User:XSAMPA/Comparison of Mid-Atlantic accent and American English

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Consonants

A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below:

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m				n						ŋ
Stop	p	b			t	d					k	ɡ
Affricate							tʃ	dʒ
Fricative	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ					h
Approximant						l		ɹ		j	(ʍ)	w

Wine-whine distinction

The Mid-Atlantic accent lacks the Wine–whine merger: The consonants spelled w and wh are pronounced differently; words spelled with wh are pronounced as "hw" (/ʍ/).

Non-rhoticity

Unlike General American which is firmly rhotic, pronouncing the r sound in all environments, including after vowels, such as in pearl, car, and court, in Mid-Atlantic /r/ is only pronounced when it is immediately followed by a vowel sound. Where GA pronounces /r/ before a consonant and at the end of an utterance, Mid-Atlantic either has nothing (if the preceding vowel is /ɔː/) or has a schwa instead (the resulting sequences are diphthongs or triphthongs). Similarly, where GA has r-coloured vowels (/ɚ/ or /ɝ/, as in cupboard or bird), Mid-Atlantic has plain vowels /ə/ or /ɜː/. Linking R is used, but intrusive R is not permitted.

Pronunciation of T

T is pronounced as a glottal stop (transcribed as: [ʔ]) only if it is followed by a consonant. Thus mountain and grateful are often pronounced [ˈmæʊnʔn̩] and [ˈgɹeɪʔfɫ̩] , respectively. Otherwise, it is pronounced as a "t". In most American dialects, it is also pronounced as a glottal stop if it comes before a syllabic nasal such as in button [ˈbʌ̈ʔn] , and sometimes at the end of a word, as in what [wʌ̈ʔ]. /t/ and /d/ become an alveolar flap, written [ɾ] , which is perceived as a "d" sound between vowels or liquids (l and r), as in water [ˈwɑɾɚ] (), party [ˈpʰɑɹɾi] , community [k(ə)ˈmjunəɾi] . The flap may even appear at word boundaries, as in put it on. When the /t/ comes after an /n/, some American speakers pronounce it as a nasalized flap that may become indistinguishable from /n/, so winter [ˈwɪɾ̃ɚ] may be pronounced similarly or identically to winner [ˈwɪnɚ].

Preservation of yod

After alveolar consonants /tj/, /dj/, /nj/, and optionally /sj/ and /lj/ (as in tune, due, new, pursue, evolution), the "y" sound /j/ is preserved in Mid-Atlantic, as in Received Pronunciation. Most American dialects drop it in many words, for example, new ("nyoo") /njuː/ becomes ("noo") [nu̟ː], duke /djuːk/ becomes [du̟ːk], and tube /tjuːb/ becomes [tʰu̟ːb].

H voicing

/h/ may be voiced ([ɦ]) between two vowel sounds.

Vowels

Monophthongs of Mid-Atlantic English. From Fletcher (2013, p. 25)

Monophthongs

	Front		Central		Back
	long	short	long	short	long	short
Close	iː	ɪ			uː	ʊ
Mid		e	ɜː	ə*	ɔː	o*
Near-open		æ		ʌ
Open		a			ɑː	ɒ

* only occurs in unstressed syllables

Open to Open-mid Monophthongs
Example	IPA	Western American	General American	Inland Northern	New York	Boston	Mid-Atlantic	Received Pronunciation
bath	/ɑː/	[æ]	[æ~ɛə~eə] ()		[æ]	[ɛə~æ~ä(:)]	[a] ()	[ɑː]
ban, tram	/æ/	[æ~ɛə~eə]			[ɪə~eə~ɛə]	[eə~ɛə]	[æ] ()	[æ~a]
bat	/æ/	[æ]			[æ]	[ɛə~æ]
father, ah, spa	/ɑː/	[ɑ]() or [ɒ] ()	[ɑ] ()	[ɑ]() or [a] ()	[ä]	[ä(:)]	[ɑː] ()	[ɑː]
lot, bother, wasp	/ɒ/					[ɒː~ɑː]	[ɒ] ()	[ɒ]
boss, dog, off			[ɒ] ()	[ɒ] () or [ɑ] ()	[ɔə~oə~ʊə]			[ɒ~ɔː]
bought, all, water	/ɔː/						[ɔː] ()	[ɔː~o:]

