particularly often found as the nuclei of unstressed syllables. These include:

schwa, [ə], as in COMMA and (in non-rhotic dialects) LETTER (COMMA–LETTER merger); also in
many other positions such as about, photograph, paddock, etc. This sound is essentially
restricted to unstressed syllables exclusively. In the approach presented here it is identified
as a phoneme /ə/, although other analyses do not have a separate phoneme for schwa and
regard it as a reduction or neutralization of other vowels in syllables with the lowest degree
of stress.

r-colored schwa, [ɚ], as in LETTER in General American and some other rhotic dialects,
which can be identified with the underlying sequence /ər/.

syllabic consonants: [l̩] as in bottle, [n̩] as in button, [m̩ ] as in rhythm. These may be
phonemized either as a plain consonant or as a schwa followed by a consonant; for
example button may be represented as /ˈbʌtn̩/ or /ˈbʌtən/ (see above under Consonants).

[ɨ̞], as in roses and making. This can be identified with the phoneme /ɪ/, although in
unstressed syllables it may be pronounced more centrally, and for some speakers
(particularly in Australian and New Zealand and some American English) it is merged with /
ə/ in these syllables (weak vowel merger). Among speakers who retain the distinction there
are many cases where free variation between /ɪ/ and /ə/ is found, as in the second syllable
of typical. (The OED has recently adopted the symbol ⟨ᵻ⟩ to indicate such cases.)

[ʉ̞], as in argument, today, for which similar considerations apply as in the case of [ɨ̞]. (The
symbol ⟨ᵿ⟩ is sometimes used in these cases, similarly to ⟨ᵻ⟩.) Some speakers may also
have a rounded schwa, [ɵ̞], used in words like omission [ɵ̞ˈmɪʃən].[64]
 [i], as in happy, coffee, in many dialects (others have [ɪ] in this position).[65] The phonemic
status of this [i] is not easy to establish. Some authors consider it to correspond
phonemically with a close front vowel that is neither the vowel of KIT nor that of FLEECE; it
occurs chiefly in contexts where the contrast between these vowels is neutralized,[66][67][68]
implying that it represents an archiphoneme, which may be written /i/. Many speakers,
however, do have a contrast in pairs of words like studied and studded or taxis and taxes;
the contrast may be [i] vs. [ɪ], [ɪ] vs. [ə] or [i] vs. [ə], hence some authors consider that the
happY-vowel should be identified phonemically either with the vowel of KIT or that of
FLEECE, depending on speaker.[69] See also happy-tensing.

[u], as in influence, to each. This is the back rounded counterpart to [i] described above; its
phonemic status is treated in the same works as cited there.

Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables is a significant feature of English. Syllables of the

types listed above often correspond to a syllable containing a different vowel ("full vowel")
used in other forms of the same morpheme where that syllable is stressed. For example, the
first o in photograph, being stressed, is pronounced with the GOAT vowel, but in photography,
where it is unstressed, it is reduced to schwa. Also, certain common words (a, an, of, for, etc.)
are pronounced with a schwa when they are unstressed, although they have different vowels
when they are in a stressed position (see Weak and strong forms in English).

Some unstressed syllables, however, retain full (unreduced) vowels, i.e. vowels other than
those listed above. Examples are the /æ/ in ambition and the /aɪ/ in finite. Some
phonologists regard such syllables as not being fully unstressed (they may describe them as
having tertiary stress); some dictionaries have marked such syllables as having secondary
stress. However linguists such as Ladefoged[70] and Bolinger (1986) regard this as a
difference purely of vowel quality and not of stress,[71] and thus argue that vowel reduction
itself is phonemic in English. Examples of words where vowel reduction seems to be
distinctive for some speakers[72] include chickaree vs. chicory (the latter has the reduced
vowel of HAPPY, whereas the former has the FLEECE vowel without reduction), and Pharaoh vs.
farrow (both have the GOAT vowel, but in the latter word it may reduce to [ɵ]).

Lexical stress

Lexical stress is phonemic in English. For example, the noun increase and the verb increase
are distinguished by the positioning of the stress on the first syllable in the former, and on the
second syllable in the latter. (See initial-stress-derived noun.) Stressed syllables in English are
louder than non-stressed syllables, as well as being longer and having a higher pitch.
In traditional approaches, in any English word consisting of more than one syllable, each
syllable is ascribed one of three degrees of stress: primary, secondary or unstressed.
Ordinarily, in each such word there will be exactly one syllable with primary stress, possibly
one syllable having secondary stress, and the remainder are unstressed (unusually-long
words may have multiple syllables with secondary stress). For example, the word amazing
has primary stress on the second syllable, while the first and third syllables are unstressed,
whereas the word organization has primary stress on the fourth syllable, secondary stress on
the first, and the second, third, and fifth unstressed. This is often shown in pronunciation keys
using the IPA symbols for primary and secondary stress (which are ˈ and ˌ respectively),
placed before the syllables to which they apply. The two words just given may therefore be
represented (in RP) as /əˈmeɪzɪŋ/ and /ˌɔːɡənaɪˈzeɪʃən/.

Some analysts identify an additional level of stress (tertiary stress). This is generally ascribed
to syllables that are pronounced with less force than those with secondary stress, but
nonetheless contain a "full" or "unreduced" vowel (vowels that are considered to be reduced
are listed under English phonology § Unstressed syllables above). Hence the third syllable of
organization, if pronounced with /aɪ/ as shown above (rather than being reduced to /ɪ/ or /ə/),
might be said to have tertiary stress. (The precise identification of secondary and tertiary
stress differs between analyses; dictionaries do not generally show tertiary stress, although
some have taken the approach of marking all syllables with unreduced vowels as having at
least secondary stress.)

In some analyses, then, the concept of lexical stress may become conflated with that of
vowel reduction. An approach which attempts to separate these two is provided by Peter
Ladefoged, who states that it is possible to describe English with only one degree of stress,
as long as unstressed syllables are phonemically distinguished for vowel reduction.[73][74] In
this approach, the distinction between primary and secondary stress is regarded as a
phonetic or prosodic detail rather than a phonemic feature – primary stress is seen as an
example of the predictable "tonic" stress that falls on the final stressed syllable of a prosodic
unit. For more details of this analysis, see Stress and vowel reduction in English.

