Pronunciation in American English

Phonology

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d			k ɡ
Affricate					tʃ dʒ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ ʒ			h
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Lateral				l
Approximant							(ʍ) w

• A table containing the consonant phonemes

• The phoneme /ʍ/ is present only in varieties that have not undergone the wine-whine merger. /ʍ/ is often analyzed as a consonant cluster of /hw/. Also, many Americans realize the phoneme /ɹ/ (often transcribed as /r/) as postalveolar, with some possible retroflexion. /t/ undergoes T-glottalization to produce a glottal stop in words like mutton and sit.

Vowels

Monophthongs	Front	Central		Back
Close	i			u
Near-close	ɪ			ʊ
Close-mid	e*			o*
Mid		ə	ɚ
Open-mid	ɛ	ʌ**	ɝ	ɔ~ɒ
Near Open	æ			ɑ

• General American has sixteen or seventeen vowel sounds that can be used in stressed syllables as well as two that can be used only in unstressed syllables. Most of the vowel sounds are monophthongs. The monophthongs of General American are shown in the table below:

• ^* For most speakers, what are often transcribed as /e o/ are realized as [eɪ oʊ], especially in open syllables.
• ^** The vowel of STRUT may be more central than back, depending on speaker. For example, speakers from Ohio realize this vowel as an open-mid central unrounded vowel ([ɜ]).

Diphtongs

• Among speakers who distinguish between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/, the vowel of cot (usually transcribed /ɑ/), is sometimes more of a central vowel which may vary from [a̠] to [ɑ̟], while /ɔ/ is phonetically lower, closer to [ɒ].[10] Among cot-caught merged speakers, /ɑ/ usually remains a back vowel, [ɑ], sometimes showing lip rounding as [ɑʷ] or [ɒ], and, since these speakers do not distinguish between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/, their retracted allophones for /ɑ/ may be identical to the lowered allophones of /ɔ/ among speakers who preserve the contrast.
• The diphthongs of General American are shown in the next table:

Diphthongs	Offglide is a front vowel	Offglide is a back vowel
Opener component is unrounded	aɪ eɪ*	aʊ
Opener component is rounded	ɔɪ	oʊ*

Characteristics

• While there is not any single formal definition of General American, various features are considered to be part of it, including rhotic pronunciation, which maintains the coda [ɹ] in words like pearl, car, and court. Unlike RP, General American is characterized by the merger of the vowels of words like father and bother, flapping, and the reduction of vowel contrasts before [ɹ]. General American also generally has yod-dropping after alveolar consonants.

Recources

• http://www.uiowa.edu/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/
• http://funeasyenglish.com/american-english-pronunciation.htm