Lexical sets

sorry	florida	glory
borrow, morrow, sorry, sorrow, tomorrow	corridor, coronation, euphoric, foreign, forest, Florida, historic, horrible, majority, minority, moral, orange, Oregon, origin, porridge, priority, quarantine, quarrel, sorority, warranty, warren, warrior, Warrington	aura, boring, choral, deplorable, flooring, flora, glory, hoary, memorial, menorah, Moorish, oral, pouring, scorer, storage, story, Tory, warring
	Can be either: orient, orientation

A commonly used system of lexical sets, due to John C. Wells, is presented below; for each set, the corresponding phonemes are given for Mid-Atlantic (first column) and General American (second column)

TRAP æ BATH a æ PALM ɑː ɑː LOT ɒ CLOTH ɔː THOUGHT ɔː

KIT ɪ FLEECE iː DRESS ɛ STRUT ʌ FOOT ʊ GOOSE uː

FACE eɪ PRICE aɪ CHOICE ɔɪ GOAT oʊ MOUTH aʊ NURSE ɜː(r) ɜːr

START ɑː(r) ɑːr NORTH ɔː(r) ɔːr FORCE ɔːr, oʊr NEAR ɪə(r) ɪr SQUARE eə(r) ɛr CURE ʊə(r) ʊr

COMMA ə LETTER ə(r) ər HAPPY ɪ i

Distinctions

The Mid-Atlantic accent distinguishes more open to open-mid monophthongs than both American dialects and British Received Pronunciation. The vowel in father [ɑ:]() is distinguished from the vowel in cot [ɒ] (), which is distinguished from the vowel in caught [ɔː] (). The vowel in trap [æ] () is distinguished from the vowel in bath [a] () (a compromise vowel in between General American [æ] and British Received Pronunciation [ɑː]), which is distinguished from the vowel in cart [ɑː] (the same vowel as in father [ɑ:] ()).

Bath-Trap split

bath set /a/	trap set /æ/	bank set /æ/	angel set
example, sample, advantage, aunt, can't*, chant, grant, plant, slant, vantage, command, demand, Flanders, remand, reprimand, slander, avalanche, blanch, branch, ranch*, stanch, stanchion, answer*, chance, chancellor, dance, enhance, France, lance, lancet, prance, stance, trance, transfer (trans-), pyjamas	champion, rampant, stamp*, amber, pamphlet, ant*, lantern, phantom, rant, scant, abandon, grand, random, franchise, evangelist, phalange, bank ("bench/financial institution"), canker, flank, plank, ranco(u)r, sanctity, anger*, angle, strangle, ancestor, finance, ransom, romance, salmon	bank, thank, plank, dank, sank, rang, rank, flank	chamber, angel, arrange, change, danger, grange, mange, range, strange, ancient

Unlike in General American, in some words, the "a" vowel (as in bath) is pronounced as [a] () in the "bath" set, and as [æ] () in the "trap" set. The list of words which use [a] rather than [æ] must simply be learned, because the spelling of the word does not indicate which vowel to use. Less commonly used words are more likely to be part of the trap set, as well with words with more than one syllables. The change very rarely took place in open syllables, except where closely derived from another word with /a/. Thus passing is closely derived from pass, and so has /a/; passage is not so closely derived, and thus has /æ/ /pæsɪdʒ/

Bath vowel

Unlike Received Pronunciation, instead of the father vowel [ɑː], or the General American [æ], the compromise vowel [a] () is used for the "broad A" (the "pass" vowel) because it sounds midway between [ɑː] and [æ] () which is contrasted with the father vowel [ɑː]. Thus the Mid-Atlantic has an additional phoneme compared to Received Pronunciation. The [a] vowel does not exist in many varieties of American English. It is used sporadically by speakers with the California vowel shift or the Canadian Shift for the "map" vowel, and sporadically for speakers in the Midwest with the Northern Cities Vowel Shift for the "mop" vowel. It is the same as the [a] in the Spanish word "casa".

