Vowels That Change During Themselves
A monophthong holds one quality throughout. In contrast, a diphthong glides from one vowel position towards another within a single syllable.
RP is conventionally analysed with eight diphthongs, divided into two groups:
| Group | Count | Movement | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closing | 5 | Towards a close vowel | face, price, choice, goat, mouth |
| Centring | 3 | Towards schwa | near, square, cure |
Centring diphthongs arose in non-rhotic accents when historical /r/ was lost. Rhotic accents such as General American never developed them.
Schwa and Reduction
Schwa is the mid-central vowel heard in about and sofa. It is defined by three key facts:
- It is the most frequent vowel in connected speech.
- It occurs only in unstressed syllables.
- It is what full vowels become when stress is lost.
Weak Forms and Rhythm
Weak forms apply reduction to function words such as to and can. Connected English speech uses these reduced forms by default.
English is traditionally called stress-timed, meaning stresses recur at roughly equal intervals. This contrasts with syllable-timed languages, where each syllable takes equal time.
Phonetic measurements show this distinction is actually a gradient continuum rather than a strict dichotomy. English rhythm relies on heavy vowel reduction rather than perfectly equal timing.
Common pitfall: treating reduction as sloppiness. In English, reduction is systematic and helps listeners identify the stress pattern.