ENG.

510: FURTHER STUDIES IN PHONOLOGY

An Evaluation of the Description of the Phoneme System of Received

Pronunciation (RP) as provided by British Phonetician, A.C. Gimson.

4/4/2011

[This evaluation looks at the definition and development of the RP phoneme

system as described by A.C. Gimson. In addition, we shall examine the current
trends in the RP phonemes with emphasis on the relevance of A.C. Gimson’s
presentation of RP phonemes to the recent description or outlook of the ‘RP’
phoneme system.]
Introduction
Gimson defines a phoneme “as the smallest contrastive linguistic unit which
may bring about a change of meaning” (42). The semantic value of a phoneme
as discussed by Gimson differentiates a word from another but how do we
account for homophones like knew: new, see: sea, etc? No doubt distinguishing
phonemes helps in differentiating identical words especially when the difference
is in one phoneme as we find in minimal pairs (mat-bat, fan-van, bet-bat, site-
side, pin-bin, tin-pin, etc.), minimal set ([vowels –feat , fit, fate, foot, etc.],
[consonants big, rig, fig, dig, wig, etc.]). This ‘contrastive property’, according
to Yule, “is the basic operational test for determining the phonemes which exist
in a language” (55); this is because; they bring about a phoneme inventory in a
given language. Gimson distinguishes phonemes into different categories using
acoustic and phonetic descriptions

A much deeper definition will refer to a phoneme as an abstraction – the ideal

sound. This means it is a family of sounds in which each realization is an
allophone of a phoneme. The phoneme invariably is the target sound of which
all the different spoken versions are ‘tokens’ (Yule, 54). For example, the
phoneme /r/ is an abstract segment which can be realized in a number of ways
often indicated with the use of square brackets [r].

The RP and other Accents

RP – “Received Pronunciation” originally meant “that pronunciation which is
generally accepted or understood” or “that pronunciation accepted by the best
society”. It has for many years epitomized the “top end of the scale” of British
English accents. It remains that RP is often regarded as a “neutral” and often
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“correct” accent. It has been nicknamed “BBC English” (not anymore), “Public
School English”, “Standard English”, “the accent of the Royal Family (the
Queen’s English) and “Parliament”, “the Church of England”, “the High
Courts”, and other national institutions. Crystal in The Cambridge
Encyclopaedia of the English Language says these about the origin of RP;

The British phonetician Daniel S Jones was the first to codify the properties of RP. It
was not a label he much liked, as he explains in an Outline of English Phonetics
(1918):

I do not consider it possible at the present time to regard any special type as
'Standard' or as intrinsically 'better' than other types. Nevertheless, the type described
in this book is certainly a useful one. It is based on my own (Southern) speech, and is,
as far as I can ascertain, that generally used by those who have been educated at
'preparatory' boarding schools and the 'Public Schools'.... The term 'Received
Pronunciation'... is often used to designate this type of pronunciation. This term is
adopted here for want of a better.
(1960, 9th edn, p. 12)

The historical linguist H. C. Wyld also made much use of the term 'received' in A
Short History of English (1914):

It is proposed to use the term Received Standard for that form which I would probably
agree in considering the best, that form which has the widest currency and is heard
with practically no variation among speakers of the better class all over the country.
(1927, 3rd edn, p. 149)

The previous usage to which Jones refers can be traced back to the dialectologist A. J.
Ellis, in On Early English Pronunciation (1869):

In the present day we may, however, recognize a received pronunciation all over the
country ... It may be especially considered as the educated pronunciation of the
metropolis, of the court, the pulpit, and the bar. (p. 23)

Even then, there were signs of the future, for he goes on to say:

But in as much as all these localities and professions are recruited from the provinces,
there will be a varied thread of provincial utterance running through the whole.

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RP unlike in France or Italy was never created or enforced. Its growth can be
attributed to the increasing social mobility of the nineteenth century which gave
people a consciousness of “correctness” in writing and speech; hence, the need
to develop and propagate one accent –RP, thus increasing the tendency for other
dialects or accents of English to be suppressed.