For stress as a prosodic feature (emphasis of particular words within utterances), see
§ Prosodic stress below.

Phonotactics

Phonotactics is the study of the sequences of phonemes that occur in languages and the
sound structures that they form. In this study it is usual to represent consonants in general
with the letter C and vowels with the letter V, so that a syllable such as 'be' is described as
having CV structure. The IPA symbol used to show a division between syllables is the dot [.].
Syllabification is the process of dividing continuous speech into discrete syllables, a process
in which the position of a syllable division is not always easy to decide upon.

Most languages of the world syllabify CVCV and CVCCV sequences as /CV.CV/ and
/CVC.CV/ or /CV.CCV/, with consonants preferentially acting as the onset of a syllable
containing the following vowel. According to one view, English is unusual in this regard, in
that stressed syllables attract following consonants, so that ˈCVCV and ˈCVCCV syllabify as /
ˈCVC.V/ and /ˈCVCC.V/, as long as the consonant cluster CC is a possible syllable coda; in
addition, /r/ preferentially syllabifies with the preceding vowel even when both syllables are
unstressed, so that CVrV occurs as /CVr.V/. This is the analysis used in the Longman
Pronunciation Dictionary.[75] However, this view is not widely accepted, as explained in the
following section.

Syllable structure

The syllable structure in English is (C)3V(C)5, with near-maximal examples being strengths
(/strɛŋkθs/, a (C)3V(C)4 syllable, although it can also be pronounced /strɛŋθs/ or /strɛŋðz/)
and twelfths (/twɛlvfθs/, a (C)2V(C)5 syllable, although it can also be pronounced /twɛlvðz/,
/twɛlfθs/, or /twɛlfs/).[A] From the phonetic point of view, the analysis of syllable structures is
a complex task: because of widespread occurrences of articulatory overlap, English speakers
rarely produce an audible release of individual consonants in consonant clusters.[76] This
coarticulation can lead to articulatory gestures that seem very much like deletions or
complete assimilations. For example, hundred pounds may sound like [hʌndɹɪb paʊndz] and
jumped back (in slow speech, [dʒʌmptbæk]) may sound like [dʒʌmpbæk], but X-ray[77] and
electropalatographic[78][79][80] studies demonstrate that inaudible and possibly weakened
contacts or lingual gestures may still be made. Thus the second /d/ in hundred pounds does
not entirely assimilate to a labial place of articulation, rather the labial gesture co-occurs with
the alveolar one; the "missing" [t] in jumped back may still be articulated, though not heard.

Division into syllables is a difficult area, and different theories have been proposed. A widely
accepted approach is the maximal onset principle:[81] this states that, subject to certain
constraints, any consonants in between vowels should be assigned to the following syllable.
Thus the word leaving should be divided /ˈliː.vɪŋ/ rather than */ˈliːv.ɪŋ/, and hasty is /ˈheɪ.sti/
rather than */ˈheɪs.ti/ or */ˈheɪst.i/. However, when such a division results in an onset cluster
which is not allowed in English, the division must respect this. Thus if the word extra were
divided */ˈɛ.kstrə/ the resulting onset of the second syllable would be /kstr/, a cluster which
does not occur initially in English. The division /ˈɛk.strə/ is therefore preferred. If assigning a
consonant or consonants to the following syllable would result in the preceding syllable
ending in an unreduced short vowel, this is avoided. Thus the word comma (in RP) should be
divided /ˈkɒm.ə/ and not */ˈkɒ.mə/, even though the latter division gives the maximal onset to
the following syllable.

In some cases, no solution is completely satisfactory: for example, in British English (RP) the
word hurry could be divided /ˈhʌ.ri/ or /ˈhʌr.i/, but the former would result in an analysis with a
syllable-final /ʌ/ (which is held to be non-occurring) while the latter would result in a syllable
final /r/ (which is said not to occur in this accent). Some phonologists have suggested a
compromise analysis where the consonant in the middle belongs to both syllables, and is
described as ambisyllabic.[82][83] In this way, it is possible to suggest an analysis of hurry
which comprises the syllables /hʌr/ and /ri/, the medial /r/ being ambisyllabic. Where the
division coincides with a word boundary, or the boundary between elements of a compound
word, it is not usual in the case of dictionaries to insist on the maximal onset principle in a
way that divides words in a counter-intuitive way; thus the word hardware would be divided /
ˈhɑː.dweə/ by the M.O.P., but dictionaries prefer the division /ˈhɑːd.weə/.[84][85][86]

In the approach used by the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, Wells[75] claims that
consonants syllabify with the preceding rather than following vowel when the preceding
vowel is the nucleus of a more salient syllable, with stressed syllables being the most salient,
reduced syllables the least, and full unstressed vowels ("secondary stress") intermediate. But
there are lexical differences as well, frequently but not exclusively with compound words. For
example, in dolphin and selfish, Wells argues that the stressed syllable ends in /lf/, but in
shellfish, the /f/ belongs with the following syllable: /ˈdɒlf.ɪn, ˈself.ɪʃ/ → [ˈdɒlfɪ̈n, ˈselfɪ̈ʃ], but /
ˈʃel.fɪʃ/ → [ˈʃelˑfɪʃ], where the /l/ is a little longer and the /ɪ/ is not reduced. Similarly, in toe-
strap Wells argues that the second /t/ is a full plosive, as usual in syllable onset, whereas in
toast-rack the second /t/ is in many dialects reduced to the unreleased allophone it takes in
syllable codas, or even elided: /ˈtoʊ.stræp/, /ˈtoʊst.ræk/ → [ˈtoˑʊstɹæp, ˈtoʊs(t̚)ɹæk]; likewise
nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/ → [ˈnaɪtɹ̥eɪt] with a voiceless /r/ (and for some people an affricated tr as in
tree), vs night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/ → [ˈnaɪt̚ɹeɪt] with a voiced /r/. Cues of syllable boundaries
include aspiration of syllable onsets and (in the US) flapping of coda /t, d/ (a tease /ə.ˈtiːz/ →
[əˈtʰiːz] vs. at ease /ət.ˈiːz/ → [əɾˈiːz]), epenthetic stops like [t] in syllable codas (fence /ˈfens/ →
[ˈfents] but inside /ɪn.ˈsaɪd/ → [ɪnˈsaɪd]), and r-colored vowels when the /r/ is in the coda vs.
labialization when it is in the onset (key-ring /ˈkiː.rɪŋ/ → [ˈkiːɹʷɪŋ] but fearing /ˈfiːr.ɪŋ/ →
[ˈfɪəɹɪŋ]).

