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A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below:
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 |
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/).
Unlike General American which is firmly rhotic, pronouncing the r sound in all environments, including after vowels, such as in pearl, car, and court, [1] [2] 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. [3]
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]. [4]
After alveolar consonants /tj/, /dj/, /nj/, and optionally /sj/ and /lj/ [5] (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]. [6]
/h/ may be voiced ([ɦ]) between two vowel sounds.
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 [8] | 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:] |
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)
|
|
|
|
|
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 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/
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".
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.
father set | palm set | cot set | cloth set | thought set |
---|---|---|---|---|
father, spa, ah | alms, balm, calm, palm, psalm, qualm [10] | 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.
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".
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)].
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] [11] (ⓘ) | [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] |
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.
The vowel in look is pronounced as [ʊ], and like the moon vowel also has protruded rounded lips.
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. [12] Most American dialects use the SEAT vowel [i:].
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.
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].
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 |
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. [13] 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] [12] | marry set [æɹ] [12] | merry set [ɛɹ] [12] |
---|---|---|
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.
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.
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". (ⓘ)
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], [14] whereas "organ" is pronounced with two syllables [ˈɔːɡ(ə)n]. [15]
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.
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close-mid | eɪ̯ | oʊ̯ |
Open-mid | ɔɪ̯ | |
Open | aɪ̯ | ɑʊ̯ |
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | ɪə̯ | ʊə̯ |
Open-mid | ɛə̯ | ɔə̯ |
Closing Diphthongs | ||||
Example | General American | Mid-Atlantic | Received Pronunciation | |
---|---|---|---|---|
bay | /eɪ/ | [eɪ~ɛ̝ɪ] ⓘ [17] | [eɪ] (ⓘ) | [eɪ~ɛɪ] (ⓘ) |
buy | /aɪ/ | [äɪ] ⓘ [18] | [aɪ] (ⓘ) | [aɪ] (ⓘ) |
bite | [äɪ~ɐɪ~ʌɪ] [19] | |||
boy | /ɔɪ/ | [ɔɪ~oɪ] ⓘ [17] | [ɔɪ] (ⓘ) | [ɔɪ] (ⓘ) |
beau | /oʊ/ | [oʊ~ɔʊ~ʌʊ] ⓘ [18] [20] [21] | [oʊ] (ⓘ) | [əʊ~ɛʊ~ɒʊ~ɔʊ] (ⓘ) (older: [oʊ]) |
bough | /aʊ/ | [aʊ~æʊ] ⓘ [17] | [ɑʊ] (ⓘ) | [aʊ] |
Centering diphthongs - stressed | ||||
Example | General American | Mid-Atlantic | RP | |
bar | /ɑːr/ | [ɑɚ~ɑɹ] ⓘ [17] | [ɑːə] (ⓘ) [ɑːɚ] (ⓘ) | [ɑː] [22] |
beer | /ɪər/ | [iɚ~ɪɚ] ⓘ [17] | [ɪə] (ⓘ) [ɪɚ] (ⓘ) | [ɪə~ɪː] |
bear | /eər/ | [ɛɚ] ⓘ [17] | [ɛə] (ⓘ) [ɛɚ] (ⓘ) | [ɛə~ɛː] |
boor | /ʊər/ | [ʊɚ~oɹ~ɔɚ] ⓘ | [ʊə] (ⓘ) [ʊɚ] (ⓘ) | [ʊə~ɔː] |
boar | /ɔər/ | [ɔə] (ⓘ) [ɔɚ] (ⓘ) | [ɔə~ɔː] |
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Open | aɪ̯ə | ɑʊ̯ə |
Example | Mid-Atlantic |
---|---|
tire | [aɪə] |
tower | [ɑʊə] |
lower | [oʊə] |
layer | [eɪə] |
lawyer | [ɔɪə] |
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] ⓘ.
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.
Words in the cure lexical set are pronounced as /ʊr/, [23] as in conservative American and British dialects.
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]. [24]
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] (Audio file "en-ma-burr.ogg" not found) [ɜːɹ] (Audio file "en-ma-burr-rr.ogg" not found) |
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.
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.
Example | General American | Mid-Atlantic | Received Pronunciation [22] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
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] |
Mid-Atlantic, like conservative dialects of American English and Received pronunciation, distinguishes the vowels in Cure and Force. [25]
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