Gimson observes that “there is a standard for comparison; and it is clear that
such a standard pronunciation does exist, although it has never been explicitly
imposed by any official body” (77). At this point we might have a pause to think
about the abstractness of the RP accent and it relevance to our study of English
Language. The RP is the standard all other forms of English Language subscribe
to for correctness. Its form in speech and orthography is somewhat abstract as a
thought can be expressed in several ‘correct’ (RP) coding. Through intuition
informed by education, experience and knowledge of the English Language, we
can ascertain the ‘correctness’ of an expression. This means that the abstractness
of the RP makes it vulnerable to influence(s) from other languages or dialects of
English Language it comes in contact with. The RP as an accent like any other
is not immune to change (though the earliest codified and scientifically
organized) suggests the living nature of any given language. What we have as
RP domesticated or taught to foreigners who wish to learn a British model is far
from the original RP. Gimson has given us the reason why we should accept RP
as a standard (to be subscribed to) in these words;
… there has existed in this country the notion that one kind of pronunciation
of English was preferable socially to others; one regional accent began to
acquire social prestige. For reasons of politics, commerce and the presence of
the Court, it was the pronunciation of the south-east of England and more
particularly to that of London region, that this prestige was attached (78).

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I will add that, the prescriptive nature of academics demands a standard for
which students must subscribe to. Although less than 3 per cent of the British
people speak it in a pure form today, we must approach RP with a universal
parameter giving it a worldwide garment. It is a well-developed accent that has
been adopted by many nationals. Thus, it will be appropriate if we refer to RP as
an accent which must be encouraged and not diluted for pragmatic reasons.
Credit must be accorded Gimson for describing the RP English phoneme system
modifying that of Daniel Jones’ (his predecessor). A comparison of his
description and that of Daniel Jones shows the synchronic approach to their
description; and so shall be our attempt in this paper. Where the current trends
are at par with Gimson’s submission of the RP, we shall observe.

We can also say that RP today has been greatly influenced by other accents like
General American English, Scottish English, Cockney, etc., which means, what
we call RP might wear a different look in time. There is an accent called
Estuary English which phoneticians say is the new face of RP. A view of its
distinctive features shows how eclectic and accommodating it is; it is said to be
the middle-ground between the very high lofty English and Cockney. Languages
influence one another, I believe accents influence more. This sociolinguistic
evaluation might take us out of the mark, but the point about the face of the
current RP is made. We would now focus on the English phonemes as presented
by A.C. Gimson with a critical evaluation on some phonemes.

REFLECTIONS ON GIMSON’S RP PHONEME INVENTORY

Below is an adapted diagram from Gimson on the 20 vowel RP
/i:/ Heed Feel Bead Pea
/ɪ / Hid Fill Bid Except
/e/ Head Fell Bed

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/æ/ Had Bad
/ɑ:/ Hard Bard Par
/ɒ/ Hod Bod
/ɔ:/ Hoard Fall Board Paw
/ᴜ / Hood Full
/ᴜ:/ Who’d Fool Booed Pooh
/˄/ Bud
/ɜ : / Heard Furl Bird Purr
/ә/ Accept
/ei/ Fail Bayed Pay
/ai/ Hide File Bide Pie
/ɔi/ Foil Buoyed
/әu/ Hoed Foal Bode Po
/aw/ How’d Foul Bowed Pow
/iә/ Beard
/eә/ Haired Bared Pair
/uә/ Poor
.

The RP Vowels
A total of twenty (20) vowels are ‘chiefly’ identified by Gimson, again
following the traditional inventory of 20 vowels phonemes of RP. These are
presented as twelve “relatively pure” vowels /i:, ɪ, e, æ, ˄, ɑ:, ɒ, ɔ:, ᴜ, ᴜ:, ɜ:, ә/
and eight “diphthongal vowel glides” /eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, әᴜ, aw, ɪә, eә, ᴜә/.

