English phonology is the system of sounds used in spoken English. Like many languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the dialects of English around the world have largely similar (but not identical) phonological systems. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants (stops, affricates, and fricatives).
Phonological analysis of English often concentrates on prestige or standard accents, such as Received Pronunciation for England, General American for the United States, and General Australian for Australia. Nevertheless, many other dialects of spoken English have developed, different from these standard accents, particularly regional dialects. Descriptions of standard reference accents provide only a limited guide to the phonology of other dialects of English.
Phonemes A phoneme of a language or dialect is an abstraction of a speech sound or of a group of different sounds that are all perceived to have the same function by speakers of that particular language or dialect. For example, the English word three consists of three phonemes: the initial sound, the sound, and a vowel sound. The phonemes in that and many other English words do not always correspond directly to the letters used to spell them (English orthography is not as strongly phonemic as that of many other languages).
The number and distribution of phonemes in English vary from dialect to dialect, and also depend on the interpretation of the individual researcher. The number of consonant phonemes is generally put at 24 (or slightly more depending on the dialect). The number of vowels is subject to greater variation; in the system presented on this page there are 20–25 vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation, 14–16 in General American and 19–21 in Australian English. The pronunciation keys used in dictionaries generally contain a slightly greater number of symbols than this, to take account of certain sounds used in foreign words and certain noticeable distinctions that may not bestrictly speakingphonemic.
Consonants The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English, plus , whose distribution is more limited. Fortis consonants are always voiceless, aspirated in syllable onset (except in clusters beginning with or ), and sometimes also glottalized to an extent in syllable coda (most likely to occur with , see T-glottalization), while lenis consonants are always unaspirated and un-glottalized, and generally partially or fully voiced. The alveolars are usually apical, i.e. pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the roof of the mouth, though some speakers produce them laminally, i.e. with the blade of the tongue.
Labial Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Dorsal Glottal Nasal Plosive/Affricate Fricative () Approximant
Consonant examples The following table shows typical examples of the occurrence of the above consonant phonemes in words, using minimal pairs where possible. Fortis Lenis pit bit tin din cut gut cheap jeep fat vat thigh thy sap zap dilution delusion loch ham hum Hun hung your wore roar lore
Sonorants The pronunciation of varies by dialect: Received Pronunciation has two main allophones of : the clear, or plain, (the "light L"), and the dark, or velarized, (the "dark L"). The clear variant is used before vowels when they are in the same syllable, and the dark variant when the precedes a consonant or is in syllable-final position before silence. In South Wales, Ireland, and the Caribbean, is usually clear, and in North Wales, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand it is usually dark. In General American and Canada, is generally dark, but to varying degrees: before stressed vowels it is neutral or only slightly velarized. In southern U.S. accents it is noticeably clear between vowels, and in some other positions. In urban accents of Southern England, as well as New Zealand and some parts of the United States, can be pronounced as an approximant or semivowel () at the end of a syllable (l-vocalization). Depending on dialect, has at least the following allophones in varieties of English around the world (see Pronunciation of English /r/): postalveolar approximant (the most common realization of the phoneme, occurring in most dialects, RP and General American included) retroflex approximant (occurs in most Irish dialects and some American dialects) labiodental approximant (occurs in south-east England and some London accents; also in Singapore English among younger speakers. See r-labialization) alveolar flap (occurs in most Scottish, Welsh, Indian and some South African dialects, some conservative dialects in England and Ireland; not to be confused with flapping of and ) alveolar trill (occurs in some very conservative Scottish dialects and some Indian, South African and Welsh accents) voiced uvular fricative (occurs in northern Northumbria, largely disappeared; known as the Northumbrian burr) In most dialects is labialized in many positions, as in reed and tree ; in the latter case, the may be slightly labialized as well. In some rhotic accents, such as General American, when not followed by a vowel is realized as an r-coloring of the preceding vowel or its coda: nurse , butter . The distinctions between the nasals are neutralized in some environments. For example, before a final , or there is nearly always only one nasal sound that can appear in each case: , or respectively (as in the words limp, lint, linknote that the n of link is pronounced ). This effect can even occur across syllable or word boundaries, particularly in stressed syllables: synchrony is pronounced whereas synchronic may be pronounced with either or . For other possible syllable-final combinations, see in the Phonotactics section below.