Trap vowel

Unlike most varieties of American English, the vowel sound in the "trap" /æ/ set does not undergo Æ tensing before nasals (n, m, ng) or other consonants, and does not raise before [g]. Thus, "bad", "bag", "ban", and "bank" all have the same vowel. This can be learned by practicing saying [æ] without anticipating the following sound and then adding the consonant. Unlike most dialects of English, the Mid-Atlantic accent does not nasalize vowels before nasal consonants.

Ah, short o and aw vowels

father set	palm set	cot set	cloth set	thought set
father, spa, ah	alms, balm, calm, palm, psalm, qualm	cot, tot, sot, dot, not	cloth, off, often, long, dog, chocolate	shawm, daunt, flaunt*, gaunt*, gauntlet, haunt, jaunt*, saunter, taunt, vaunt, jaundice, laundry, Maundy, haunch, launch, paunch, staunch, launce

Words in the cloth set are followed by the fricatives /f/, /θ/ and /s/. In American English the raising was extended to the environment before /ŋ/ and /ɡ/, and in a few words before /k/ as well, giving pronunciations like [lɒːŋ] for long, [dɒːɡ] for dog and [ˈtʃɒːklᵻt] for chocolate.

father set [ɑː]

The "ah" [ɑː] vowel as in "ah" or "father" is pronounced without any lip rounding, and is held for twice as long as the short o vowel in words such as "cot", Unlike most American dialects, it is distinguished from the vowel used in "cot", because in the Mid-Atlantic accent the "cot" vowel is rounded and pronounced for half the duration. Most American dialects use this same vowel in both "father", and "cot".

cot and cloth sets [ɒ]

Words spelled with "o" as in "cot" [ˈkʰɒt] () are pronounced with rounded lips. "Cot" is pronounced with the same vowel that is used in "cloth", and "off" (but not caught [ˈkʰɔːt] () which uses a different vowel in the Mid-Atlantic accent.) Most American dialects on the other hand either use one vowel for the cot set (varies between [ɑ(:)] and [ä]), and merge the cloth vowel with the thought vowel (varies between [ɒ(:)] and [ɑ(:)] , or merge all three sets together, making no distinction whatsoever between the vowel used in cot, cloth, and thought, in which case the vowel used can vary between [ä], [ɑ(:)], [ɒ(:)] and, [ɔ(ː)].

thought set [ɔː]

Words spelled with "aw" (as in caw), "au" (as in "caught" [ˈkʰɔːt] (), and sometimes "ou" (as in "thought") are pronounced with the [ɔ:] vowel, and thus are distinguished from words like "cot". This vowel is pronounced with the back of the tongue higher in the mouth than the "cot" vowel, and the lips are rounded. It is also pronounced for a longer duration. Words spelled with an "o" such as "cloth", and "off" do not use this vowel.

Other Monophthongs
Example		General American	Mid-Atlantic	Received Pronunciation
obey (unstressed)	/ə/	[ə], [oʊ]	[o] ()	[ə] or [əʊ]
met, dress, bread	/ɛ/	[ɛ] ()	[ɛ] ()	[ɛ]
about, syrup	/ə/	[ə]	[ə]	[ə]
kit, pink, tip	/ɪ/	[ɪ] ()	[ɪ] ()	[ɪ]
beam, chic	/iː/	[i(ː)] ()	[iː] ()	[iː]
happy, parties	/i/	[i] ()	[ɪ] ()	[ɪ~i]
muffin, wasted	/ɨ/	[ɪ̈~ɪ~ə]	[ɪ]	[ɪ~ə]
bus, flood	/ʌ/	[ʌ~ɐ]	[ʌ]	[ʌ]
put, could	/ʊ/	[ʊ]	[ʊ]	[ʊ]
goose, moon	/uː/	[u̟ː~ʊu~ʉu~ɵu]	[u]	[u~ʉ]
tune, dune, news	/juː/	[(j)u̟ː~(j)ʊu~(j)ʉu~(j)ɵu]	[juː]	[juː~jʉ]