There is no doubt as to the complexity in the English vowel description system;

one cogent reason for its complex nature may be the mobile and flexible nature
of the tongue – its main articulator. This complexity can be understandable for a
foreign learner of the English Language, putting to account the ‘vocalic
background’ of the learner. This point is what Gimson himself admits when he
says the largest category of vowel system in the world’s language other than
English Language is usually five, six or seven (103). English Language has
about twenty vowel sounds each slightly differ from each other and each having
allophones. For example a critical evaluation of the articulation of these minimal
pairs [pin, bin, tin, grin] would reveal a slight distinction in each of the /i:/
phoneme represented in the words listed. This slight distinction is dependent on

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the consonantal environment they find themselves. This is how complex the
English vowel system can be.

The (Relatively) Pure Vowels

One might wonder how pure these vowels are considering Gimson’s use of the
word ‘relatively’. To be objective and credible, he treats each vowel phoneme
on five different levels of description;
i. Illustrations of the common spellings associated with each vowel
with words illustrating the main allophonic variants,
ii. articulatory description and assessment of quality in relation to the
cardinal vowels,
iii. indications of some of the chief variants both within RP and
regionally,
iv. remarks on the principal sources of the vowel and
v. difficulties encountered by foreign learners, with appropriate
advice.
Below is a general evaluation of Gimson’s account of the pure vowels:
/i:/ - Common spelling occurrences include ‘ee, e, ea, ei, i,’ etc; -a front,
close, tense vowel; - the lips are spread; -often diphthongized by most RP
speakers especially in final positions.

/ɪ/ - Common spelling occurrences include ‘i, y, e, ie, a’; -a front, close-mid
and lax vowel; -the lips are loosely spread. Noticeably in the current trends of
the RP English, this phoneme in unaccented syllables may be replaced by /ә/
e.g. palace /paәlәs/ in place of /paәlis/.

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 /e/ - Common spelling occurrences are ‘e, ea, a’; –a front, between close-mid
and open-mid positions vowel; -the lips are loosely spread and tense. This
particular phoneme as described by Gimson for RP sounds more like, if
not /ɛ/ as found in words like belt /bɛlt/, bed /bɛd/, depth /dɛpɵ/ etc. J.C.
Wells and G. Colson (1971) in Practical Phonetics share the same view on
the phonetic representation for /e/ as /ɛ/.

/æ/ - 99% spelling occurrence is the letter ‘a’; –a front, open, and tense; -the
lips are neutrally open. This phoneme is particularly difficult to articulate
especially for foreign learners (L2) of English that do not have as many
vowels in their mother-tongue language(s).

/˄/ - Common spelling occurrences are ‘u, o, ou, oo, oe’; –an open, central and
lax vowel; –the lips are neutrally open.

/ɑ:/ - Common spelling occurrences are ‘a, ar, ear, er, al and au’; –a back, open
and lax, with neutral lips position vowel. –it is a long vowel. In RP, this
phoneme is noticeably retracted (opening of the mouth more widely).

/ɒ/ - Common spelling occurrences include ‘o, a (following /w/), ou, ow, au’; –
a back, open and lax, with open-lip rounding.

/ɔ:/ - Commonly occurs in spellings such as ‘ar, or, ore, our, oar, oor, au, augh,
a, aw, ou’; –a back, open-mid and close-mid positions, lax and medium lip
rounding; –this vowel is usually long. This phoneme is used in place of /uә/ in
some (particularly) monosyllabic words e.g. in sure, poor, cure, tour. Also, the

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 eminent distinction that was between /ɔ:/ and /ɔә/ is now lost thus saw and
sore are pronounced alike.

/ᴜ/- Common spelling occurrences include ‘u, oo, o, ou’; –a back, close-mid

and lax vowel. The lips are generally unrounded or closely or loosely rounded.
For an L2 learner, the difficulty in articulating this phoneme is the oppositions
involving complexes of quality and quantity.

/ᴜ:/- Common spelling occurrences include ‘u, oo, o, ou, ew, ue, ui, oe’; –a
close, back, tense, close-lip rounding and long vowel.

