Understanding English Pronunciation: Vowels, Diphthongs, and Triphthongs

Posted on Jan 22, 2025 in Photography and Digital Creation

Understanding the /æ/ Vowel Sound

The /æ/ sound is unrounded, front, and pronounced between half-open and open. It is halfway between the Spanish /a/ and /e/.

Quantity

Usually a short sound, /æ/ may be lengthened when followed by /b/, /d/, /g/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, or /ʤ/. For example, compare bad [bæ:d] vs. bat [bæt] or bag [bæ:g] vs. back [bæk].

Distribution

The /æ/ sound is never found at the end of a syllable, with the exception of the word baa /bæ/ in American English.

Allophones

The /æ/ sound may be more open in England.

Graphemes

The most representative grapheme is a, except when this grapheme is followed by “r”. Examples include: act, add, happy, flat, man, black, glad, wrap, bad, and have.

Exceptions

  • (ai) – plait
  • (i) in words of French origin, such as impasse /æmˈpɑːs/

The /ɪ/ Sound in Unaccented Positions

In final unaccented positions, as in “city”, “Mary”, “lady”, etc., /ɪ/ is increasingly replaced in the speech of younger generations by a short variety of /i:/ (Gimson, 1981). Many native speakers produce a phoneme closer in quality to vowel number 1 than 2 in these instances. This led Wells (1990) to suggest the incorporation of a further phoneme within the English vowel inventory in his Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, i.e., /i/, a common practice nowadays. When the vowel is in unstressed syllables, it is represented as /i/. The typical cases where it occurs are:

  1. Word or morpheme final <-y>, <i>, or <e>, e.g., hurry, jellyfish, sadly, handyman, antediluvian, antifreeze.
  2. Unstressed prevocalic <-i> and <-e>, e.g., cereal, serial, venereal.
  3. He, she, we, and me in their normal unstressed pronunciation (weak forms).
  4. Words ending in -day, e.g., the days of the week, where the suffix may be produced as /deɪ/ or /i/.
  5. Others: coffee, committee, sundae, always (alternative form).

Rhythmic Clipping and Pre-fortis Clipping

What is Rhythmic Clipping?

Clipping is the reduction in the duration of a vowel sound. Rhythmic clipping happens in a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable within the same word. For example, /a:/ in the word hard is a long vowel, but in the word harder, it is shortened because of the presence of a following syllable, i.e., /hɑ·də/. Certain compound words do not follow these rules, e.g., /eɪ/ in playtime does not experience any type of clipping.

Pre-fortis Clipping

Pre-fortis clipping happens in stressed syllables followed by fortis consonants. For example, bead vs. beat.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are sequences of two vocalic elements that form a glide (or transition, movement) within one syllable (e.g., /aʊ/). They are movements from one vowel to another within a single syllable. There should be a noticeable change of quality, as it is quite normal for long vowels to be slightly diphthongal due to the fact that it is difficult for the tongue to be held in one particular position for more than a brief moment.

Diphthongs are made up of two elements:

  1. A first element, which shows the starting point.
  2. A second element, which indicates the direction in which the glide is made.

Here is a table of common English diphthongs:

/eɪ//əʊ//aɪ//aʊ//ɔɪ//ɪǝ//eǝ//ʊǝ/

Triphthongs

Definition: Combinations of three vowels in a single syllable. It is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, rapidly and without interruption. There are five, and they are the result of adding /ə/ to the first five diphthongs:

  1. /eɪə/ (payer)
  2. /əʊə/ (lower)
  3. /aɪə/ (fire)
  4. /aʊə/ (flour)
  5. /ɔɪə/ (lawyer)

Recognition of Triphthongs

Their recognition is difficult. They are fully pronounced only:

  • When using a slow, formal style of pronunciation.
  • When the word containing the triphthong is given special emphasis.

Standard British Tendency

There is a tendency in standard British English for little vowel movement and a weakening or omission of the middle element in the glide (/ɪ/ or /ʊ/). This compression, usually in conversational style, is called leveling or smoothing. This makes it difficult to distinguish them from some diphthongs and long vowels, producing a new set of homophones. For example:

  • No. 1 /eɪə/ – /eǝ/ (payer = pear)
  • No. 2 Sewer = Sir
  • No. 5 Layer = lore