American English Phonetics
Another American English Faculty Project
4.5 The vowel system of AN
The Basic V-phonemes of AN
| Lax | Tense | |
|---|---|---|
| Monophthongs | Diphthongs | |
| /ɪ/ – bit | /i/ – biet | /ɛi/ – bijt |
| /ʏ/ – put | /y/ – fuut | /œy/ – buit |
| /ɛ/ – bed | /u/ – boet | /ɔu/ – bout |
| /ɑ/ – bad | /eˑ/ – beet | |
| /ɔ/ – bod | /øˑ/ – leut | |
| / ə/ – alle | /oˑ/ – boot | |
| /aˑ/ – baat | ||
Note that the vowels /i, y, u/ are short, except before /r/. And also note that the tense vowels /eˑ, øˑ, oˑ/ are diphthongs, except before /r/. Note, too, that the weak /ə/ has been included here with the strong vowels.
The following marginal vowels occur in AN:
| /iː/ as in analyse | /ɛ̃/ as in bulletin |
| /yː/ as in centrifuge | /ɑ̃/ as in nuance |
| /uː/ as in rouge | /ɔ̃/ as in bon ton |
| /ɛː/ as in serre | |
| /œː/ as in manoeuvre | |
| /ɔː/ as in controle |
The six vowels on the left are long, and their symbols have a length-mark. The three vowels on the right are nasalized, and over their symbols a tilde has been placed to indicate this. A vowel is nasalized when some of the air flows out through the nose.