/ɜ: / - Common spelling occurrences include ‘u, oo, o, ou, ew, ue, ui, oe, er,
err, ur, our, ir, yr, w + or, ear’; –a central, close-mid and open-mid positions
and lax vowel; –the lips are neutrally spread. It rare to find this phoneme in
other languages; care must also be taken to avoid post-vocalic /r/ in
articulating this phoneme since it occurs in words having <r> in the spelling.

/ә/- It occurs mostly in unaccented syllables and is usually spelt with most
vowel letters and their combinations; –a central, open-mid and close-mid,
neutral lip position vowel.

Diphthongal Vowel Glides

Diphthongs are traditionally referred to as glides. They usually form a glide
within one syllable, having first and second elements respectively. Most of the
length and stress associated with the glide is concentrated on the first element
while the second element is only slightly sounded. They are also equivalent in
length to the long (pure) vowels. Diphthongs are susceptible to regional and
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social variations and they do not usually occur before /ŋ/. They derive generally
from pure vowels.

The diphthongal vowel glides of RP as identified by Gimson include /eɪ/, /aɪ/,

/ɔɪ/, /әᴜ/, /aw/, /ɪә/, /eә/, /ᴜә/. Gimson categorized the eight diphthongs into
‘falling’ + ‘closing’ diphthongs /eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, әᴜ, au/ and ‘centring’ diphthongs /ɪә,
eә, ᴜә/. The ‘falling’ diphthongs have decreasing prominence, indicated by a
longer first element which according to him should not be confused with the
falling pitch of intonation. They are also ‘closing’ since they glide from a more
open to a closer position. The diphthongs /aɪ/, / ɔɪ/ and /au/ require an extensive
movement of the tongue.

The ‘Falling’ + ‘Closing’ Diphthongs

/eɪ/- occurs frequently in spellings like ‘a, ai, ay, ei, ey, ea’. The glide
begins from slightly below the close-mid front position and moves in the
direction of RP /ɪ/, there being a slight closing movement of the lower
jaw, the lips are spread. As observed earlier the /e/ phoneme as presented
by Gimson should carry /ɛ/ as it phonetic representation. Thus, /ei/ should
also be represented as /ɛi/ to give us the appropriate description of the
sound.

/aɪ/ - commonly occurs in spellings like ‘i, ie, y, ye, igh, eigh’. The
glide begins at a point slightly behind the front open position, and moves
in the direction of the position associated with RP /ɪ/. The tongue is not
usually raised to a level closer /ë/, there is a closing movement of the
lower jaw.

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 / ɔɪ/ - common spelling occurrences include ‘oi, oy’. The tongue glide
begins at a point between the open-mid and open back positions and
moves in the direction of /ɪ/; the tongue movement extends from back to
centralized front; the lips are open rounded for the first element, changing
to neutral for the second.

/әᴜ/ - occurs frequently in spellings such as ‘o, oe, ow, oa, ou’. The
glide begins at a central position, between close-mid and open-mid, and
moves in the direction of RP /ᴜ/, there being a slight closing movement of
the lower jaw; the lips are neutral for the first element and tend to round
on the second element.

/aᴜ/ - occurs frequently in spellings such as ‘ou, ow’. The glide begins
at a point between the back and front open positions, slightly more fronted
than the position for RP /ɑ:/ and moves in the direction of RP /ᴜ/, though
the tongue may not be raised higher than the close-mid level; the lips
change from a neutrally open to a weakly rounded position.

Diphthongs + [ә] or Triphthongs?

Gimson presents five ‘falling’ + ‘closing’ diphthongs namely /aɪ/,
/eɪ/, /ɑᴜ/, /әᴜ/ and /ɔɪ/ that may be followed by [ә]
/aɪ/ + /ә/ - /aɪә/ in fire, tyre, choir, shire, byre, lyre
/ ɑᴜ/ + /ә/ - / ɑᴜә/ in our, shower, flower, nowadays
/eɪ/ + /ә/ - /eɪә/ in player, prayer, greyer, layer
/әᴜ/ + /ә/ - /әᴜә/ in mower, slower,
/ ɔɪ/ + /ә/ - /ɔɪә/ in employer, buoyant, joyous

