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In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants (stops, affricates, and fricatives).
The initial consonant in the word finger in traditional dialects of England. Initial fricative voicing is a process that occurs in some traditional accents of the English West Country , where the fricatives /f/ , /θ/ , /s/ and /ʃ/ are voiced to [v] , [ð] , [z] and [ʒ] when they occur at the beginning of a word.
When a consonant cluster ending in a stop is followed by another consonant or cluster in the next syllable, the final stop in the first syllable is often elided. This may happen within words or across word boundaries. Examples of stops that will often be elided in this way include the [t] in postman and the [d] in cold cuts or band saw. [41]
The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English, plus /x/, whose distribution is more limited. Fortis consonants are always voiceless, aspirated in syllable onset (except in clusters beginning with /s/ or /ʃ/), and sometimes also glottalized to an extent in syllable coda (most likely to occur with /t/, see T-glottalization), while lenis consonants are ...
The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalisation of velar consonants in many positions. For historical developments prior to the Old English period, see Proto-Germanic language.
There was a contrast between short consonant sounds, such as the /n/ in banan 'slayers', and long consonant sounds, such as the /nn/ in bannan 'summon': long consonants were represented in writing with double consonant letters. [3] Long consonants are also called geminate consonants (or just "geminates") from the Latin word geminus 'twin ...
Vowels other than /a/ are often syncopated in unstressed word-internal syllables, especially in contact with liquid consonants or, to a lesser extent, nasal consonants or /s/. Cf. /ˈanɡulus, ˈkalida, ˈspekulum/ > /ˈanɡlʊs, ˈkalda, ˈspɛklu/. [35] In a few words, unstressed initial syllables followed by /r/ experience syncope. Cf.
The history of the merger dates back to two Middle English phonemes: the long vowel /oː/ (which shoot traces back to) and the short vowel /u/ (which put traces back to). As a result of the Great Vowel Shift , /oː/ raised to /uː/ , which continues to be the pronunciation of shoot today.