You may think English has 5 vowel sounds
a, e, i, o, u
But these are the letters we use to write with
not the actual sounds we say
In fact, the same letter can represent different sounds
Listen to how I pronounce the letter “a” in this sentence:
In my accent - Standard Southern British English
this letter represents a different vowel sound in each word
So I’d like you to forget about letters, and focus on the sounds
To make it easier to compare vowels across accents
we’re going to use lexical sets
A lexical set is a group of words in which a particular vowel
is pronounced in the same way
For example, in my accent the words
"face", "say", "wait" and "eight" have the same /eɪ/ vowel sound
and the words "goat", "snow", "hope" and "though" have the same /əʊ/ vowel sound
Linguists group these words accordingly and give them names:
the FACE lexical set
and the GOAT lexical set
Whereas I pronounce all the words in the FACE lexical set with an /eɪ/ vowel sound
other people in the UK will use different sounds
If you’re aware of this vowel sound variation
you’ll find it easier to understand a wider range of native English speakers
In this video, I’ll explain 5 vowel differences between UK accents
with the help of the following lexical sets
Words like "last", "chance", "ask" and "laugh" belong to the BATH lexical set
These words are pronounced with a short /a/ vowel sound in most of the UK
But in the south of England,
many people pronounce these words with a longer vowel sound
that’s made further back in the mouth: /ɑː/
This longer vowel sound developed in the south of England in the 17th century
whereas elsewhere the short /a/ remained
Here are some more examples of this longer /ɑː/ vowel in the south
This is a map produced by the University of Cambridge in 2016
Yellow marks areas where speakers are more likely to use a shorter /a/ vowel in the BATH lexical set
Green marks areas where speakers are more likely to use a longer /ɑː/ vowel
The shades of colour between green and yellow
indicate that not everyone in the south will have this longer vowel
Geography is not the only factor that influences how people sound
Accents also vary according to
socioeconomic background, age and ethnicity among others
In my accent, the words "look", "stood", and "put" belong to the FOOT lexical set
and the words "luck", "stud", and "putt" belong to the STRUT lexical set
In southern England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
most speakers will have these two separate lexical sets
with two different vowel sounds
But speakers in the midlands and north of England
may pronounce the words in the FOOT and STRUT lexical sets
in the same way or very similarly
The exact pronunciation varies from place to place
Here are some clips of speakers from the midlands and north of England
saying words that belong to the STRUT lexical set
Listen to how the vowel sound is different to my southern /ʌ/ vowel
Here’s another map from the University of Cambridge in 2016
Blue marks areas where speakers pronounce the words
put and putt with a different vowel sound
like in my accent from the south of England
Orange marks areas where speakers pronounce them with the same vowel sound
When a survey was conducted in the 1950s
the number of people who rhymed put and putt in England was much greater
compared to 2016
We can divide vowel sounds into two groups:
monophthongs and diphthongs
A monophthong is one vowel sound
like the /ɔː/ vowel in my pronunciation of the word "jaw"
/ɔː/
A diphthong describes a movement from one vowel quality towards another
like the /ɔɪ/ sound in my pronunciation of the word "joy"
/ɔɪ/
Here you can feel the movement of the diphthong
the tongue starts back in the mouth and moves forwards: /ɔɪ/
Words like "go", "no" and "so" belong to the GOAT lexical set
You’re more likely to hear these words being pronounced with a diphthong
in the south of the UK
The further north you go,
the more likely it is you’ll hear a monophthong,
or a diphthong with very little movement
Here are some clips of speakers saying words from the GOAT lexical set
moving from south to north
Notice the change in the vowel sound
This pattern of diphthongs in the south and monophthongs in the north
is a generalisation
and of course there are exceptions
For example, you may hear monophthongs – or diphthongs with little movement – in South Wales.
Words like "say", "day" and "may" belong to the FACE lexical set.
Similar to GOAT, the further south you are in the UK
the more likely it is you will hear a diphthong
Whereas the further north you go, the more likely you will hear a monophthong
or a diphthong with little movement
Here are some clips of speakers saying words from the FACE lexical set
moving from south to north
Notice the change in the vowel sound
Again, this pattern of diphthongs in the south or monophthongs in the north
is a generalisation
In South Wales you may hear monophthongs – or diphthongs with little movement
The word "okay" has GOAT in the 1st syllable and FACE in the 2nd
"okay"
In the south both vowels are more likely to be diphthongs
And in the north both vowels are more likely to be monophthongs
Words like "funny", "cookie" and "taxi" belong to the happY lexical set
The final vowel of these words is pronounced differently around the country
In Wales and southern England, you’ll hear the vowel sound in FLEECE
In northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland,
you are likely to hear the vowel sound in KIT, FACE or DRESS
Two exceptions in northern England are Merseyside and the area around Newcastle
where you’ll hear the vowel sound in FLEECE
The English language has evolved differently in different parts of the country
For this reason, we have variation in vowel sounds
There is nothing incorrect about saying "face" (diphthong) or "face" (monophthong)
They just belong to different varieties of English
If you're aware of this phonetic diversity,
you’ll find it easier to understand native speakers
Expect to hear:
The next time you listen to a native speaker from the UK,
see if you can identify some of the features listed in this video
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