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The term ‘triphthongs’ used by Gimson in his presentation of the vowels in
English Language is somewhat mild; it seems he should have avoided it if were
possible. He groups them into what he calls “diphthongs + [ә]” (138). Jowitt
(2001) ‘in defence of triphthongs’, criticizes Gimson and Jones’ avoidance of
‘triphthongs’ in their presentations of the English phoneme system. He says,
Jones and Gimson’s treatment of triphthongs are “… decidedly marginalised …
grudgingly recognised… to be moving towards recognising them as a
problem…” Jowitt however hinges his arguments on what the definition of a
triphthong is. To Gimsom (Jowitt, 37) “… a triphthong is defined as a glide
containing a ‘peak of prominence’ that coincides with the second of the three
elements”; an incisive definition of a triphthong is given by Jowitt as “any
sequence of three vocalic elements, with prominence being given to any of the
three…” The later definition makes it possible for us defend the possibility of
triphthongs in the English phoneme system. Gimson’s poor treatment of
triphthongs as a concept in his presentation of vowel phonemes is a major
critique for his presentation. It is also pertinent to give Gimson credit for
drawing our attention to the quality of the [ә] phoneme. In discussing [aiә] and
[ɑuә], he observes that the third vocalic element [ә] tends to be spoken rapidly in
General RP and in Refined RP (even spoken slowly) omitting the second ([i] or
[u]) element, especially when [ә] is not felt as a separable morpheme (139). We
might now have [aiә] as [a:ә] or [a:] in fire, tyre, choir, hire, byre; or [ɑuә] as
[ɑ:ә] or [ɑ:] in our, shower, flower, coward. This process he refers to as
SMOOTHING. Jowitt extensively discusses this in defence of [aiә] and [ɑuә]
and not the diphthongs [a:ә] and [ɑ:ә]; other possible triphthongs (i.e.
“diphthongs + [ә]” - [eɪә] in player(play+er), greyer(grey+er), layer(lay+er);
[әᴜә] in mower(mow+er), slower(slow+er); [ɔɪә] in employer(employ+er)) he
succinctly criticises;
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 …there is a major criticism to be made here, arising out of morphemic considerations.
In unreduced instances of player, employer, and rower, triphthongs are perceived
because in each case a diphthong is juxtaposed with a subsequent [ә]; yet the [ә]
realises an agentive –er suffix …the perceived triphthong of player, as of –ployer and
rower, must be regarded as two separate vowel phonemes.

Gimson himself adds that [ә] may occur with some of the diphthongs as an
inseparable part of them in words or as a suffix appended to the root word. At
this point, we might be correct to say [aiә] and [ɑuә] are possible RP vowel
phonemes while [eɪә], [әᴜә] and [ɔɪә] might stand no chance owing to the reason
already stated. We might also add that articulating [aiә] and [ɑuә] as diphthongs
[a:ә] and [ɑ:ә] or monophthongs [a:] and [ɑ:] respectively in current RP is very
unlikely since ‘conservative, near/adoptive/ regional’ English accent is the new
face of RP.

‘Centring’ Diphthongs
These involve a general glide from front or back positions to the centre. They
include /ɪә/, /eә/ and /ᴜә/.
/ɪә/ - common in spellings like er, ere, ear, eer, ia, ea, eu, eo, eou, ie, io,
etc. The glide begins with the tongue position approximately close-mid
and centralized from front, and moves in the direction of the more open
variety of /ә/ when /ɪә/ is final in the word; while in non-final positions, the
glide may not be so extensive. The lips are neutral throughout, with a
slight movement from spread to open.
/eә/ - commonly occurs in spellings such as ar, are, air, ear. The glide
begins in the open-mid front position, and moves in the direction of the
more open variety of /ә/, especially when the diphthong is final; where /eә/

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 occurs in word-medial position, the [ә] element tends to be of a mid [ә] type.
The lips are neutrally open throughout.

