Canadian Vowels IPA Flashcards
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/ei/
long A
bait, say, ate, weight
e is like French é
i is like long e as in green
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/æ/
short A
bat, have, has, that
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/i/
Sometimes /iə/ at the end of a word
long e
beat, see, piece, green
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/ɛ/
short E
bet, said, head, when
Like è in French
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/aɪ/ or /ai/
/ʌɪ/ or /ʌi/ before a voiceless consonant
long I
lie, sigh, why
Canadian Raising changes it to ʌɪ as in bite, and height before unvoiced consonants
Word pairs like ‘knife’ and ‘knives,’ ‘advice’ and ‘advise,’ and ‘writer’ and ‘rider’ illustrate this raising.
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/ɪ/
short i
bit, this, in
Say the following IPA sound and identify and it
/oʊ/
long O
boat, go, though, cone
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/ɑ/ and /ɔ/
short O
bought, father, call
many American speakers pronounce words with /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ (e.g., “cot” and “caught”) the same.
I distinguish these two sounds for example:
bought, father, call = ɑ Less tense
cot = ɔ More tense
Likely due to Canadian raising where the vowel changes slightly depending on if a voiced or unvoiced consonant comes after it.
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/iu/
Long U
unicorn fuel emu
united union humane
human unity mutate
music uniform puny
Hugo humid pupil
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/ʌ/
/ə/ (shwa)
short U
but, what, rough, some
The shwa is the same sound but always in unstressed positions and shorter as in the first a in Canadian, the o in dictionary, and the a in about
ə is more relaxed than any other vowel
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/u/
/uə/
long OO
boot, who, rude, through
Gradually relax as you say it. Pitch changes from medium to high then low.
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/ʊ/
short OO
book, would, put
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/aʊ/
/ʌʊ/
OW
/aʊ/
how, cow, mouth
Canadian Raising changes it to ʌʊ as in
bout, house
Word pairs like ‘clout’ and ‘cloud,’ illustrate this raising.
Say the following IPA sound and identify it
/oi/
Some people may pronounce it /ɔɪ/ but that is definitely not my pronunciation (I’m Canadian)
OI
boy, join
There are about 13 vowel sounds in Canadian English with some more of you account for Canadian raising. Try remembering them all by placing a b before and a t after.
https://www.untalkativebunny.com/vowel.html
beat = long e
bit = short i
bait = long a
bet = short e
bat = short a
boot = long oo
book = short oo
boat = long o
but = short u
bought, all, cot, awesome= short o but slightly different sounds from each other (bought and awesome are dropped, and all is more tense, cot is in between) for the dropped sounds I identify them with AW
bye and Canadian raising in bite = long i
bow (to the audience) and Canadian raising of bout = both are ow
boy = oi
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
beat
i
Long E
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
bit
ɪ
Short I
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
bait
ei
Long A
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
bet
ɛ
Short E
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
bat
æ
Short A
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
boot
uə
Long OO
Can also be u without the shwa
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
book
ʊ
Short OO
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
boat
oʊ
Long O
What IPA vowel belongs in this word?
but
ʌ
Short U