Obstruents In most dialects, the fortis stops and affricate have various different allophones, and are distinguished from the lenis stops and affricate by several phonetic features. The allophones of the fortes include: aspirated when they occur in the onset of a stressed syllable, as in potato. In clusters involving a following liquid, the aspiration typically manifests as the devoicing of this liquid. These sounds are unaspirated after within the same syllable, as in stan, span, scan, and at the ends of syllables, as in mat, map, mac. The voiceless fricatives are nearly always unaspirated, but a notable exception is English-speaking areas of Wales, where they are often aspirated. An alternative interpretation of the /s/–stop clusters is that all stops following /s/ are in fact lenis: this is the interpretation favoured by Dr Geoff Lindsey. Taking this analysis as axiomatic, stan [stan], span [span], and scan [skan] would thus be notated /sdan, sban, sgan/. Moreover, English fortis stops are not only aspirated, but often somewhat affricated; in the case of mat, map, mac therefore, the contrast between lenis and fortis is preserved through the affrication, when the stops are realised ‘fully’, rather than glottalised or otherwise reduced: . In many accents of English, fortis stops are glottalized in some positions. That may be heard either as a glottal stop preceding the oral closure ("pre-glottalization" or "glottal reinforcement") or as a substitution of the glottal stop for the oral stop (glottal replacement). can be only pre-glottalized. Pre-glottalization normally occurs in British and American English when the fortis consonant phoneme is followed by another consonant or when the consonant is in final position. Thus football and catching are often pronounced and , respectively. Even more frequently, glottal replacement happens in such cases involving , so that football is pronounced . In addition, however, glottal replacement is increasingly common in British English when occurs between vowels if the preceding vowel is stressed; thus better is often pronounced by younger speakers as . Such t-glottalization also occurs in many British regional accents, including Cockney, where it can also occur at the end of words, and where and are sometimes treated the same way. For some RP-speakers, final voiceless stops, especially , may become ejectives. Among stops, both fortes and lenes: May have no audible release in the word-final position. These allophones are more common in North America than Great Britain. Almost always have a masked release before another plosive or affricate (as in ), i.e. the release of the first stop is made after the closure of the second stop. This also applies when the following stop is homorganic (articulated in the same place), as in top player. A notable exception is Welsh English in which stops are usually released in that environment. The affricates have a mandatory fricative release in all environments. Very often in the United States and Canada and less frequently in Australia and New Zealand, both can be pronounced as a voiced flap in certain positions: when they come between a preceding stressed vowel (possibly with intervening ) and precede an unstressed vowel or syllabic . Examples include water, bottle, petal, (the last two words sound alike when flapped). The flap may even appear at word boundaries, as in put it on. When the combination appears in such positions, some American speakers pronounce it as a nasalized flap that may become indistinguishable from , so winter may be pronounced similarly or identically to winner . Yod-coalescence is a process that palatalizes the clusters , , and into , , and respectively, frequently occurring with clusters that would be considered to span a syllable boundary., cited in . Yod-coalescence in stressed syllables, such as in tune and dune, occurs in Australian, Cockney, Estuary English, Hiberno-English (some speakers), Newfoundland English, South African English, and to a certain extent in New Zealand English and Scottish English (many speakers). This can lead to additional homophony; for instance, dew and due come to be pronounced the same as Jew. In certain varieties such as Australian English, South African English, and New Zealand English, and in stressed syllables can coalesce into and , respectively. In Australian English for example, assume is pronounced by some speakers. Furthermore, some British, Canadian, American, New Zealand and Australian speakers may change the sound to before ; for example, these speakers pronounce strewn as . The postalveolar consonants are strongly labialized: , at least in RP. In addition to , the sequences also have affricate-like realizations in certain positions (as in cats, roads, tram, dram, eighth, behind them, cupful, obvious; see also ) but usually only are considered to constitute the monophonemic affricates of English because (among other reasons) only they are found in all of morpheme-initial, -internal, and -final positions, and native speakers typically perceive them as single units.
Vowels