Moon vowel [u]

Protruded rounding (example 1)

Protruded rounding (example 2)

The "oo" vowel as in "moon", is pronounced with protruded rounded lips. It is pronounced the same as the vowel in the Spanish word "un". The corners of the mouth are drawn together and the lips protrude like a tube, with their inner surface visible. The tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth, as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction. American dialects such as California English, Southern American English, and many other American dialects use less lip rounding and the back of the tongue is further forward in the mouth, however some American dialects such as Inland Northern American English have the more conservative rounded vowel.

Look vowel [ʊ]

The vowel in look is pronounced as [ʊ], and like the moon vowel also has protruded rounded lips.

Happy vowel [ɪ]

Mid-Atlantic English lacks "happy tensing". That means that the vowel /i/ at the end of words such as "happy" ['hæpɪ] (), "Charlie", "sherry", "coffee" is pronounced with the SIT vowel [ɪ], rather than the SEAT vowel [i:]. This also extends to "i", "y", and sometimes "e", "ie", and "ee" in other positions in words. For example, the sit vowel is used in remark, and because, serious, variable. Most American dialects use the SEAT vowel [i:].

Mirror-nearer distinction

mirror set	ear set [ɪə]
mirror, Sirius	ear, near,nearer, dear, fear, beer, serious

In many American dialects, words in the ear set are pronounced with either the sit vowel [ɪ] or the seat vowel [i]. However in the Mid-Atlantic accent, they are pronounced with the sit vowel [ɪ] followed by a schwa [ə] (pronounced like the "e" in the word "the"): [ɪə]. Thus ear is pronounced as ['ɪə]. "Nearer" is pronounced as ['nɪəɹə].

On the other hand, words in the In mirror set are pronounced with the sit vowel [ɪ] with no schwa [ə]. The word "mirror" is pronounced as ['mɪɹə] (mih-ruh), rather than as one syllable ['mɪɹ], as it is pronounced in some American dialects.

/ɛ/ and /ɪ/

Like most American dialects and Received pronunciation, the Mid-Atlantic accent distinguishes the vowels in "pin" and "pen" and thus pronounces /ɛ/ before nasals as [ɛ], and /ɪ/ as [ɪ].

Lennon-Lenin distinction

The vowels in "Lennon" and "Lenin" are distinguished. "Lennon" has the vowel in the [ə], and Lennin has a shorter version of the vowel in "it", often transcribed as [ɨ]

[ə]	[ɪ]
Rosa's	roses
abbot	rabbit
Lennon	Lenin

Mary-marry-merry distinction

In the Mid-Atlantic accent, the vowels in "Mary", "marry", and "merry" are all distinct. On the other hand, General American uses the same vowel [ɛ], in all three words. 57% of all Americans merge all three vowels, and the majority of the rest merge two of them. In the Mid-Atlantic accent words in the Mary set are pronounced with the vowel in "met", followed by the vowel in "uh": [ɛəɹ]; words in the "marry" set use the vowel in "mat" [æ]. Words in the "merry" set, like in most American dialects, use the vowel in "met" [ɛɹ].

