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

If you’re a non-native English speaker

and you want to improve your English pronunciation skills,

then sign up for my online course

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prioritises sounds that improve your clarity

and uses SSBE as its model

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