Onset

The following can occur as the onset:

All single-consonant phonemes except /
ŋ/

Stop plus approximant other than /j/:

play, blood, clean, glove, prize, bring, tree,[a]
/pl/, /bl/, /kl/, /ɡl/, /pr/, /br/, /tr/,[a] /dr/,[a] dream,[a] crowd, green, twin, dwarf, Guam, quick,
/kr/, /ɡr/, /tw/, /dw/, /ɡw/, /kw/, /pw/ puissance

Voiceless fricative or /v/ plus

approximant other than /j/:[b]
floor, sleep, thlipsis,[c] schlep, friend, three,
/fl/, /sl/, /θl/,[c] /ʃl/, /fr/, /θr/, /ʃr/, /hw/,[d] shrimp, what,[d] swing, thwart, voilà
/sw/, /θw/, /vw/

Consonant other than /r/ or /w/ plus /j/

(before /uː/ or its modified/reduced
forms):[e] pure, beautiful, tube,[e] during,[e] cute, argue,
music, new,[e] few, view, thew,[e] suit,[e] Zeus,[e]
/pj/, /bj/, /tj/,[e] /dj/,[e] /kj/, /ɡj/, /mj/,
huge, lurid[e]
/nj/,[e] /fj/, /vj/, /θj/,[e] /sj/,[e] /zj/,[e] /hj/,
/lj/[e]

/s/ plus voiceless stop:[f]

speak, stop, skill
/sp/, /st/, /sk/

/s/ plus nasal other than /ŋ/:[f]

smile, snow
/sm/, /sn/

/s/ plus voiceless non-sibilant fricative:[c]

sphere, sthenic
/sf/, /sθ/

/s/ plus voiceless stop plus

approximant:[f]
split, sclera, spring, street, scream, square, spew,
[c]
/spl/, /skl/, /spr/, /str/, /skr/, /skw/, student,[e] skewer
/spj/, /stj/,[e] /skj/

/s/ plus nasal plus approximant:

smew
/smj/

/s/ plus voiceless non-sibilant fricative sphragistics

plus approximant:[c]

/sfr/

Notes:

a. For certain speakers, /tr/ and /dr/ tend to affricate, so that tree resembles "chree", and dream
resembles "jream".[87][88][89] This is sometimes transcribed as [tʃr] and [dʒr], respectively, but the
pronunciation varies, and may, for example, be closer to [tʂ] and [dʐ][90] or with a fricative release
similar in quality to the rhotic, i.e. [tɹ̝̊ɹ̥], [dɹ̝ɹ], or [tʂɻ], [dʐɻ].

b. Some northern and insular Scottish dialects, particularly in Shetland, preserve onsets such as /ɡn/
(as in gnaw), /kn/ (as in knock), and /wr/ or /vr/ (as in write).[91][92]

c. Words beginning in unusual consonant clusters that originated in Latinized Greek loanwords tend to
drop the first phoneme, as in */bd/, */fθ/, */ɡn/, */hr/, */kn/, */ks/, */kt/, */kθ/, */mn/, */pn/, */ps/,
*/pt/, */tm/, and */θm/, which have become /d/ (bdellium), /θ/ (phthisis), /n/ (gnome), /r/ (rhythm),
/n/ (cnidoblast), /z/ (xylophone), /t/ (ctenophore), /θ/ (chthonic), /n/ (mnemonic), /n/ (pneumonia),
/s/ (psychology), /t/ (pterodactyl), /m/ (tmesis), and /m/ (asthma). In some other words with these or
other similar consonant clusters, the leading consonant has split off into a separate syllable; for
instance, */kθ/ becoming /kə.θ/ (Cthulhu) or */fθ/ or */pθ/ becoming /pə.θ/ (phthalate). However, the
onsets /sf/, /sfr/, /skl/, /sθ/, and /θl/ have remained intact.

d. The onset /hw/ is simplified to /w/ in the majority of dialects (wine–whine merger).

e. Clusters ending /j/ typically occur before /uː/ and before the CURE vowel (General American /ʊr/, RP /
ʊə/); they may also come before the reduced forms /ʊ/ (as in argument) or /ə/ (as in some American
pronunciations of pure and cure), and can occur before other vowels in Spanish loanwords (for
instance, before /oʊ/ in jalapeño) or mimetic words (for instance, before, variably, /ɑ/, /æ/, or /ɛ/ in
nyah-nyah). There is an ongoing sound change (yod-dropping) by which /j/ as the final consonant in a
cluster is being lost. In RP, words with /sj/ and /lj/ can usually be pronounced with or without this
sound, e.g. [suːt] or [sjuːt]. For some speakers of English, including some British speakers, the sound
change is more advanced, and, so, for example, General American does not (except in loans or
mimetic words) contain the onsets /tj/, /dj/, /nj/, /θj/, /sj/, /stj/, /zj/, or /lj/. Words that would
otherwise begin in these onsets drop the /j/: e.g. tube (/tub/), during (/ˈdɜrɪŋ/), new (/nu/), Thule (/
ˈθuli/), suit (/sut/), student (/ˈstudənt/), Zeus (/zus/), lurid (/ˈlʊrəd/). In some dialects, such Welsh
English, /j/ may occur in more combinations; for example in /tʃj/ (chew), /dʒj/ (Jew), /ʃj/ (sure), and
/slj/ (slew).

f. Many clusters beginning with /ʃ/ and paralleling native clusters beginning with /s/ are found initially
in German and Yiddish loanwords, such as /ʃl/, /ʃp/, /ʃt/, /ʃm/, /ʃn/, /ʃpr/, /ʃtr/ (in words such as
schlep, spiel, shtick, schmuck, schnapps, Shprintzen's, strudel). /ʃw/ is found initially in the Hebrew
loanword schwa. Before /r/, however, the native cluster is /ʃr/. The opposite cluster /sr/ is found in
loanwords such as Sri Lanka, but this can be nativized by changing it to /ʃr/.