/ᴜә/ - is common in such spellings as oor, our, ure, ur, ua etc. The glide
begins from the tongue position similar to that used for /u/ towards the
more open type of /ә/ which forms the end-point all three centring diphthongs with,
again, a somewhat closer variety of [ә] when the diphthong occurs in word-medial
position. The lips are weakly rounded at the beginning of the glide, becoming
neutrally spread as the glide progresses.

The RP Consonant Phonemes

Plosive Affricate Fricative Nasal Approximant
Bilabial /p,b/ /m/
Labiodental /f,v/
Dental /θ, ð/
Alveolar /t,d/ /s,z/ /n/ /l/
Post- /r/
Alveolar
Palato- /ʤ,ʧ/ /ʃ,ʒ/
Alveolar
Palatal /j/
Velar /k,g/ /ŋ/ /w/
Glottal /h/

Gimson identifies twenty-four (24) ‘distinctive’ consonantal phonemes with the

RP which he categorizes generally into two -obstruants and sonorants.

The Obstruants: Plosives, Affricates & Fricatives

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The articulation of the obstruants involves a total closure or a stricture causing
friction associated with a noise component (obstruction of pulmonic airflow).
There is a distinctive opposition between voiceless and voiced types of
consonants in this category. Obstruants consist of plosives, affricates and
fricatives.

Plosives
The RP plosive or stop phonemes which comprise of three pairs /p,b/, /t,d/
and /k,g/ are articulated in three stages: closing, compression and release (of the
pulmonic eggressive airstream). The salient phonetic features of plosives
described by Gimson include place of articulation, force of articulation, and
voicing.
i. Place of articulation: /p,b/ are bilabial plosives; The soft palate is
raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the
airstream is provided by the closure of the lips. Lung air is compressed
behind this closure, during which stage the vocal folds are held wide
apart for /p/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage
for /b/ according to its situation in the utterance.
• /t,d/ are alveolar plosives; The soft palate is raised and the nasal
resonator shut off, the primary obstacle to the airstream is
usually formed by a closure made between the tip and rims of
the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth. Lung air
is compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal
folds are wide apart for /t/, but may vibrate for all or part of the
compression stage for /d/ according to its situation in the
utterance.

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 • And /k,g/ are velar plosives; The soft palate is raised and the
nasal resonator shut off. The primary obstacle to the airstream
is formed by closure between the back of the tongue and the
soft palate. Lung air is compressed behind the closure, during
which stage the vocal folds are wide apart for /k/, but may
vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for /g/ according
to its situation in the utterance.
ii. Force of articulation - /p,t,k/ involve more muscular energy and
stronger breath (fortis) than /b,d,g/ (lenis).
iii. Aspiration - /p,t,k/ in initial accented syllables are aspirated.
iv. Voicing - /b,d,g/ may have full voice during their second stage when
they occur in positions between voiced sounds.
The glottal plosive [?] is a phenomenal phoneme in RP. The glottal plosive is
articulated when the obstruction of the airstream us formed by the closure of the
vocal folds, thereby interrupting the passage of air into the supraglottal organs.
The air pressure below the glottis is released by the sudden separation of the
vocal folds. Gimson also treats this phoneme with caution as he believes it
‘serves regularly for many RP speakers as a syllable boundary marker, when the
initial sound of the second syllable is a vowel.’[ ?] is usually a replacement for;
• /p,t,k/ - in syllable final positions when a consonant follows, no oral
closure being made and also before non-syllabic consonants. /t/ is mostly
replaced by /?/ e.g. in football, get down, cat-call, nutshell, great zeal;
others include occurrences where the following consonant is homorganic
like soap powder, cap badge, back garden bookcase etc.
This phoneme as observed by Gimson is typical of Estuary English.
Affricates

