In this chapter …

In this chapter we look at the distribution of long vowels in English. We note that the set of these vowels can reliably be associated with those Cardinal reference points on a vowel trapezium that we first looked at in chapter 8. Therefore we can speak fairly confidently about the existence of ‘high front/back vowels’, ‘low front/back’ and so forth.

The long vowel systems of English, however – unlike the consonant systems and even the short vowel systems – seem to be subject to a great deal of variation. We start to look at some of that variation in 9.3, ‘A tour of long vowels’, and in section 9.4–9.5 examine further features of variation, particularly that concerning the existence of rhotic and non-rhotic accents. That discussion leads to a very brief consideration of triphthongs in 9.6. The methodological and principled difficulties we encounter in 9.4–9.6, however, mean that we must reconsider the nature of ‘variation’, together with the idea of underlying representation. Those will be the topics explored respectively in chapters 10 (which looks at ‘variation’ in more detail) and 11 (where we'll revisit the idea of underlying structure).

Describing long vowels and diphthongs

You'll remember from chapter 7 that while short vowels are associated with just one X-slot within the syllabic nucleus, long vowels and diphthongs are associated with two X-slots within the nucleus.