Other onsets
Certain English onsets appear only in contractions: e.g. /zbl/ ('sblood), and /zw/ or /dzw/
('swounds or 'dswounds). Some, such as /pʃ/ (pshaw), /fw/ (fwoosh), or /vr/ (vroom), can
occur in interjections. An archaic voiceless fricative plus nasal exists, /fn/ (fnese), as does an
archaic /snj/ (snew).

Several additional onsets occur in loan words (with varying degrees of anglicization) such as
/bw/ (bwana), /mw/ (moiré), /nw/ (noire), /tsw/ (zwitterion), /zw/ (zwieback), /dv/ (Dvorak),
/kv/ (kvetch), /ʃv/ (schvartze), /tv/ (Tver), /tsv/ (Zwickau), /kdʒ/ (Kjell), /kʃ/ (Kshatriya), /tl/
(Tlaloc), /vl/ (Vladimir), /zl/ (zloty), /tsk/ (Tskhinvali), /hm/ (Hmong), /km/ (Khmer), and /ŋ/
(Nganasan).

Some clusters of this type can be converted to regular English phonotactics by simplifying
the cluster: e.g. /(d)z/ (dziggetai), /(h)r/ (Hrolf), /kr(w)/ (croissant), /(ŋ)w/ (Nguyen), /(p)f/
(pfennig), /(f)θ/ (phthalic), /(t)s/ (tsunami), /(ǃ)k/ (!kung), and /k(ǁ)/ (Xhosa).

Others can be replaced by native clusters differing only in voice: /zb ~ sp/ (sbirro), and /zɡr ~
skr/ (sgraffito).

Nucleus

The following can occur as the nucleus:

All vowel sounds

/m/, /n/ and /l/ in certain situations (see below under word-level patterns)

/r/ in rhotic varieties of English (e.g. General American) in certain situations (see below
under word-level patterns)
Coda

Most (in theory, all) of the following except those that end with /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/
can be extended with /s/ or /z/ representing the morpheme -s/-z. Similarly, most (in theory,
all) of the following except those that end with /t/ or /d/ can be extended with /t/ or /d/
representing the morpheme -t/-d.

Wells (1990) argues that a variety of syllable codas are possible in English, even /ntr, ndr/ in
words like entry /ˈɛntr.i/ and sundry /ˈsʌndr.i/, with /tr, dr/ being treated as affricates along the
lines of /tʃ, dʒ/. He argues that the traditional assumption that pre-vocalic consonants form a
syllable with the following vowel is due to the influence of languages like French and Latin,
where syllable structure is CVC.CVC regardless of stress placement. Disregarding such
contentious cases, which do not occur at the ends of words, the following sequences can
occur as the coda:
The single consonant phonemes except /h/, /w/, /j/
 
and, in non-rhotic varieties, /r/

Lateral approximant plus stop or affricate: /lp/, /lb/, help, bulb, belt, hold, belch, indulge,
/lt/, /ld/, /ltʃ/, /ldʒ/, /lk/ milk

In rhotic varieties, /r/ plus stop or affricate: /rp/, /rb/, harp, orb, fort, beard, arch, large,
/rt/, /rd/, /rtʃ/, /rdʒ/, /rk/, /rɡ/ mark, morgue

Lateral approximant + fricative: /lf/, /lv/, /lθ/, /ls/, /lz/, golf, solve, wealth, else, bells,
/lʃ/, (/lð/) Welsh, (stealth (v.))

In rhotic varieties, /r/ + fricative: /rf/, /rv/, /rθ/, /rð/, dwarf, carve, north, birth (v.), force,
/rs/, /rz/, /rʃ/ Mars, marsh

Lateral approximant + nasal: /lm/, /ln/ film, kiln

In rhotic varieties, /r/ + nasal or lateral: /rm/, /rn/, /rl/ arm, born, snarl

Nasal + homorganic stop or affricate: /mp/, /mt/, /nt/, jump, dreamt, tent, end, lunch,
/nd/, /ntʃ/, /ndʒ/, /ŋk/ lounge, pink

triumph, Thames, warmth, (saunf),

Nasal + fricative: /mf/, /mz/, /mθ/, (/nf/), /nθ/, (/ns/),
month, (prince), bronze, length,
/nz/; some varieties also allow /ŋθ/ and /ŋð/
strength

Voiceless fricative plus voiceless stop: /ft/, /sp/, /st/,

left, crisp, lost, ask, smithed
/sk/, /θt/

Voiced fricative plus voiced stop: /zd/, /ðd/ blazed, writhed

Two or three voiceless fricatives: /fθ/, /fθs/ fifth, fifths

Two voiceless stops: /pt/, /kt/ opt, act

Two voiceless stops + fricative: /pts/, /kts/ opts, acts

depth, lapse, eighth, klutz, width,

Stop plus fricative: /pθ/, /ps/, /tθ/, /ts/, /dθ/, /dz/, /ks/
adze, box

Lateral approximant + two or three consonants: /lpt/, sculpt, alps, twelfth,[a] waltz, whilst,
/lps/, /lfθ/, /lvð/, /lvfθ/, /lts/, /lst/, /lkt/, /lks/ mulct, calx

In rhotic varieties, /r/ + two consonants: /rmθ/, /rpt/, warmth, excerpt, corpse, quartz,
/rps/, /rts/, /rst/, /rkt/ horst, infarct

Nasal + homorganic stop + stop or fricative: /mpt/,

prompt, glimpse, chintz,
/mps/, /nts/, /ntθ/, /ndð/, /ŋkt/, /ŋks/, /ŋkθ/ in some
thousandth,[b] distinct, jinx, length
varieties

Nasal + non-homorganic stop: /md/, /ŋd/ hemmed, hanged

Approximant + nasal + non-homorganic stop: /lmd/, filmed, farmed
/rmd/

Three obstruents: /ksθ/, /kst/ sixth, next

Notes:
a. The pronunciation of twelfth varies widely, from /twɛlvfθ/ through /twɛlfθ/ and /twɛlvð/ to /twɛlθ/
and /twɛlf/.

b. Thousandth manifests with several different codas in its final syllable, with /θaʊzəndtθ/, /θaʊzəntθ/,
/θaʊzəndð/, /θaʊzənθ/, and /θaʊzənð/ all occurring in the wild.

