All Questions
Tagged with american-english vowels
39 questions
4
votes
3
answers
288
views
Is "parker" ([ˈpʰɑ̈˞kɚ]) a common pronunciation of "parkour" in American English?
I've recently had a small argument with a coworker about the pronunciation of parkour. Neither of us is a native speaker. She seems to believe "parker" (in narrow IPA, [ˈpʰɑ̈˞kɚ]) is the &...
- 5,561
2
votes
1
answer
76
views
American English 'mouse': /maʊs/ or /mæʊs/?
In general American English, is the word 'mouse' pronounced /maʊs/ or /mæʊs/ with an 'æ'? I think it's the latter. Most online dictionaries, even Wiktionary give the former notation. Which is the ...
- 345
3
votes
1
answer
234
views
Pronouncing an /n/ ending with an extra schwa
I often hear American English speakers pronounce words ending in an /n/ sound with an extra schwa sound after it.
One example:
At the end of a sentence, the word's final N with a preceding vowel often ...
- 131
10
votes
4
answers
508
views
Do any speakers have contrastive vowel qualities for the NURSE and lettER sets?
John Wells’ lexical sets are usually useful classifications for determining differences in the realizations of vowels across English accents. Two of the sets are the NURSE set, referring to a stressed ...
- 890
1
vote
1
answer
113
views
Rounding of the START and PALM vowels
I’m a younger speaker from Chicago with a relatively standard General American accent. I have noticed that the vowels in the words “start” and “palm” sound like they have some lip rounding in my ...
- 890
5
votes
1
answer
332
views
Possibility of a near-cure or peer-pure vowel merger in American English
I am a young speaker from Chicago with, I think, a relatively nonspecific General American accent. I’ve noticed something interesting with the vowels in the NEAR and CURE sets. These vowels can be ...
- 890
3
votes
1
answer
441
views
Variants of the /æ/ sound?
This YouTube channel asserts that the /æ/ sound has four variants depending on the consonant that follows it; /æ/ in apple and /æ/ in mango should sound a bit different, for instance.
https://www....
- 133
5
votes
1
answer
585
views
True realization of /i/ in American English: Is it really [ɪi]?
I have read in different places that the latter glide-like realization is the only one that exists in American English. Is this a regional thing? If yes, would you say it occurs in western US English?
...
user424161
1
vote
1
answer
254
views
American accents where /æ/ becomes [eɪ] before /ŋ/. Does /æ/ become [eɪ] before /m/ and /n/ too?
I know that in Californian accent, /æ/ is sometimes realized as [eɪ] only before /ŋ/. So words like hang, bang, rang, sang, gang, which normally end with /æŋ/, end with [eɪŋ]. The reason why it ...
user387044
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
Is "awe" pronounced as /ɔː/ or /ɑː/ in American English?
I have an American friend who pronounced the word "awe" with the same vowel as British people pronounce Thought: /ɔː/. But when I look up this word in dictionaries, they pronounce it as /ɑː/....
user387044
3
votes
1
answer
721
views
Do Americans with PIN-PEN merger confuse "imminent" and "eminent"? [closed]
The PIN-PEN merger is a merger of the vowels /ɪ/ (KIT vowel) and /ɛ/ (DRESS vowel) before nasals [m n ŋ]. The resultant vowel is more raised and is closer to [ɪ]. Pin pen, him hem, kin ken are ...
- 47
2
votes
1
answer
613
views
Pronunciation of /æ/, when it comes before /m/ or /n/
I believe when /æ/ comes before m or n , it’s pronounced [ɛə] instead of [æ], (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//%C3%A6/_raising)
but is it always the case？For example, how about the main stress is not ...
- 31
1
vote
1
answer
200
views
Finding Unstressed Schwa
In our country, we really don’t have the “unstressed schwa”
How do I find this one? is there a technique?
How do I find the unstressed schwa with these word? Thanks
occur
history
curious
actor
...
3
votes
1
answer
533
views
American English: Gliding of the long "ee" sound: [i] to [ɪi]
I have noticed that Americans have (broadly speaking) two ways of pronouncing the long "ee" vowel as in "fleece".
A simple [i] that ends with the same quality it starts with: listen to user ...
- 165
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Pronunciation: vowels before dark L (Any accent)
To native speakers of English, how do you compare a vowel before a dark L and one without a dark L. Example words:
gold, goal, sold, soul, hole, hold, bowl, bold
go, so, ho, bow(noun)
.
pool, ...
- 165
3
votes
1
answer
369
views
Are there American English dialects which distinguish /ɑ/ and /ɒ/ but not /ɑ/ and /ɔ/?
I relied on the Logic of English (LoE) phonograms to give myself a better understanding of English pronunciation since the spelling gives me a hard time (even as native speaker), but I noticed that ...
- 195
4
votes
1
answer
496
views
caught-cot merger: can "lawyer" sound like "lier"?
"law" is pronounced as /lɑ/ if you speak with the caught-cot merger, so, logic suggests "lawyer" should sound like /lɑjɚ/, as "lawyer" is basically "law" + "yer"
For me, the difference between /lɑjɚ/ ...
- 906
6
votes
3
answers
559
views
Can "on" be reduced?
According to Wiktionary page on "on" word , the pronunciation of "on" is either /ɔn/ or /ɑn/ depending if you have the cot-cought merger or not. usually, if a word has a reduced form, it's stated ...
