Category Archives: Vowels

What is SSBE?

Posted on 2024/12/04 by swphonetics

SSBE (Standard SBE) was first mentioned in the IPA Handbook referring to RP, like Windsor Lewis’ GB. But since then It has been used for Home Countes SBE (formerly Estuary English, having spread across London to Bucks or Northants from … Continue reading →

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Perturbation theory

Posted on 2018/03/04 by swphonetics

150th Anniversary of the Bell Vowel Model 5 September 2017 saw the 150th anniversary of Alexander Melville Bell’s vowel model. However innovative it may have seemed, his notion of continuous backness and the class of central vowels were purely hypothetical … Continue reading →

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Is cardinal 4 front or central?

Posted on 2017/12/01 by swphonetics

150th Anniversary of the Bell Vowel Model 4 September 2017 saw the 150th anniversary of Alexander Melville Bell’s vowel model.  Daniel Jones’ cardinal vowel system was a modification of Bell’s model, especially reducing Bell’s three low vowels to two. Was … Continue reading →

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Feeling tongue positions

Posted on 2017/08/15 by swphonetics

150th Anniversary of the Bell Vowel Model 3 September 2017 saw the 150th anniversary of Alexander Melville Bell’s vowel model. Within ten years, it was claimed that Bell’s tongue positions could be felt by muscular sensations. Just ten years after … Continue reading →

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The double-resonance theory

Posted on 2017/08/13 by swphonetics

150th Anniversary of the Bell Vowel Model 2 September 2017 saw the 150th anniversary of Alexander Melville Bell’s vowel model, that was briefly explained by the double-resonance theory. The single-resonance theory was the standard for a couple of hundred years … Continue reading →

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Tongue height and backness

Posted on 2017/08/11 by swphonetics

150th Anniversary of the Bell Vowel Model 1 September 2017 saw the 150th anniversary of Alexander Melville Bell’s (1867) vowel model, with its unique innovation of tongue locations between front and back, what he actually called the location of a … Continue reading →

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New article

Posted on 2017/02/03 by swphonetics

A spectrographic study of sound changes in nineteenth century Kent. 2017. In Tsudzuki, Masaki & Masaki Taniguchi (eds), A Festschrift for Jack Windsor Lewis on the occasion of his 90th Birthday 215-246, Journal of the English Phonetic Society of Japan … Continue reading →

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19th century sound change in Kent: LOT

Posted on 2016/12/15 by swphonetics

The distribution of LOT pronunciations by the seven informants. Most still had [a~ɑ]-like earlier pronunciations (O). Only two had as yet acquired the new pronunciation [ɔ] (N). The earlier 19th century popular pronunciation in Kent for LOT was [a~ɑ]. The … Continue reading →

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19th century sound change in Kent: MOUTH

Posted on 2016/12/10 by swphonetics

The distribution of MOUTH pronunciations by the eight informants. Four informants had acquired the new pronunciation [æɒ], [æ:] (N) or the partially new form [æʉ] (P). Four informants still had the earlier pronunciation [ɛʉ] (O). Alexander Ellis (1889, On Early … Continue reading →

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19th century sound change in Kent: rhoticity

Posted on 2016/12/06 by swphonetics

The distribution of rhoticity by the eight informants: four had the earlier fully rhotic pronunciation (O), one was partially rhotic (P), while three had acquired the new non-rhotic pronunciation (N). The map shows that four informants still had the older … Continue reading →

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