Abstract
Abstract Following Trager & Bloch (1941), I argue that diphthongs in English are short vowels followed by a glide, that is, a consonant (Szigetvári 2016). In the present paper, I bring further evidence for this claim, based on the distribution of unstressed vowels in British English.
Highlights
Numerous descriptions of the vowel systems of different Englishes have been proposed during the past centuries
Following Trubetzkoy (1968) this set will be called free vowels. They are considered to be diphthongs by most analysts, there are notable exceptions, like Batchelor (1809),6 Trager & Bloch (1941); Trager & Smith (1957), who take these sequences to be a short vowel followed by a glide, an analysis I support with some evidence in this paper
Since the strings under discussion are expected to be high on the unstressability scale, but diphthongs, which are VV, are at the bottom of that scale, they had better not be analysed as diphthongs
Summary
Vowel quality in English is related to stress. The general wisdom is that one vowel, schwa, only occurs unstressed, the other vowels may either be stressed or unstressed. The set of reduced (or unstressed) vowels includes schwa and two further vowels, KIT and FOOT, transcribed as [i] and [u], respectively, by Jones (1917), and as [ɪ] and [ʊ] by Gimson (1962). Transcribing the high vowels KIT/FLEECE and FOOT/GOOSE, applies two further symbols to represent the transition from the pre-HAPPY/VALUE-tensing state of the language (where these words have [ɪ] and [ʊ]) to the post-tensing state (with [i] and [u]), the “transitional” symbols are [i] and [u].15. In current British English the set of reduced vowels (the vowels that may occur in unstressed position) seems to have increased, in addition to schwa, KIT, and FOOT, it includes FLEECE and GOOSE. Three of the six checked vowels may occur in unstressed position: KIT ([i]), STRUT ([ə]), and FOOT ([u]); and three free vowels may occur here: FLEECE ([ij]), GOAT ([əw]), and GOOSE ([uw]).
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