- 906
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Yod coalescence across words - only with "you(r(s))"?
I'm asking specifically about Yod* coalescence when connecting two words together.
Some very (neat) phenomenon in American English is to "fuse" you/r/s when the word ends in t/d/z:
I was thinking ...
- 906
4
votes
1
answer
8k
views
/ɑ/ vs /ʌ/ pronunciation
I've realized I don't actually understand the difference between ɑ and ʌ completely.
Background: I'm a Hebrew speaker.
for me, the ʌ is pretty much the short Hebrew Kamatz sound (Bet with kamatz - ...
- 906
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
unstressed syllable in the middle of the word = always schwa sound?
I've noticed a pattern about pronunciation of words in American English -
an unstressed syllable in the middle of the word tends to have a schwa sound regardless of the actual written letter. examples:...
- 906
10
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Do Americans who have the cot–caught merger pronounce 'all', 'tall', 'Paul', etc. with the same vowel quality as 'lot'?
Do American English speakers who pronounce cot and caught as [kʰɑt] pronounce all, tall, Paul, etc. with the same vowel quality?
If my subjective experience is anything to go by, I feel like I've ...
- 1,898
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Vowel in "-ang" and "-ank" Words: Pronunciation and Dictionary Transcription
Has anyone found the vowel in "-ang" and "-ank" words transcribed differently than /æ/? The sound, to my ear, is not the same as the /æ/ sound in words like "ran." I hear ...
- 191
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
British [a] = American [ɑ] in certain words
There is a large group of words in which /a/ is pronounced [a] or [æː] in most American and some British dialects, but [ɑː] in most British dialects; this group includes past, can’t, fast, etc. This ...
- 71
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Vowel sound in *die* vs *dice*
Is it just me, or is the letter "i" pronounced differently in the words die and dice? In die, it sounds like the regular long I sound (ay), but in the word dice, it sounds closer to something like "...
- 1,178
3
votes
2
answers
443
views
What American dialects merge pail and pal to /pæl/?
What American dialects merge "pail" (General American /peɪ̯l/) and "pal" (GA /pæl/) into one pronunciation /pæl/?
(And likewise "mail", "male", "Mal"...
- 245
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
The short 'i' in the word "believe"?
What is this merger called? I know there's the nearer-mirror merger, where both words are pronounced with the exact same long i, but which merger is responsible for the pronunciation of the short i in ...
- 882
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Where in the US are these vowels mispronounced? "got" -> "gat"
It is rather rare to hear a speaker pronounce vowels like this, so I would like to know where it comes from. I live in North America, so my only experience is with American English.
Most notably, I ...
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How do I know if I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift?
I grew up in Kalamazoo, MI, where (according to Wikipedia and other sources), many speakers have something called the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS). So I'm trying to figure out if I'm one of them.
...
- 15.5k
8
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Why are only some "u" words pronounced with a glide in American English?
In most words with a long U that doesn't start a syllable, it is pronounced /uː/. Examples: student, reduce, introduce. However, in some words (such as music, mule, human) it is pronounced /juː/. I've ...
- 1,514
-3
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Are there are more vowels in the American English than in British? [closed]
car, father, jarring ■ man, lad, mast
A British guy would pronounce the vowel "a" equally in all these words. But an American would give one sound for the first three words, and the other for ...
- 553
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to pronounce '-ing' followed by a vowel
I'm getting into English recently and I'm a little confused by the way people pronounce a word that starts in a vowel right after a word ending in -ing.
For example:
You have to bring it up now?
...
- 123
4
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Pronunciation of Bank, Tank, etc.: Bay-nk, Ray-nk or Baen-k or Raen-k?
What is the standard US pronunciation for words such as the following:
Bank
Rank
At least in my dialect of US English (Inland Northern), the following seem like close transcriptions:
Bank: bay-nk ...
- 4,602
37
votes
10
answers
36k
views
How are 'marry', 'merry', and 'Mary' pronounced differently?
The way I pronounce these words is the same. Similarly for other words like these: I pronounce ferry and fairy the same, carrot and caret. Yet, dictionaries show different pronunciations for these ...
- 68.9k
6
votes
5
answers
159k
views
How Many Diphthongs Are There In English?
I was talking to a person who said that there were only two. I think she said that the "ou" in house is one of the two.
I told her that the way the letter "i" is pronounced is a diphthong, and she ...
- 255
1
vote
2
answers
10k
views
Do Americans pronounce "Ellen" and "Alan" in the same way?
Do Americans pronounce "Ellen" and "Alan" in the same way? I am especially concerned with the first vowel.
EDIT:
Here is a quote that may be a case in point:
Being a Brit also, the names "Ellen" ...
- 9,018
8
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Why is it 'speaking'/'speech' instead of 'speeking'/'speech' or 'speaking'/'speach'?
Why is it speaking/speech instead of speeking/speech or speaking/speach?
- 856
7
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Distinctive features of English diphthongs
I am looking for a table of distinctive features for English dipthongs along the lines of that available for other vowels here. I don't trust my purely book learned linguistic skills to produce an ...
- 71
16
votes
4
answers
18k
views
Pronunciation of "er" in "farmer" vs. "earth"
I'm confused about the difference in pronouncing "er" in words such as "farmer" and "earth". I hear them the same, but they have different phonetic symbols. Is there any difference in pronouncing "er" ...
- 261