For some speakers, a fricative before /θ/ is elided so that these never appear phonetically:
/fɪfθ/ becomes [fɪθ], /sɪksθ/ becomes [sɪkθ], /twɛlfθ/ or /twɛlvfθ/ becomes [twɛlθ].

Syllable-level patterns
Syllables may consist of a single vowel, meaning that onset and coda are not mandatory.

The consonant /ŋ/ does not occur in syllable-initial position (except in unassimilated loans
like Ngorongoro).

The consonant /h/ does not occur in syllable-final position.

Onset clusters ending in /j/ are followed by /uː/ or its variants (see note 5 above).

Long vowels and diphthongs are not found before /ŋ/, except for the mimetic words boing
and oink, unassimilated foreign words such as Burmese aung and proper names such as
Taung, and American-type pronunciations of words like strong (which have /ɔŋ/ or /ɑŋ/).
The short vowels /ɛ, ʊ/ occur before /ŋ/ only in assimilated non-native words such as
ginseng and Song (name of a Chinese dynasty) or non-finally in some dialects in words like
strength and length as well as in varieties without the foot-strut split.

/ʊ/ is rare in syllable-initial position (although in the northern half of England, [ʊ] is used for
/ʌ/ and is common at the start of syllables).

Stop + /w/ before /uː, ʊ, ʌ, aʊ/ (all presently or historically /u(ː)/) are excluded.[93]

Sequences of /s/ + C1 + V̆ + C1, where C1 is a consonant other than /t/ and V̆ is a short
vowel, are virtually nonexistent.[93]

Word-level patterns
/ə/ does not occur in stressed syllables.

/ʒ/ does not occur in word-initial position in native English words, although it can occur
syllable-initially as in luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊəriəs/ in American English, and at the start of
 borrowed words such as genre.

/m/, /n/, /l/ and, in rhotic varieties, /r/ can be the syllable nucleus (i.e. a syllabic
consonant) in an unstressed syllable following another consonant, especially /t/, /d/, /s/ or
/z/. Such syllables are often analyzed phonemically as having an underlying /ə/ as the
nucleus. See above under Consonants.

The short vowels are checked vowels, in that they cannot occur without a coda in a word-
final stressed syllable. (This does not apply to /ə/, which does not occur in stressed
syllables as mentioned above.)

Prosody

The prosodic features of English – stress, rhythm, and intonation – can be described as
follows.

Prosodic stress

Prosodic stress is extra stress given to words or syllables when they appear in certain
positions in an utterance, or when they receive special emphasis.

According to Ladefoged's analysis (as referred to under Lexical stress § Notes above),
English normally has prosodic stress on the final stressed syllable in an intonation unit. This
is said to be the origin of the distinction traditionally made at the lexical level between
primary and secondary stress: when a word like admiration (traditionally transcribed as
something like /ˌædmɪˈreɪʃən/) is spoken in isolation, or at the end of a sentence, the syllable
ra (the final stressed syllable) is pronounced with greater force than the syllable ad, although
when the word is not pronounced with this final intonation there may be no difference
between the levels of stress of these two syllables.

Prosodic stress can shift for various pragmatic functions, such as focus or contrast. For
instance, in the dialogue Is it brunch tomorrow? No, it's dinner tomorrow, the extra stress shifts
from the last stressed syllable of the sentence, tomorrow, to the last stressed syllable of the
emphasized word, dinner.

Grammatical function words are usually prosodically unstressed, although they can acquire
stress when emphasized (as in Did you find the cat? Well, I found a cat). Many English function
words have distinct strong and weak pronunciations; for example, the word a in the last
example is pronounced /eɪ/, while the more common unstressed a is pronounced /ə/. See
Weak and strong forms in English.
Rhythm

English is claimed to be a stress-timed language. That is, stressed syllables tend to appear
with a more or less regular rhythm, while non-stressed syllables are shortened to
accommodate this. For example, in the sentence One make of car is better than another, the
syllables one, make, car, bett- and -noth- will be stressed and relatively long, while the other
syllables will be considerably shorter. The theory of stress-timing predicts that each of the
three unstressed syllables in between bett- and -noth- will be shorter than the syllable of
between make and car, because three syllables must fit into the same amount of time as that
available for of. However, it should not be assumed that all varieties of English are stress-
timed in this way. The English spoken in the West Indies,[94] in Africa[95] and in India[96] are
probably better characterized as syllable-timed, though the lack of an agreed scientific test
for categorizing an accent or language as stress-timed or syllable-timed may lead one to
doubt the value of such a characterization.[97]

Intonation

Phonological contrasts in intonation can be said to be found in three different and

independent domains. In the work of Halliday[98] the following names are proposed:

Tonality for the distribution of continuous speech into tone groups.

Tonicity for the placing of the principal accent on a particular syllable of a word, making it
the tonic syllable. This is the domain also referred to as prosodic stress or sentence stress.

Tone for the choice of pitch movement on the tonic syllable. (The use of the term tone in
this sense should not be confused with the tone of tone languages, such as Chinese.)

These terms ("the Three Ts") have been used in more recent work,[99][100] though they have
been criticized for being difficult to remember.[101] American systems such as ToBI also
identify contrasts involving boundaries between intonation phrases (Halliday's tonality),
placement of pitch accent (tonicity), and choice of tone or tones associated with the pitch
accent (tone).