Mary set [ɛəɹ]	marry set [æɹ]	merry set [ɛɹ]
Mary, Sarah, compare, parent, Cary (surname). dairy, fairly, fair, dare, square, overbearing, repair, scary	marry, arable, arid, baron, barrel, barren, carry, carrot, chariot, charity, clarity, Harry, Larry, marry, marriage, paragon, parry, parody, parrot, arrow, arrogance, carol	merry, Terry, Kerry, ferry, terrible,
vary, variable, various	marionette, maritime, parish,	very
compare	comparative, comparison
	Gary, Karen, Cary (first name)

In general, words containing -are (not including the word "are"), -ary, -air, ear (not including the word "ear") are in the Mary set. Otherwise an "a" followed by two rs, or an "a" followed by one r (not including the word "are") followed by another vowel besides "y" or "e", is part of the marry set and in the Mid-Atlantic accent is pronounced with the vowel in "mat". There are some exceptions, especially with names.

Distinctions before /l/

The "up" vowel [ʌ] is used in "gulf", "hull", "dull". This can be learned by practicing saying the "uh" vowel [ʌ] without anticipating the following sound and then adding the "L". The vowel in "look" [ʊ] is used for the "bull" vowel. The Some American dialects use other vowels for some of the words in this set.

• /ʊl/ and /ol/ (bull vs bowl)
• /ʌl/ and /ɔ:l/ (hull vs hall)
• /ʊl/ and /ʌl/ (bull vs hull)
• /ʌl/ and /ol/ (hull vs hole)

Hurry-furry distinction

hurry set	furry set
hurry, turret, thorough [ˈθʌɹə], current, curry	fur+ry, blur+ry, stir

Like some Northeastern American dialects, the vowel in words like "hurry" is the same vowel in up, and thus "hurry" does not rhyme with "furry". ()

Oregon-organ distinction

In some American dialects, an unstressed /ɹəC/ or /ɹɪC/ can elide the /ə/ to become /rC/ (where capital "C" represents a consonant), deleting a syllable as a result. The most common is /ɹəɹ/ or /ɹɪɹ/ reducing to [ɹ] anywhere in a word. Other sequences of /ɹəC/ usually reduce non-word-finally, producing possible homophones like coroner-corner, Morrigan-Morgan and Oregon-organ. In Mid-Atlantic, Oregon is pronounced with three syllables [ˈɒrɪɡ(ə)n], whereas "organ" is pronounced with two syllables [ˈɔːɡ(ə)n].

From-rum distinction

Most American dialects have replacd of the cot vowel with the strut vowel in most utterances of the words was, of, from, one, what, everybody, nobody, somebody, anybody, because. In the Mid-Atlantic accent, the "cloth" vowel is used in these words, except for "because" which uses the "caught" vowel.

Closing diphthongs

	Front	Back
Close-mid	eɪ̯	oʊ̯
Open-mid		ɔɪ̯
Open	aɪ̯	ɑʊ̯

Centering diphthongs

	Front	Back
Close	ɪə̯	ʊə̯
Open-mid	ɛə̯	ɔə̯

Closing Diphthongs
Example		General American	Mid-Atlantic	Received Pronunciation
bay	/eɪ/	[eɪ~ɛ̝ɪ]	[eɪ] ()	[eɪ~ɛɪ] ()
buy	/aɪ/	[äɪ]	[aɪ] ()	[aɪ] ()
bite		[äɪ~ɐɪ~ʌɪ]
boy	/ɔɪ/	[ɔɪ~oɪ]	[ɔɪ] ()	[ɔɪ] ()
beau	/oʊ/	[oʊ~ɔʊ~ʌʊ]	[oʊ] ()	[əʊ~ɛʊ~ɒʊ~ɔʊ] () (older: [oʊ])
bough	/aʊ/	[aʊ~æʊ]	[ɑʊ] ()	[aʊ]

Centering diphthongs - stressed
Example		General American	Mid-Atlantic	RP
bar	/ɑːr/	[ɑɚ~ɑɹ]	[ɑːə] () [ɑːɚ] ()	[ɑː]
beer	/ɪər/	[iɚ~ɪɚ]	[ɪə] () [ɪɚ] ()	[ɪə~ɪː]
bear	/eər/	[ɛɚ]	[ɛə] () [ɛɚ] ()	[ɛə~ɛː]
boor	/ʊər/	[ʊɚ~oɹ~ɔɚ]	[ʊə] () [ʊɚ] ()	[ʊə~ɔː]
boar	/ɔər/		[ɔə] () [ɔɚ] ()	[ɔə~ɔː]

