espeak-ng/docs/languages/gmw/en.md

English

• Short Vowels
• Long Vowels
• Rhotic Vowels
• Reduced Vowels
• Diphthongs
• Split Vowels
• References

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The English language support uses a vowel system based on John Wells' Lexical Sets^[1]. These were created by Wells in 1982 by comparing the Received Pronunciation British (RP) and General American (GenAm) accents in use at that time.

Short Vowels

Lexical Set	RP	GenAm
KIT	ɪ	ɪ
DRESS	e	ɛ
TRAP	æ	æ
LOT	ɒ	ɑ
STRUT	ʌ	ʌ
FOOT	ʊ	ʊ

Long Vowels

Lexical Set	RP	GenAm
FLEECE	iː	i
PALM	ɑː	ɑ
THOUGHT	ɔː	ɔ
GOOSE	uː	u

Rhotic Vowels

These are vowels that are followed by an r that is not part of the next syllable when considering the root form of the word containing that vowel.

Lexical Set	RP	GenAm
NURSE	ɜː	ɝ
START	ɑː	ɑɹ
NORTH	ɔː	ɔɹ
FORCE	ɔː	oɹ
CURE	ʊə̯	ʊɹ
NEAR	ɪə̯	ɪɹ
SQUARE	eə̯	ɛɹ

Reduced Vowels

These are unstressed vowels that differ from the vowels in the main lexical sets.

Lexical Set	RP	GenAm
HAPPY	ɪ	i
COMMA	ə	ə
LETTER	ə	ɚ

Diphthongs

Lexical Set	RP	GenAm
FACE	eɪ̯	eɪ̯
PRICE	aɪ̯	aɪ̯
CHOICE	ɔɪ̯	ɔɪ̯
GOAT	əʊ̯	oʊ̯
MOUTH	aʊ̯	aʊ̯

Split Vowels

These are lexical sets defined by John Wells that are merged with other lexical sets in both RP and GenAm, so have split from one of those lexical sets and merged with the other.

Lexical Set	RP	GenAm
BATH	ɑː	æ
CLOTH	ɒ	ɔ

References

1. Wikipedia. Lexical set. 2017. Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).