Practice question · True or false
General American is usually analysed with the same number of vowel phonemes as Received Pronunciation.
Hints
- Consider the centring diphthongs and the mergers.
- GA lacks the centring diphthongs and merges several contrasts.
Show the answer
False
Why
False. GA is generally given fewer vowels: it lacks RP's centring diphthongs, and many speakers have the cot–caught merger. The consonant inventories match almost exactly, which is why vowels are where descriptions of English accents diverge.
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