Vowels

Vowels may be monophthongs, e.g. /a/, or diphthongs, e.g. /eɪ/. They may be lax vowels, e.g. /ɛ/, or tense vowels, e.g. /iː/. Vowels may be supported by a semivowel, e.g. /jʉː/.

English vowels can be divided into four didactic groups:

• Short vowels are the lax monophthongs, including the schwa.
• Long vowels are tense monophthongs and diphthongs culturally perceived as “long” vowels. They are the alphabet names of the vowels.
• Wise vowels are the other tense monophthongs and diphthongs.
• Clear vowels are the R-controlled tense monophthongs and diphthongs in non-rhotic accents. Some vowels are both wise and clear.

Short Vowels

Long Vowels

Wise Vowels

Clear Vowels

The four groups feature the following special vowels:

• The schwa is the unstressed indeterminate central vowel.
• The true [long] o is the tense version of the BOB-vowel.
• The true [long] u is the HUGH-vowel without semivowel support.
• The old [short] u is the old version of the short u.
• The new [short] i is a new suffixal version of the short i.

Consonants

English consonants can be divided into three didactic groups:

• Strong consonants (fortes) are voiceless and often aspirated, both plosive and fricative.
• Weak consonants (lenes) are voiced and unaspirated, both plosive and fricative.
• Wise consonants are the nasals and approximants. /j/ and /w/ are semivowels.

Strong Consonants

Weak Consonants

Wise Consonants

The three groups feature the following special cases:

• In the wise group, the are is the pronounced final ree in rhotic accents. Rhotic accents do not have clear vowels. Instead, are is added to short vowels, which may be lengthened.
• In the wise group, the ell is the velarised final lee, called dark L in constrast to lee as the light L.
• In the strong group, the consonant loch as the velar /x/ is of limited occurrence.

Silent Letters

Phonetic Literacy

The graphic alphabet contains the names of the written letters. The phonetic alphabet contains the didactic names of phonemes as the “spoken letters.”

Not every written letter has a specific spoken counterpart, and vice-versa. For example, the written cee can represent the spoken ken and sen, among others. The spoken shee can be rendered with numerous written letters.

When written and spoken letters have the same name, an asterisc may be used before the latter: vee refers to written v, while *vee refers to spoken /v/.

The English Phonetic Alphabet

English pronunciation is not uniform. This alphabet represents a subjective perception of British received pronunciation without allophones (with few exceptions).

This alphabet may be used as a didactic starting point for phonetic literacy. It does not lay any normative claim on English pronunciation.

Spelling Words

The examples are spelt graphically and phonetically. Being able to spell words phonetically will improve your phonetic understanding (native speakers) and pronunciation skills (non-native speakers). It is an important tool for teachers.

The letter names in the English phonetic alphabet serve a didactic purpose. They do not provide a scientific description of phonemes. The vowels are called after given names. The schwa is called after the unstressed article an.