Triphthongs

	Front	Back
Open	aɪ̯ə	ɑʊ̯ə

Example	Mid-Atlantic
tire	[aɪə]
tower	[ɑʊə]
lower	[oʊə]
layer	[eɪə]
lawyer	[ɔɪə]

Pronunciation of /aɪ/

In the Mid-Atlantic accent, there is no Canadian raising of /aɪ/. Thus both the /aɪ/ in "tight" and the /aɪ/ in "tide" are pronounced as [aɪ]. Canadian raising of /aɪ/ is very widespread both in Canada and in the US. In North American English, /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ usually begin in an open vowel, something like the vowel in alm [a] , but through raising they shift to a sound similar to the vowel in um: [ɐ] , [ʌ] , or sometimes even [ɜ] or [ə] .

Pronunciation of /ɑʊ/

In the Mid-Atlantic accent, there is no Canadian raising of /ɑʊ/. Thus both the /ɑʊ/ in "lout" and the /ɑʊ/ in "loud" are pronounced as [ɑʊ]. The diphthong starts with the [ɑ] vowel rather than [a] or [æ] which are very common in American dialects.

Cure-force distinction

Words in the cure lexical set are pronounced as /ʊr/, as in conservative American and British dialects.

Syllabic consonants

The final syllable in words such as "button" use syllabics [n̩] and [m̩], rather than a schwa or a schwi. Thus button is pronounced as [bʌtʰn̩] rather than [bʌtʰən].

Vowel contrasts before /ɹ/

	R in next syllable	R in same syllable
bat [bæt]	marry
bot [bɒt]	tomorrow
bought [bɔːt]	boring	bore
beau [boʊ]	hoarse	boar [ɔ:ə] () [ɔ:əɹ] ()
bah [bɑ:]	parry	bar [ɑːə] () [ɑːɹ] ()
bit [bɪt]	mirror	beer [ɪə] () [ɪɹ] ()
bee [bi:]	nearer
bet [bɛt]	berry	bear [ɛə] () [ɛɹ] ()
great [grɛɪt]	Mary
put [pʰʊt]		tour/boor [ʊə] () [ʊɹ] ()
boo [bu:]	touring
	furry	burr [ɜː] () [ɜːɹ] ()

pour pourable

tour touring cure-curing

Only five or six vowel contrasts are possible before a following /ɹ/ in the same syllable (bar, beer, bear, boor, boar, burr). However, more contrasts exist when the /r/ is not in the same syllable.

/ɑɹ/ and /ɔɹ/ before a vowel

The Mid-Atlantic accent pronounces /ɑɹV/ and /ɔɹV/ the same as in England and the eastern coastal USA. Most American dialects use [ɑɹ] only in a few words.

Polysyllabic words ending in -ary,-ery,-ory,-mony,-ative,-bury,-berry

Example		General American	Mid-Atlantic	Received Pronunciation
military	-ary	[ˌɛɹi]	[əɹɪ]	[əɹɪ~əɹi~ɹɪ~ɹi] or [ˌɛɹi]
	-ery
inventory	-ory	[ˌɔːri]
Canterbury	-bury	[ˌbɛɹi]	[bəɹɪ]	[bəɹɪ~ˌbɛɹi]
testimony	-mony	[ˌmoʊni]	[mənɪ]	[mənɪ~məni]
innovative	-ative	[ˌeɪtɪv]	[ətɪv~ˌeɪtɪv]	[ətɪv~ˌeɪtɪv]

Cure–force distinction

Mid-Atlantic, like conservative dialects of American English and Received pronunciation, distinguishes the vowels in Cure and Force.

External links

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