Vowel Chart
In RP there are twenty different vowel phonemes. In
J.C. Wells' (1982: 120) chart below there are twenty-seven different boxes. Why? The reason
is that the twenty-seven lexical sets represent how the different phonemes of English are
pronounced and how they evolved. Wells uses one word to represent all the words
in each set. For example, the KIT set represents all the words that had short
/i/ in earlier forms of English like kid, tip, thin, etc.
KIT |
ɪ |
FLEECE |
iː |
NEAR |
ɪə |
DRESS |
e |
FACE |
eɪ |
SQUARE |
eə |
TRAP |
æ |
PALM |
ɑː |
START |
ɑː |
LOT |
ɒ |
THOUGHT |
ɔː |
NORTH |
ɔː |
STRUT |
ʌ |
GOAT |
əʊ |
FORCE |
ɔː |
FOOT |
ʊ |
GOOSE |
uː |
CURE |
ʊə |
BATH |
ɑː |
PRICE |
aɪ |
happY |
i |
CLOTH |
ɒ |
CHOICE |
ɔɪ |
lettER |
ə |
NURSE |
ɜː |
MOUTH |
aʊ |
commA |
ə |