Draft:Vowel smoothing in Received Pronunciation

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This page contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Specimen of triphthong smoothing

Male Received Pronunciation speaker displaying triphthong smoothing in the words shower and fire.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Within Received Pronunciation, triphthong smoothing refers to the sound change of a triphthong to a smaller unit of sound; either a diphthong or pure vowel. In the latter case, smoothing is sometimes referred to as monophthongisation.

The opposite process, whereby a monophthong becomes a sequence of two or more vowels, is known as vowel breaking or fracture.

Triphthong smoothing takes place between a diphthong and schwa sound (/ə/), often before a lateral approximant or historical r, though neither liquid consonant is required for smoothing to occur.

Smoothing may also take place across word boundaries, when a word-final diphthong is present before a schwa; e.g. tie a knot (/taɪ ə nɒt/) or stay away (/steɪ əˈweɪ/).^[1]^[2]

Although primarily associated with RP, the pronunciations of some common words are the result of smoothing, such as our /ɑ(r)/, prayer /pɹɛə(r)/, and (outside North America) mayor /mɛːə/.

Diphthongs and triphthongs in Received Pronunciation

Diphthongs

RP is traditionally ascribed eight diphthongs: the five closing diphthongs /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /əʊ/, and /aʊ/, and the centring diphthongs /ɛə/, /ɪə/, and /ʊə/.^[3]^[4]

Of these eight, the three centring diphthongs are not able to undergo smoothing, due to the fact that they are never followed by another schwa.

Diphthong	Example
Closing
/eɪ/ ^ⓘ	/beɪ/	bay ^ⓘ
/aɪ/ ^ⓘ	/baɪ/	buy ^ⓘ
/ɔɪ/ ^ⓘ	/bɔɪ/	boy ^ⓘ
/əʊ/ ^ⓘ	/bəʊ/	beau ^ⓘ
/aʊ/ ^ⓘ	/baʊ/	bough ^ⓘ
Centring
/ɛə/ ^ⓘ	/bɛə/	bear ^ⓘ
/ɪə/ ^ⓘ	/bɪə/	beer ^ⓘ
/ʊə/ ^ⓘ	/bʊə/	boor ^ⓘ

Triphthongs

The five centring diphthongs followed by a schwa - /aɪə/, /ɑʊə/, /əʊə/, /eɪə/, and /ɔɪə/ - are often labelled triphthongs, due to their shared tendency to undergo smoothing, as compared to other three-vowel sequences as in clayey or reaudit, even if in practice they are rarely pronounced in one syllable as true triphthongs are.^[5]^[6]

Degrees of smoothing

There are two degrees of smoothing in RP. In the first, the medial element of a triphthong is elided, creating a new diphthong composed of a long vowel and schwa. In the second degree, the diphthongs are further reduced to long vowels.^[7]

Degrees of smoothing in the five "triphthongs"^[8]
Triphthong	General	Advanced	Example words^[b]
[aɪə]	/aːə/	/aː/	buyer, choir, liable, pyre, science
/ɑʊə/	/ɑːə/	/ɑː/	bower, flour, fowl, nowadays
/əʊə/	/əː/	/ɜː/	blower, Goa, poem
/eɪə/	/eːə/	/ɛː/	aorist, greyer, player
/ɔɪə/	/ɔːə/	/ɔː/	lawyer, employer, toil

General

General smoothing creates four new centring diphthongs: /aːə/, /ɑːə/, /eːə/, and /ɔːə/. In the case of the /əʊə/ triphthong, smoothing results in a lengthened schwa sound (/əː/).

The newly created diphthong /eə/ is commonly assimilated with the /ɛə/, creating homophones between lair and layer, and speakers with the far-fire merger, will pronounce /aːə/ as /ɑːə/, creating homophones between tire and tower.