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Gimson defines the term ‘affricate’ as “any plosive whose release is performed
in such a way that considerable friction occurs approximately at the point where
the plosive stop is made” (171). He categories /t/ and /d/ as the only plosives that
may have this type of release namely in /ʧ, ʤ, tr, ts, dz, tθ, dð/. Only /ʧ, ʤ/
best fulfil the positioning at the word-initial, word-final, and word-medial with
different syllable assignments and also occurring with a medial distinction
between close-knit and disjunct (e.g. /ʧ/ [butcher and lightship], /ʤ/ [aged]).
The two affricates /t∫/ and /ʤ/ are palato-alveolar sounds. While /t∫/ is voiceless,
/ʤ/ is voiced. This phoneme is articulated when the soft palate is raised and the
nasal resonator shut off, the obstacle to the airstream is formed by a closure
made between the tip, blade and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge
and side teeth. At the same time, the front of the tongue is raised towards the
hard palate in readiness for the fricative release. During the stop and fricative
stages, the vocal folds are wide apart for /ʧ/, but may be vibrating for all or part
of /ʤ/ according to the situation in the utterance.

Fricatives
The RP fricative phonemes comprise of four pairs /f,v/, /θ, ð,/, /s,z/, /∫,ʒ/ and
/h/. In articulating ‘fricatives’, two organs are usually brought together and held
sufficiently close for the escaping airstream to produce local air turbulence.
They are thus characterized by a noise component in the process of articulating
them. The noise or turbulence may or may not be accompanied by voice.
i. Place of articulation - /f/ and /v/ are labiodental fricatives (lip + teeth +

tongue); the soft palate is raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the
inner surface of the lower lip makes a light contact with the edge of
the upper teeth, so that the escaping air produces friction. /f/ is

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 voiceless, whereas there may be some vocal fold vibration accompany
/v/, according to the situation in utterance.
• /θ/ and / ð/ are dental fricatives (teeth + tongue); the soft palate is raised
and the nasal resonator shut off, the lip and rims of the tongue make a
light contact with the edge and inner surface of the upper incisors and a
firmer contact with the upper side teeth, so that the air escaping between
the forward surface of the tongue and the incisors causes friction. /θ/ is
voiceless, whereas for / ð/ there may be some vocal fold vibration
according to the situation in its utterance.
• /s/ and /z/ are alveolar fricatives (alveolar ridge + tongue); the soft palate
is raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the blade of the tongue makes a
light contact with the upper alveolar ridge, and the side rims of the tongue
make a close contact with the upper side teeth. /s/ is voiceless, whereas
for /z/ there may be some vocal fold vibration, according to the situation
in its utterance.
• /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are palato-alveloar fricatives; the soft palate is raised and the
nasal resonator shut off, the tip and blade of the tongue make contact with
the alveolar ridge, the front of the tongue being raised at the same time in
the direction of the hard palate and the side rims of the tongue being in
contact with the upper side teeth. /ʃ/ is voiceless, whereas for /ʒ/ there
may be some vocal fold vibration according to the situation in its
utterance.
• /h/ is a glottal fricative; In English, this phoneme occurs only in syllabic-
initial, pre-vocalic positions; thus, it may be regarded as a strong,
voiceless onset of the vowel in question. The air expelled from the lungs
with considerable pressure causes some friction throughout the vocal
tract, the upper part of which is shaped in readiness for the articulation of
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 the vowel sound following it. For example /h/ in his, hill, heat etc., differs
from /h/ in house, hoe, horse because of the different vowel sounds in its
situation of utterance. With the onset of the vocal fold vibration of the
vowel, the air pressure is reduced.
ii. Force of articulation - /f,θ,s,∫/ receive greater muscular energy and
stronger breath force (fortis) than /v, ð, z, ʒ,/ (lenis). /h/ is normally fortis but
may have a lenis allophone.
iii. Voicing - /v, ð, z, ʒ/ are usually voiced (this applies principally in world-
medial positions between voiced sounds) while /f,θ s, ∫/ and /h/ are voiceless.

Sonorants
These are consonantal phonemes which are usually articulated with only a
partial closure or an unimpeded oral or nasal escape of air. The articulations of
these consonants are typically voiced and frequently frictionless (without a noise
component). Consequently, they may share many phonetic characteristics with
vowels. Gimson however admits that voiceless fricative allophones of the
consonants in the class of sonarants occur but are commonly realized as voiced
and non- fricative.