Example of phonological contrast involving placement of intonation unit boundaries

(boundary marked by comma):

a. Those who ran quickly, escaped. (the only people who escaped were those who ran
quickly)

b. Those who ran, quickly escaped. (the people who ran escaped quickly)
Example of phonological contrast involving placement of tonic syllable (marked by capital
letters):

a. I have plans to LEAVE. (= I am planning to leave)

b. I have PLANS to leave. (= I have some drawings to leave)

Example of phonological contrast (British English) involving choice of tone (\ = falling tone, \/
= fall-rise tone)

a. She didn't break the record because of the \ WIND. (= she did not break the record,
because the wind held her up)

b. She didn't break the record because of the \/ WIND. (= she did break the record, but not
because of the wind)

There is typically a contrast involving tone between wh-questions and yes/no questions, the
former having a falling tone (e.g. "Where did you \PUT it?") and the latter a rising tone (e.g.
"Are you going /OUT?"), though studies of spontaneous speech have shown frequent
exceptions to this rule.[102] Tag questions asking for information are said to carry rising tones
(e.g. "They are coming on Tuesday, /AREN'T they?") while those asking for confirmation have
falling tone (e.g. "Your name's John, \ISN'T it.").

History of English pronunciation

The pronunciation system of English has undergone many changes throughout the history of
the language, from the phonological system of Old English, to that of Middle English, through
to that of the present day. Variation between dialects has always been significant. Former
pronunciations of many words are reflected in their spellings, as English orthography has
generally not kept pace with phonological changes since the Middle English period.

The English consonant system has been relatively stable over time, although a number of
significant changes have occurred. Examples include the loss (in most dialects) of the [ç] and
[x] sounds still reflected by the ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and taught, and the splitting of voiced
and voiceless allophones of fricatives into separate phonemes (such as the two different
phonemes represented by ⟨th⟩). There have also been many changes in consonant clusters,
mostly reductions, for instance those that produced the usual modern pronunciations of such
letter combinations as ⟨wr-⟩, ⟨kn-⟩ and ⟨wh-⟩.

The development of vowels has been much more complex. One of the most notable series of
changes is that known as the Great Vowel Shift, which began around the late 14th century.
Here the [iː] and [uː] in words like price and mouth became diphthongized, and other long
vowels became higher: [eː] became [iː] (as in meet), [aː] became [eː] and later [eɪ] (as in name),
[oː] became [uː] (as in goose), and [ɔː] became [oː] and later [oʊ] (in RP now [əʊ]; as in bone).
These shifts are responsible for the modern pronunciations of many written vowel
combinations, including those involving a silent final ⟨e⟩.

Many other changes in vowels have taken place over the centuries (see the separate articles
on the low back, high back and high front vowels, short A, and diphthongs). These various
changes mean that many words that formerly rhymed (and may be expected to rhyme based
on their spelling) no longer do.[103] For example, in Shakespeare's time, following the Great
Vowel Shift, food, good and blood all had the vowel [uː], but in modern pronunciation good has
been shortened to [ʊ], while blood has been shortened and lowered to [ʌ] in most accents. In
other cases, words that were formerly distinct have come to be pronounced the same –
examples of such mergers include meet–meat, pane–pain and toe–tow.

Controversial issues

Velar nasal

The phonemic status of the velar nasal consonant [ŋ] is disputed; one analysis claims that
the only nasal phonemes in English are /m/ and /n/, while [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ found
before velar consonants. Evidence in support of this analysis is found in accents of the north-
west Midlands of England where [ŋ] is only found before /k/ or /ɡ/, with sung being
pronounced as [sʌŋɡ]. However, in most other accents of English sung is pronounced [sʌŋ],
producing a three-way phonemic contrast sum – sun – sung /sʌm sʌn sʌŋ/ and supporting
the analysis of the phonemic status of /ŋ/. In support of treating the velar nasal as an
allophone of /n/, Sapir (1925) claims on psychological grounds that [ŋ] did not form part of a
series of three nasal consonants: "no naïve English-speaking person can be made to feel in
his bones that it belongs to a single series with m and n. ... It still feels like ƞg."[104] More
recent writers have indicated that analyses of [ŋ] as an allophone of /n/ may still have merit,
even though [ŋ] may appear both with and without a following velar consonant; in such
analyses, an underlying /ɡ/ that is deleted by a phonological rule would account for
occurrences of [ŋ] not followed by a velar consonant.[105][106][107] Thus the phonemic
representation of sing would be /sɪnɡ/ and that of singer is /sɪnɡə/; in order to reach the
phonetic form [sɪŋ] and [sɪŋə], it is necessary to apply a rule that changes /n/ to [ŋ] before /k/
or /ɡ/, then a second rule that deletes /ɡ/ when it follows [ŋ].

1. /n/ → [ŋ] / ____ velar consonant

2. /ɡ/ → ∅ / [ŋ] _____

These produce the following results:

Word Underlying phonological form Phonetic form

sing /sɪnɡ/ [sɪŋ]

singer /ˈsɪnɡər/ ['sɪŋər]

singing /ˈsɪnɡɪnɡ/ ['sɪŋɪŋ]

However, these rules do not predict the following phonetic forms:

Word Underlying phonological form Phonetic form

anger /ˈænɡər/ ['æŋɡər]

finger /ˈfɪnɡər/ ['fɪŋɡər]

hunger /ˈhʌnɡər/ ['hʌŋɡər]

In the above cases, the /ɡ/ is not deleted. The words are all single morphemes, unlike singer
and singing which are composed of two morphemes, sing plus -er or -ing. In theory, there is a
minimal pair consisting of hangar ('shed for aircraft'), which, containing no internal
morpheme boundary, is pronounced [ˈhæŋɡə] and hanger ('object for hanging clothes'), which
comprises two morphemes and is pronounced [ˈhæŋə]. Not all speakers use these
pronunciations consistently, however. Rule 2 can be amended to include a symbol # for a
morpheme boundary (including word boundary):

2. /ɡ/ → ∅ / [ŋ] ___ #

This rule then applies to sing, singer and singing but not to anger, finger, or hunger.

