Reading 2 Wells sets and systems Vowel system

Reading 2 Wells: sets and systems

Vowel system of RP; Wells 119 Vowel system of Gen. Am; Wells 120

RP Wells 120 Gen. Am Wells 121 -2

p. 125

p. 127

p. 131 -2

Importance of lexical sets for vowels • In Phonetics (Hljóð og Orð) in the first year we equated the KEYWORD of the lexical set with the vowel. comm. A (“Schwa”) • cranberry pie TRAP DRESS PRICE

Importance of lexical sets for vowels • These keywords for lexical sets were first developed by Wells in his Accents of English (1982) • They are conceived in a slightly different way from our use of them in 1 st year Phonetics • They now refer not to fixed vowels, but to sets of words which may have different vowels in different accents.

Importance of lexical sets for vowels • Father started walking along the path PALM START THOUGHT LOT BATH

Importance of lexical sets for vowels • A lexical set is a set of words which regularly has the same vowel-sound in a single accent. (TRAP in S. England) • If the same set exists in another accent, it may have a different vowel. (TRAP in N. England, TRAP in N. America) • Sets may differ between accents. “Parent” is a SQUARE word in Britain, but a TRAP word in N. America

Importance of lexical sets for vowels • There may be different ways of looking at (or analysing) the same data: • We could say that, in the N. of England, the STRUT words all had the same vowel as the FOOT words – • or that there is no set of STRUT words in the N. of England – they all belong to the FOOT set.