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English
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.
The en transcriptions listed below are the phonemes used by eSpeak NG to
transcribe the different lexical sets.
Short Vowels
| Lexical Set | en | RP | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| KIT | I |
ɪ | ɪ |
| DRESS | E |
e | ɛ |
| TRAP | a |
æ | æ |
| LOT | 0 |
ɒ | ɑ |
| STRUT | V |
ʌ | ʌ |
| FOOT | U |
ʊ | ʊ |
Long Vowels
| Lexical Set | en | RP | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLEECE | i: |
iː | i |
| PALM | A: |
ɑː | ɑ |
| THOUGHT | O: |
ɔː | ɔ |
| GOOSE | u: |
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 | en | RP | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| NURSE | 3: |
ɜː | ɝ |
| START | A@ |
ɑː | ɑɹ |
| NORTH | O@ |
ɔː | ɔɹ |
| FORCE | o@ |
ɔː | oɹ |
| CURE | U@ |
ʊə̯ | ʊɹ |
| NEAR | i@3 |
ɪə̯ | ɪɹ |
| SQUARE | e@ |
eə̯ | ɛɹ |
NOTE: /i@3/ is used for the NEAR lexical set to differentiate it from
/i@/ used in words like million.
Reduced Vowels
These are unstressed vowels that differ from the vowels in the main lexical sets.
| Lexical Set | en | RP | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| HAPPY | i |
ɪ | i |
| COMMA | @ |
ə | ə |
| LETTER | 3 |
ə | ɚ |
Diphthongs
| Lexical Set | en | RP | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| FACE | eI |
eɪ̯ | eɪ̯ |
| PRICE | aI |
aɪ̯ | aɪ̯ |
| CHOICE | OI |
ɔɪ̯ | ɔɪ̯ |
| GOAT | oU |
əʊ̯ | oʊ̯ |
| MOUTH | aU |
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 | en | RP | GenAm |
|---|---|---|---|
| BATH | aa |
ɑː | æ |
| CLOTH | O2 |
ɒ | ɔ |
References
- Wikipedia. Lexical set. 2017. Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).