However, there are exceptions in the form of comparative and superlative forms of
adjectives, where Rule 2 must be prevented from applying. The ending -ish is another
possible exception.

Word Underlying phonological form Phonetic form

long /lɒnɡ/ [lɒŋ]

longer /ˈlɒnɡər/ ['lɒŋɡər]

longest /ˈlɒnɡɪst/ ['lɒŋɡəst]

longish /ˈlɒnɡɪʃ/ ['lɒŋɡɪʃ] or ['lɒŋɪʃ]

As a result, there is, in theory, a minimal pair consisting of longer ([lɒŋɡər] 'more long') and
longer ([lɒŋər] 'person who longs'), though it is doubtful that native speakers make this
distinction regularly.[108] Names of persons and places, and loanwords, are less predictable.
Singapore may be pronounced with or without [ɡ]; bungalow usually has [ɡ]; and Inge may or
may not have [ɡ].[109]

Vowel system

It is often stated that English has a particularly large number of vowel phonemes and that
there are 20 vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation,[110] 14–16 in General American, and
20–21 in Australian English. These numbers, however, reflect just one of many possible
phonological analyses. A number of "biphonemic" analyses have proposed that English has a
basic set of short (sometimes called "simple" or "checked") vowels, each of which can be
shown to be a phoneme and which can be combined with another phoneme to form long
vowels and diphthongs. One of these biphonemic analyses asserts that diphthongs and long
vowels may be interpreted as comprising a short vowel linked to a consonant. The fullest
exposition of this approach is found in Trager & Smith (1951), where all long vowels and
diphthongs ("complex nuclei") are made up of a short vowel combined with either /j/ (for
which the authors use the symbol ⟨y⟩), /w/ or /h/ (plus /r/ for rhotic accents), each thus
comprising two phonemes.[111] Using this system, the word bite would be transcribed /bajt/,
bout as /bawt/, bar as /bar/ and bra as /brah/. One attraction that the authors claim for this
analysis is that it regularizes the distribution of the consonants /j/, /w/, and /h/ (as well as /r/
in non-rhotic accents), which would otherwise not be found in syllable-final position. Trager &
Smith (1951) suggest nine simple vowel phonemes to allow them to represent all the accents
of American and British English they surveyed, symbolized /i, e, æ/ (front vowels); /ᵻ, ə, a/
(central vowels); and /u, o, ɔ/ (back vowels).

The analysis from Trager & Smith (1951) came out of a desire to build an "overall system" to
accommodate all English dialects, with dialectal distinctions arising from differences in the
ordering of phonological rules,[112][113] as well as in the presence or absence of such
rules.[114] Another category of biphonemic analyses of English treats long vowels and
diphthongs as conjunctions of two vowels. Such analyses, as found in Sweet (1877) or
Kreidler (2004) for example, are less concerned with dialectal variation. In MacCarthy (1957),
for example, there are seven basic vowels and these may be doubled (geminated) to
represent long vowels, as shown in the table below:
Short vowel Long vowel

i (bit) ii (beet)

e (bet)

a (cat) aa (cart)

o (cot) oo (caught)

u (pull) uu (pool)

ə (collect) əə (curl)

Some of the short vowels may also be combined with /i/ (/ei/ bay, /ai/ buy, /oi/ boy), with /u/
(/au/ bough, /ou/ beau) or with /ə/ (/iə/ peer, /eə/ pair, /uə/ poor). The vowel inventory of
English RP in MacCarthy's system therefore totals only seven phonemes. Analyses such as
these could also posit six vowel phonemes, if the vowel of the final syllable in comma is
considered to be an unstressed allophone of that of strut. These seven vowels might be
symbolized /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/, /ʌ/ and /ə/. Six or seven vowels is a figure that would put
English much closer to the average number of vowel phonemes in other languages.[115]

A radically different approach to the English vowel system was proposed by Chomsky and
Halle. Their Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky & Halle 1968) proposed that English has lax
and tense vowel phonemes which are operated on by a complex set of phonological rules to
transform underlying phonological forms into surface phonetic representations. This
generative analysis is not easily comparable with conventional analyses, but the total number
of vowel phonemes proposed falls well short of the figure of 20 often claimed as the number
of English vowel phonemes.

See also

Australian English phonology

English orthography

English pronunciation of Greek letters

General American

Non-native pronunciations of English

Old English phonology

Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers

Phonological development
 Phonological history of English vowels

Phonological history of English consonants

Pronunciation of English ⟨th⟩

Received Pronunciation

Regional accents of English

Rhoticity in English

T-glottalization

R-colored vowel

International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects

Category:Splits and mergers in English phonology

Notes

A. Besides twelfths, another example of a five-consonant coda is angsts /æŋksts/. See list of the
longest English words with one syllable for further long syllables in English.

