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General American
General American (GA) is considered the “standard” pronunciation of American English and is the accent spoken throughout the USA except in the north-east (roughly the Boston and New England area) and the south-eastern states.[1] It is geographically (largely non-coastal) and socially based.[1]
It uses twenty-four consonant phonemes and sixteen vowel phonemes represented by the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.[2]
Vowel charts[edit | edit source]
The following table is used in Teflpedia. Note that in most of the United States /ɒ/ and /ɑː/ sound exactly the same.
- Vowel chart for American English
Includes Received Pronunciation vowels for compatibility with Received Pronunciation
| iː | ɪ | ʊ | uː | ɪə | eɪ | |
| fleece - happy | kit | foot | goose | near | face | |
| e | ə | ɜː | ɔː | ʊə | ɔɪ | əʊ |
| dress | comma - letter | nurse | thought - cloth north - force |
cure | choice | goat |
| æ | ʌ | ɑː | ɒ | eə | aɪ | aʊ |
| trap - bath | strut | start - palm (lot) |
lot | square | price | mouth |
Some speakers merge /eə/ with /e/, /ɪə/ with /ɪ/, and /ʊə/ with /ʊ/, and others have the FORCE lexical set with an /əʊ/ phoneme, sounding [oʊ], [oə] or [oː]. The table below shows the most common phoneme inventory.
| Phoneme | Examples | Common sounds |
|---|---|---|
| /æ/ | trap, bath | [æ] |
| /ɑː/ | palm, start, lot, sorry | [ɑ] |
| /e/ | dress, carry, cherry, square | [ɛ], [ɛr] |
| /eɪ/ | face | [eɪ] |
| /ɪ/ | kit, mirror, near | [ɪ], [ɪr] |
| /iː/ | fleece, happy | [i] |
| /ɔː/ | thought, cloth, north, force, forest | [ɔ], [o], [oə] |
| /əʊ/ | goat | [oʊ] |
| /ʊ/ | foot, cure | [ʊ], [ʊr]? |
| /uː/ | goose | [u] |
| /ʌ/ | strut | [ʌ] |
| /ɜː/ | nurse, hurry, furry | [ɜ], [ɝ] |
| /ə/ | comma, letter | [ə], [ɚ] |
| /aɪ/ | price | [aɪ] |
| /aʊ/ | mouth | [aʊ] |
| /ɔɪ/ | choice | [ɔɪ] |
- Vowel chart for General American (includes mergers)
It uses /oʊ/ instead of /əʊ/ and /ɛ/ instead of /e/, as is customary in American dictionaries
| iː | ɪ | ʊ | uː | eɪ | |
| fleece - happy | kit - near | foot - cure | goose | face | |
| ɛ | ə | ɜː | ɔː | ɔɪ | oʊ |
| dress - square | comma - letter | nurse | thought - cloth north - force |
choice | goat |
| æ | ʌ | ɑː | aɪ | aʊ | |
| trap - bath | strut | start - palm - lot | price | mouth | |
Cot - caught merger[edit | edit source]
Around 40% of Americans have a different vowel inventory, in which /ɔː/ is merged with /ɑː/ (except before r). See Cot-caught merger. Another name for this merger (better for those who have it) is "LOT - THOUGHT merger.”
| Phoneme | Examples |
|---|---|
| /æ/ | trap, bath |
| /ɑː/ | palm, start, lot, thought, cloth, sorry |
| /e/ | dress, carry, cherry, square |
| /eɪ/ | face |
| /ɪ/ | kit, mirror, near |
| /iː/ | fleece, happy |
| /ɔː/ | north, force, forest |
| /oʊ/ | goat |
| /ʊ/ | foot, cure |
| /uː/ | goose |
| /ʌ/ | strut |
| /ɜː/ | nurse, hurry, furry |
| /ə/ | comma, letter |
| /aɪ/ | price |
| /aʊ/ | mouth |
| /ɔɪ/ | choice |
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Roach, Peter. “English Phonetics and Phonology: Glossary" Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 6th October 2012.
- ↑ Crystal, D. Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling Profile Books ISBN 978-184668567 5
