1. British English Vowels (RP)

2. LAX VOWELS
TENSE VOWELS

3. LAX VOWELS

4. close
front
back
open

5. KIT
FOOT
DRESS
STRUT
LOT
TRAP

6. CLOSE (HIGH)
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)

7. preview: fen fen bit bit not not very veröld clever klefi
The 6 lax vowels are ALWAYS SHORT
fen fen
bit bit
not not
very veröld
clever klefi

8. preview: fen fenn bit not very verry television tellevision (“telly”)
The 6 lax vowels are ALWAYS SHORT
fen fenn
bit
not
very verry
television tellevision (“telly”)

9. preview: fen fenn bit bitt.....? not nott....? very verry
The 6 lax vowels are ALWAYS SHORT
fen fenn
bit bitt.....?
not nott....?
very verry
television tellevision (“telly”)

10. preview: English vowels MUST NOT BE PREASPIRATED not nott (noht)
bit bitt (biht)
stop stopp (stohp)
better better (behter)
supper supper (söhper)

11. TENSE VOWELS

12. FLEECE GOOSE NURSE THOUGHT PALM KIT FOOT DRESS STRUT TRAP LOT
CLOSE (HIGH
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)
FLEECE
GOOSE
KIT
FOOT
DRESS
NURSE
THOUGHT
STRUT
TRAP
LOT
PALM

13. CLOSE (HIGH
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)

14. English Diphthongs
δι-ϕθογγος di-phthong fþong

15. English Diphthongs
“pure” vowels
diphthongs

16. English Diphthongs
how "pure" are the "pure" vowels?

17. CLOSE (HIGH
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)

18. 1 Rising to KIT

19. 2 Rising to FOOT

20. 3 Centring to Schwa

23. SQUARE words are spelled
-air-
fair
chair
stair
cairn
-are-
fare
care
mare
stare

24. NEAR words are spelled
-eer-
beer
engineer
queer
-ier-
fierce
pier

25. But words spelled with -ear-, –ere-, -eir- are variable -
SQUARE
bear pear wear
heir their
where there
they’re
NEAR
fear clear rear
weir
here
we’re
idea
hero

26. Vowels - summary

27. FLEECE NURSE PALM THOUGHT GOOSE KIT DRESS TRAP STRUT LOT FOOT
CLOSE (HIGH
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)
FLEECE
NURSE
PALM
THOUGHT
GOOSE

28. CLOSE (HIGH
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)

29. CLOSE (HIGH
BACK
FRONT
OPEN (LOW)

30. Vowels - summary Learn chart positions: front – central - back
close (high) – mid – open (low
Learn symbols and keywords for
6 lax vowels + “schwa”
5 tense vowels
8 diphthongs (diphthongs are also tense vowels)

31. Difference between lax and tense vowels
lax vowels are short
tense vowels are long but are
subject to clipping

32. Clipping A tense vowels (or diphthong) is
CLIPPED (shortened) when a fortis consonant immediately follows it.

33. FORTIS and LENIS consonants
Preview:
FORTIS and LENIS consonants
16 consonants occur in PAIRS, fortis and lenis
FORTIS consonants are unovoiced
LENIS consonants are often (but not always) voiced
(This is not the only distinction between fortis and lenis. We’ll discuss this later.)

34. FORTIS and LENIS consonants
Preview:
FORTIS and LENIS consonants
fortis:
lenis:
pie, buy
church, judge
tie, die
mission, vision
key, gay
ice, eyes
fine, vine
think, this