Summary of English consonants and vowels
I. Consonants
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Place:/ Manner: |
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Bilabial |
Labio- Dental |
(Inter-) Dental |
Alveo- lar |
Palato- Alveolar |
Retro- flex |
Palatal |
Velar |
Labial- Velar |
Glottal |
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STOPS |
voiceless |
p pot |
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t tot |
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k cot |
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(ʔ)[1] |
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voiced |
b bot |
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d dot |
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g got |
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FRICATIVES |
voiceless |
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f font |
θ thought |
s sot |
ʃ shot |
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h hot |
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voiced |
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vVons |
ð though |
z zot |
ʒ vision |
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AFFRICATES |
voiceless |
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t͡ʃ chalk |
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voiced |
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d͡ʒ jot |
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NASALS |
(voiced) |
m Mott |
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n not |
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ŋ song |
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APPROXIMANTS (voiced) |
central lateral |
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ɹ2rot l lot |
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(ɻ)[2] |
j yacht |
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w watt |
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TAP |
(voiced) |
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II. Vowels (where the relevant English vowel is a diphthong, it is so transcribed)
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Front |
Central |
Back |
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(unrounded) |
(unrounded) |
unrounded |
rounded |
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High |
(upper) |
i beat |
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u boot |
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(ɨ) Rose's |
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(lower) |
ɪ bit |
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ʊ foot |
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Mid |
(upper) |
eɪ bait |
ə about |
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oʊ boat
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(lower) |
ɛ bet |
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ʌ but |
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Low |
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æ bat |
(a)[5] |
ɑ bot |
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Diphthongs:[6]
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eɪ bait |
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oʊ boat |
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aɪ bite |
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aʊ bout |
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ɔɪ boy |
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also: ɚ˞ Bert, butter = stressed retroflexed mid central vowel, also called "syllabic r"
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Diacritics: |
ˈ = primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable) |
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ˌ = secondary stress. (placed before the stressed syllable) |
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̩= syllabic (placed under [l] and [n] when they are syllabic) |
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examples: |
[ˌæləˈgejʃən] allegation [ˈæləˌgejɾɚ] alligator [ˈɛɹəsˌtɑtl̩] Aristotle |
[1] Not a phoneme of English, but commonly pronounced before vowels in emphatic speech; an apple [ən ˈʔæpl̩`].
[2] In some English dialects, the "r" sound is a retroflex approximant ([ɻ]), made by curling the tip of the tongue upward and backward.
[3] Not a phoneme. Occurs as the normal variant (allophone) of /t/ and /d/, when the preceding sound is a vowel, diphthong, or /ɹ/, and the following sound is a stressless vowel.
[4] Bought has [ɔ] only in some American dialects; many speakers have no [ɔ]; they use [ɑ] in bought and similar words.
[5] Occurs only as the first element of the diphthongs [aj] and [aw].
[6] Some authors use [ej] bait / [aj] bite / [ow] boat / [aw] about / [ɔj] boy. Both styles correct for this course.