Transcribing English

Phonetics and the IPA

Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Transcribing English

"Transcribe English" has no single answer, because English is many accents. This course's convention (Chapter 1) is to name the accent every time. This chapter compares three: Received Pronunciation (RP), General American (GA) and Scottish English. It leans on the "lexical sets": a keyword such as KIT or FLEECE that stands for a whole class of words, so that accents can be compared vowel by vowel.

The idea in a box
To transcribe a word, first decide the accent, then find which lexical set the stressed vowel belongs to, then use that accent's symbol for the set. Consonants need checking too: rhoticity, flapping, [ʍ] and [x] differ by accent.

Vowels by Lexical Set

The table uses Wikipedia's articles on RP, General American and Scottish English. RP and GA symbols are phonemic (the slashes of Chapter 1); Scottish values are phonetic ranges from the page's table. Where a cell says "same as TRAP", the page says there is no distinction.

SetRPGeneral AmericanScottish English
KIT/ɪ//ɪ/[ɪ~e̠]
DRESS/e//ɛ/[ɛ~ɛ̝]
TRAP/æ//æ/[ä]
BATH/ɑː/ (BATH words with /æ/ are disputed)/æ/same as TRAP
LOT/ɒ//ɑ/ (merged with father; see below)[ɔ]
STRUT/ʌ//ʌ/[ʌ]
FOOT/ʊ//ʊ/[ʉ~u~ʏ]
FLEECE/iː//i/[i]
GOOSE/uː//u/not given on the page
FACE/eɪ//eɪ/[e]
GOAT/əʊ//oʊ/[o~oʊ]
PRICE/aɪ//aɪ/[ʌi, ai]
MOUTH/aʊ//aʊ/[ʌʉ]
CHOICE/ɔɪ//ɔɪ/[ɔe~oe~ɔi~ɔɪ~ɒɪ]
THOUGHT/ɔː//ɔ/ for some; merged with LOT for many[ɔ, ɒ]
Watch out: lexical-set labels are not words you must say
KIT, TRAP and the rest are just labels. The point is that the words in a set share one vowel in a given accent. When an accent merges two sets (as Scottish English does with TRAP and BATH), you simply use one symbol for both.

Consonants by Accent

FeatureRPGeneral AmericanScottish English
/r/ in the codanon-rhotic: /r/ occurs only before a vowelrhotic: pronounced in all spelled-r positions, as in pearl, car, forttypically pronounced in the coda; some non-rhotic varieties in Edinburgh and Glasgow
/r/ soundpostalveolar approximant [ɹ][ɹ̠] or retroflex [ɻ]approximant [ɹ], traditionally a flap [ɾ], rarely a trill [r]
/t/ and /d//t/ may take a preceding glottal stop syllable-finally; may be replaced by [ʔ] before a syllabic nasal (bitten)flapped [ɾ] between a vowel and an unstressed vowel or syllabic consonant: ladder and latter sound the samein colloquial speech [ʔ] may be an allophone of /t/ after a vowel
/l/dark [ɫ] in the syllable rhyme; some speakers vocalise it(not covered in this chapter's source summary)usually velarised, except in borrowings like glen
which / witchno [ʍ] mentionedwine–whine merger in most speakersdistinguished: [ʍ] vs [w]
/j/ after /n, t, d/most no longer keep /j/ after /n/ (news)yod-dropped in stressed syllables: new /nu/, duke /duk/(not covered)
/x/ (loch)marginalmarginalcommon in Gaelic and Scots borrowings

Mergers worth knowing

  • Cot–caught (GA): LOT and THOUGHT merge for many speakers, especially in the West; others keep them apart, especially in parts of the South and Great Lakes region.
  • Father–bother (GA): the source lists LOT words with the same vowel as father.
  • TRAP–BATH (Scottish): the page says there is no TRAP/BATH (or PALM) distinction in most varieties.
  • FOOT–GOOSE (some Scottish speakers): pull and pool are homophones.

Worked Examples

Using only the rules above, here are broad (phonemic) forms. These are my own applications of the rules, not forms quoted from a dictionary, so treat them as practice rather than reference.

// car RP /kɑː/ non-rhotic: no /r/ before silence GA /kɑɹ/ rhotic: r is pronounced Scottish /kar/ (r kept; the page treats it as [ɹ], [ɾ] or rarely [r]) // goat RP /ɡəʊt/ GA /ɡoʊt/ // ladder vs latter in GA ladder /ˈlæɾɚ/ flap latter /ˈlæɾɚ/ same flap: they sound the same
Note on sources
The vowel and consonant data come from Wikipedia's articles on Received Pronunciation, General American English and Scottish English; each page was read only up to its first 100,000 characters. The three-column layout and the worked examples are mine, as are the choice of Scottish /kar/ and the use of [ɚ] in ladder and latter (GA has an r-coloured schwa; the page lists [ɚ] for the NURSE vowel).

Try It Yourself

Exercise 1

For the GOAT set, give the RP, General American and Scottish values from the table. Then say what the three have in common and where they differ.

📄 View solution
Exercise 2

Explain why pearl and car differ between RP and General American, using the rhoticity rule. Which accent keeps the /r/?

📄 View solution
Exercise 3

In which accent are ladder and latter homophones, and why? Name another pair that merges in one of the three accents.

📄 View solution

Chapter 7 Quick Reference

  • Always name the accent; use lexical sets to compare vowels
  • RP is non-rhotic; General American and Scottish English keep /r/ in the coda
  • GA flaps /t, d/ between vowels (ladder = latter); Scottish keeps [ʍ] in which
  • Merging sets: GA cot–caught (variable), Scottish TRAP–BATH, some Scottish FOOT–GOOSE
Coming next
Phonetics and the IPA 8 moves from single words to connected speech, where sounds change at word boundaries.