Vowels

Monophthongs
Front Central Back
long short long short long short
Close iː ɪ uː ʊ
Mid e ɜː ə ɔː
Open æ ʌ ɑː ɒ

Diphthongs Triphthongs
Closing
/aɪ/ [aɪə]
/eɪ/ [eɪə]
/ɔɪ/ [ɔɪə]
/aʊ/ [aʊə]
/əʊ/ [əʊə]
Centring
/eə/
/ɪə/
/ʊə/

[ɑː] [æ] [ʌ] [e] [ɜː] [iː] [ɪ] [ɔː] [ɒ] [uː] [ʊ] [ə] [i] [u]

"a" "a" "u" "e" "ir" "ee" "i" "or" "o" "oo" "oo" All "y" "u"
"ar" "o" "ea" "ur" "ea" "y" "a" "a" "ue" "u" "ie"
"au" "oo" "ai" "er" "ie" "e" "ou" "ou" "wo" "ou" "i"
"ah" "ear" "i" "au" "ew" "e"
"al" "e" "aw" "u"
"oa" "ui"
"al"

[aɪ] [eɪ] [ɔɪ] [aʊ] [əʊ] [ɪə] [eə] [ʊə] [aɪə] [eɪə] [ɔɪə] [ɑʊə] [əʊə]

"igh" "a" "oi" "ou" "oa" "ear" "are" "oor" "ire" "ayer" "oya" "ower" "ower"
"ie" "oy" "ow" "ow" "eer" "air" "ure" "yre" "eyer" "oyer" "our"
"ai"
"uy" "o" "ier" "eir" "our" "ier" "eyor" "oyou" "owar"
"y" "ay" "ere" "ere" "iro"
"ea" "oir"

Labio- Post- Labio-

Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
dental alveolar velar
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Nasal m n ŋ
Approximant r j w
Lateral l
 [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ] [j] [s] [z] [w]

"sh" "s" "ch" "j" "y" "s" "z" "w"

"s" "ge" "tch" "g" "eu" "c" "se" "wh"
"ss" "t" "ge" "ew" "ss "zz" "u"
"t" "d" "ue" "x"
"ch" "dg" "u"
"c" "ui"

Connected speech processes

1) Assimilation
a) Regressive or anticipatory
1. [t] [d] [n] → [p] [b] [m] when followed by [p] [b] [m]
2. [t] [d] [n] → [k] [ɡ] [ŋ] when followed by [k] [ɡ]
3. [s] [z] → [ʃ] [ʒ] when followed by [ʃ] [ʒ] or [j]
b) Progressive
[n] preceded by a bilabial or a velar consonant.
1) loss of the schwa in [ən] → syllabic [n]
2) assimilation of the place of articulation of the syllabic [n] to the place of articulation
(bilabial or velar) of the preceding consonant.
c) Coalescence
[t] + [j] → [ʧ]
[d] + [j] → [ʤ]
2) Elision
Elision of [t] and [d].
1) [t] [d] in final position and preceded by a consonant of the same voicing.
2) the following word must start with any consonant, except for [h].
3) Liaison

a) Linking -r
Words ending with “r” or “re” in the spelling are pronounced with final [r] if the next word
begins with a vowel.
b) Intrusive -r
- Not possible after high vowels ([iː], [ɪ], [uː] or [ʊ]) or diphthongs ending with a high vowel
(closing diphthongs ending with [ɪ] or [ʊ]).
- Common after [ə], [ɔː] and [ɑː] and also after centring diphthongs (ending with [ə])

Stress
• A phrase has two stresses, a primary one on the last word and a pre-primary one on the first word. A compound
tends to receive only one stress on the first element.
Exceptions: compounds with double stress
1. Names of people.
2. Names of places (except those ending in street).
3. Names of institutions (including hotels and restaurants).
4. Compounds in which the first element is an ingredient (except those ending in juice and cake).
5. Compounds in which the first element indicates the time (except those ending in time).
6. Compounds functioning as adverbs.

• When three stressed content words are produced one after the other, the on in the middle tends to lose the
stress.
Weak forms

• Strong forms → words in isolation or emphasized.

• Weak form → in connected speech. Produced with weak vowels: [ə] [i] and [u]. When the weak
forms ends with a consonant, [ɪ] is used instead of [i].

Not all monosyllabic function words have a weak form:

of [ɒf] on [ɒn] or [ɔː] my [maɪ] out [aʊt] those [ðəʊz]

• Contexts in which function words tend not to appear in its weak form.
1. Auxiliary and modal verbs at the end of the sentence
2. Modal verbs at the beginning of a sentence, Auxiliary and modal verbs in contracted negative form.
3. Prepositions located at the end of the sentence
4. Grammatical category or the meaning of the word.

Word Strong Weak

have (has, had) main verb auxiliary verb
there adverb existential form
that Demonstrative / adjective /pronoun relative pronoun / conjunction
some Pronoun / adjective (meaning algunos) Adjective (meaning: unos)