References

Citations

1. Rogers (2000), p. 20. 14. McMahon (2002), p. 31.

2. Roach (2009), pp. 100–1. 15. Giegerich (1992), p. 36.

3. Kreidler (2004), p. 84. 16. Ladefoged (2006), p. 68.

4. Wells (1982), p. 55. 17. Wells (1982), p. 490.

5. Wells (1982), pp. 389, 619. 18. Wells (1982), p. 550.

6. Tench (1990), p. 132. 19. Collins & Mees (1990), p. 91.

7. Bowerman (2004), p. 939. 20. Ladefoged (2001), p. 55.

8. Garrett, Coupland & Williams (2003), p. 73. 21. Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin (1996),
pp. 62–67.
9. Bowerman (2004), p. 940.
22. Roach (2009), pp. 26–28.
10. Spitzbardt (1976), p. 31.
23. Wells (1982), p. 388.
11. O'Connor (1973), p. 151.
24. Gimson (2008), pp. 179–180.
12. Roach (2009), p. 43.
25. Wells (1982), p. 323.
13. Gimson (2008), p. 230.
26. Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin (1996), 55. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 126, 133.
p. 64.
56. Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 65 (https://books.go
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28. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 170 and 173–182.
57. Cruttenden (2014), p. 118.
29. Cruttenden (2014), p. 190.
58. Wells (1982), p. 129.
30. Trudgill & Hannah 2002, p. 18
59. Roach (2004), p. 240.
31. Trudgill & Hannah 2002, p. 25
60. Collins & Mees (2013), p. 58.
32. Wells (1982), p. 252.
61. Gimson (2008), p. 132.
33. Wyld (1936), cited in Wells (1982), p. 262.
62. Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin (1996),
34. Bauer & Warren (2005), p. 596.
p. 66.
35. Wells (1982), p. 207.
63. Wells (1982), p. 149.
36. Durian (2007).
64. Bolinger (1986), pp. 347–360.
37. Hay (2008), p. 37.
65. Windsor Lewis (1990).
38. Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 86, 93.
66. Kreidler (2004), pp. 82–3.
39. Cruttenden (2014), pp. 186–8.
67. McCully (2009), pp. 123–4.
40. Wells (1982), pp. 48–9.
68. Roach (2009), pp. 66–8.
41. Collins & Mees (2013), pp. 86–7.
69. Wells (2014), p. 53.
42. Wells (1982), pp. 140, 147, 299.
70. Ladefoged (2006).
43. Roach (2004), p. 242.
71. Bolinger (1986), p. 351.
44. Cruttenden (2014).
72. Bolinger (1986), p. 348.
45. Wells (1982), p. 121.
73. Ladefoged (2006), §5.4.
46. Wells (1982), pp. 480–1.
74. Ladefoged (1980), p. 83.
47. Cox & Palethorpe (2007).
75. Wells (1990), pp. 76–86.
48. Wells (1982), pp. 473–474.
76. Zsiga (2003), p. 404.
49. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), pp. 13, 171–173.
77. Browman & Goldstein (1990).
50. Woods (1993), pp. 170–171.
78. Barry (1991).
51. Kiefte & Kay-Raining Bird (2010), pp. 63–64,
79. Barry (1992).
67.
80. Nolan (1992).
52. Wells (1982), p. 132.
81. Selkirk (1982).
53. Roca & Johnson (1999), p. 135.
82. Giegerich (1992), p. 172.
54. Wells (1982), p. 128.
83. Harris (1994), p. 198. 100. Wells (2006).

84. Gimson (2008), pp. 258–9. 101. Roach (2009), p. 144.

85. Giegerich (1992), pp. 167–70. 102. Brown (1990), pp. 122–3.

86. Kreidler (2004), pp. 76–8. 103. Cercignani (1975), pp. 513–8.

87. Wells (1990), p. ?. 104. Sapir (1925), p. 49.

88. Read (1986), p. ?. 105. Wells (1982), pp. 60–63.

89. Bradley (2006). 106. Roach (2009), pp. 46–48, 51–54.

90. Baković (2006). 107. Giegerich 1992, pp. 297–300.

91. Blake (1992), p. 67. 108. Sobkowiak (1996), pp. 95–6.

92. McColl Millar (2007), pp. 63–64. 109. Wells (2008).

93. Clements & Keyser (1983), p. ?. 110. O'Connor (1973), p. 153.

94. Collins & Mees (2013), p. 138. 111. Trager & Smith (1951), p. 20.

95. Wells (1982), p. 644. 112. Davis (1973), p. 1.

96. Wells (1982), pp. 630–1. 113. Allen (1977), pp. 169, 226.

97. Roach (1982), pp. 73–9. 114. Saporta (1965), pp. 218–219.

98. Halliday (1967), pp. 18–24. 115. Roach 2009, pp. 99–100.

99. Tench (1996).

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Further reading

Bacsfalvi, P. (2010). "Attaining the lingual components of /r/ with ultrasound for three adolescents
with cochlear implants". Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. 3 (34):
206–217.

Ball, M.; Lowry, O.; McInnis, L. (2006). "Distributional and stylistic variation in /r/-misarticulations: A
case study". Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. 2–3 (20).

Campbell, F., Gick, B., Wilson, I., Vatikiotis-Bateson, E. (2010), “Spatial and Temporal Properties of
Gestures in North American English /r/”. Child's Language and Speech, 53 (1): 49–69

Cercignani, Fausto (1981), Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford: Clarendon
Press

Crystal, David (1969), Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press

Dalcher Villafaña, C., Knight, R.A., Jones, M.J., (2008), “Cue Switching in the Perception of
Approximants: Evidence from Two English Dialects”. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in
Linguistics, 14 (2): 63–64

Espy-Wilson, C. (2004), “Articulatory Strategies, speech Acoustics and Variability”. From Sound to
Sense June 11 – June 13 at MIT: 62–63

Fudge, Erik C. (1984), English Word-stress, London: Allen and Unwin

Gimson, A.C. (1962), An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, London: Edward Arnold
 Hagiwara, R., Fosnot, S. M., & Alessi, D. M. (2002). “Acoustic phonetics in a clinical setting: A case
study of /r/-distortion therapy with surgical intervention”. Clinical linguistics & phonetics, 16 (6):
425–441.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1970), A Course in Spoken English: Intonation, London: Oxford University Press

Hoff, Erika, (2009), Language Development. Scarborough, Ontario. Cengage Learning, 2005.

Howard, S. (2007), “The interplay between articulation and prosody in children with impaired speech:
Observations from electropalatographic and perceptual analysis”. International Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology, 9 (1): 20–35.

Kingdon, Roger (1958), The Groundwork of English Intonation, London: Longman

Locke, John L., (1983), Phonological Acquisition and Change. New York, United States. Academic
Press, 1983. Print.

O'Connor, J. D.; Arnold, Gordon Frederick (1961), Intonation of Colloquial English, London: Longman

Pike, Kenneth Lee (1945), The Intonation of American English, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press

Sharf, D.J., Benson, P.J. (1982), “Identification of synthesized/r-w/continua for adult and child
speakers”. Donald J. Acoustical Society of America, 71 (4):1008–1015.

Wise, Claude Merton (1957), Applied Phonetics, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to English phonology.

University of Glasgow Dynamic Dialects Accent Map (https://www.dynamicdialects.ac.uk/

accent-map/)

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