Nasals
Nasal consonants are articulated with a total closure within the mouth (like the
articulation of oral plosives). The soft palate is in its lowered position, thereby
allowing an escape of air into the nasal cavity and giving the sound the special
resonance provided by the nasopharyngeal cavity. Nasal consonants are
continuants since the airstream may escape freely through the nose.

The three nasal phonemes /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ are articulated respectively;
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 • /m/ is a bilabial nasal; the lips form a closure as for /p,b/, the soft palate is
lowered adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to those of the pharynx
and the mouth chamber closed by the lips; the tongue will generally
anticipate or retain the position of the adjacent vowel or /l/.
• /n/ is an alveolar nasal; the tongue forms a closure with the teeth ridge and
upper side teeth as for /t,d/; the soft palate is lowered, adding the
resonance of the nasal cavity to those of the pharynx and of that part of
the mouth chamber behind the alveolar closure; the lip position will
depend upon that of adjacent vowels.
• /ŋ/ is a velar nasal; a closure is formed in the mouth between the back of
the tongue and the velum as for /k,g/; the soft palate is lowered, adding
the resonance of the nasal cavity to that of the pharynx and that small part
of the mouth chamber behind the velar closure; the lip position will
depend upon that of the preceding vowel.
N.B These consonant phonemes have striking resemblance with oral plosives –
bilabial, alveolar and velar. They also readily perform the function of vowels
since they account for syllabification (syllabic consonants). The alveolar nasal
/ŋ/ does not occur initially in a word or morpheme.

Oral Approximants
In articulating oral approximants, the airstream escapes through a relatively
narrow aperture in the mouth without friction but with voice (although their
allophones differ in quality). The oral approximants usually occur in
consonantal clusters in similar ways (a consonant plus /l, r, w, j/ is one of the
two common types of two-consonant cluster which occur in initial syllables in
English e.g. sl, tr, thw, etc.).
The approximates include: /Ɩ/,/r/, /w/ and /j/.
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 • /Ɩ/ which has distinctive allophones like clear (Ɩ) and dark (ƚ) is known as

lateral approximant.

/r/ is known as post-alveolar approximant (in terms of place of

articulation) having a common voiced post-alveolar approximant (ɹ). One of the
striking features of this RP consonantal phoneme is the loss of its post-vocalic
occurrence. In other words, RP /r/ does not occur after a vowel except in word-
final as a linking form when the following word begins with a vowel.
For example, far_of, answer_ it, near_it, etc
But not in far, car, Lord, etc.
The approximate /j/ and /w/ are classified by Gimson as semi-vowels
which are rapid vocalic glide onto a syllabic sound of greater steady duration. In
English, the semi-vowels /j/ and /w/ glide from positions of approximately /i:/
(with spread or neutral lips) and /u:/ (with rounded lips) respectively.
For example, you, year, west, inward
You *(i:j:u:)
West * (u:west)
/j/ is characterized by Gimson as unrounded palatal approximant while
/w/ is labial – velar approximant since the lips are part of its articulatory process.

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Conclusion
Gimson’s description of the RP phonemes is undoubtedly the most
comprehensive work in this regard. It would not be surprising if his book has
assumed a canonical status when RP phonemes come into focus. However, the
Plethora of analyzed features of the traditional forty-four (44) phonemes of RP
can dull the interest of an ‘anxious’ learner of English who may wish for
‘something’ more precise or concise.
Secondly, Gimson and ultimately Crutteden leave out two ‘distinctive’
phonemes of RP – the triphthongs /aI∂/ and /au∂/ or have not given them
‘distinctive’ RP phoneme status.
And finally, the over-concentration of an the RP leaves out other major
accents of English which may also be considered as ‘standard’ accents of
English. A synthesized approach to the description of English accents would no
doubt be out of place.

Work Cited
Gimson, A.C An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. Revised
Edition Gimson’s Pronunciation of English by Crutenden, Allan 6th ed.
Oxford: Arnold, 2001.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.

www.wikipedia.org

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