Lesson 3 – Vowels /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/, /u/, /ʌ/, /ə/

In this lesson we’ll be continuing to learn the vowel sounds.

Review

Can you read the following sentences:

hi its sɪkstin ɛgz ɛvri wik
mɛri ɛn tɪm kɛn bi hæpi ɪn fræns
ɪz hi rɛdi tu it?

Review the American English phonetic chart:

And review the British English vowels:

Some of the symbols in these two charts are not official IPA symbols. That creates some confusion. Here is a chart comparing the vowels in American and British English. The ones marked in grey have either different sounds or different symbols.

The /ɑ/ sound

In British English this is written with two dots as /ɑː/ because it is a long sound. In American English sometimes it is long and sometimes it is short. Also note that in British English, words with “ar” in them are also pronounced /ɑː/. However, in American English we will study these in the /ɑr/ section.

Words

father, on, top, ma, dog, dock, cloth, Bob, mom

Comparison

hat, hot
an, on
Ma’am, mom
add, odd

Phrases

Tom ‘n Toms
on a log
odd or even

Story

Note the words that have the /ɑ/ sound. What are they?

The /ɔ/ sound

This sound is a little interesting in American English because not all Americans use it. Many replace it with the /ɑ/ sound (as you may have noticed in the video above).

The following map comes from this link. Some Americans say cot /kɑt/ and caught /kɔt/ differently while others say cot /kɑt/ and caught /kɑt/ the same.

Although the percentage of people who use the /ɔ/ sound is a slight majority (60%), it is interesting to note that it occurs more in regions that are known for non-standard American English (the south and east). That said, /ɔ/ is an accepted part of standard American English. Whether you use /ɔ/ or /ɑ/ is not very important. Most Americans will not notice the difference.

I will teach the /ɔ/ sound in this class, but in my natural dialect I am among those who don’t use it.