In addition, the value of the open-mid back rounded vowel in the /ɔːə/ diphthong features a much , and lower tongue position than the /ɔː/ found in a word such as core, and is better transcribed as [ɔ̝ːə]. ^[9]^[10]

Advanced

In advanced smoothing, the medial vowel and final schwa are elided, leaving behind a long vowel. The already lengthened and monophthongal /əː/ is lowered to /ɜː/.

Advanced smoothing creates numerous homophones, the most prominent being the tar-tire-tower merger among speakers who already exhibit the far-fire merger, .

Tar-tire-tower merger homophones
/ɑʊə/	/aɪə/	/ɑː(r)/	/ɑː/	IPA
Bauer/bower	buyer	bar	baa/bah	/ˈbɑː/
coward/cowered	-	card	-	/ˈkɑːd/
cower	-	car	ka	/ˈkɑː/
dowel	dial	-	dahl	/'dɑːl/
-	fire	far	fah	/ˈfɑː/
flour/flower	flyer	-	-	/ˈflɑː/
hour/our	ire	ar/are	ah	/ˈɑː/
Howard	hired	hard	ha-ed	/ˈhɑːd/
how're	hire	har	ha	/ˈhɑː/
-	mire	mar	ma	/ˈmɑː/
owl	aisle/I'll/isle	arle	aal	/ˈɑːl/
-	pious	parse	pass	/ˈpɑːs/
power	pyre	par	pa	/ˈpɑː/
scour	-	scar	ska	/ˈskɑː/
shower	shire/shyer	-	shah	/ˈʃɑː/
showered	shired	shard	-	/ˈʃɑːd/
sour	sire	Saar/sigher	-	/ˈsɑː/
-	spier/spire	spar	spa	/ˈspɑː/
tower	tier/tire/tyre	tar	ta	/ˈtɑː/
trowel	trial	-	-	/'trɑːl/
vowel	vial	-	Vaal	/'vɑːl/

Notes

^ Note that the first elements of some diphthongs diverge quite sharply from the position their IPA symbols usually occupy (e.g. /eə/ is normally transcribed /ɛə/). This is done for historical reasons.
^ Though not evident from spelling, many words that appear to be comprised of a single-syllable diphthong are in fact disyllabic with a schwa. For example, many English speakers pronounce oil in two syllables as: /ɔɪ.əl/.

References

^ Gimson (2008), p. 147.
^ Tomaka (2017), p. 28.
^ Roach (2004), p. 242.
^ Cruttenden (2008), p. 134-135.
^ Roach (1992), p. 116-117.
^ Jowitt (2001), p. 37-38.
^ Ashby (2011), p. 113.
^ Cruttenden (2008), p. 145-146.
^ Cruttenden (2008), p. 146.
^ Tomaka (2017), p. 27.

Bibliography

[3] Note that the first elements of some diphthongs diverge quite sharply from the position their IPA symbols usually occupy (e.g. /eə/ is normally transcribed /ɛə/). This is done for historical reasons.

[10] Though not evident from spelling, many words that appear to be comprised of a single-syllable diphthong are in fact disyllabic with a schwa. For example, many English speakers pronounce oil in two syllables as: /ɔɪ.əl/.

[FOOTNOTEGimson2008147-1] Gimson (2008), p. 147.

[FOOTNOTETomaka201728-2] Tomaka (2017), p. 28.

[FOOTNOTERoach2004242-4] Roach (2004), p. 242.

[FOOTNOTECruttenden2008134-135-5] Cruttenden (2008), p. 134-135.

[FOOTNOTERoach1992116-117-6] Roach (1992), p. 116-117.

[FOOTNOTEJowitt200137-38-7] Jowitt (2001), p. 37-38.

[FOOTNOTEAshby2011113-8] Ashby (2011), p. 113.

[FOOTNOTECruttenden2008145-146-9] Cruttenden (2008), p. 145-146.

[FOOTNOTECruttenden2008146-11] Cruttenden (2008), p. 146.

[FOOTNOTETomaka201727-12] Tomaka (2017), p. 27.

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