List of Full and Reduced Forms

Full and Reduced Forms

Vowel Reduction

Chart of English Consonant Phonemes

	Labial	Lingual	Pharyngal
Bilabial	Labio-dental	Forelingual	Media-lingual	Back-lingual
dental	apico-alveolar	palato-alveolar	post-alveolar
Occlusives	Plosives (noise consonants)	p b			t d				k g
Nasal sonorants	m			n				N
Constrictives	Fricatives (noise consonants)		f v	T D	s z	S Z				h
Sonorants	Medial	w					r	j
Lateral				l
Occlusive-constictives (affricates)					tS dZ

Vowels in unstressed syllables are pronounced less distinctly than those in stressed syllables. It is possible to speak about three types of vowel reduction:

QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE, COMPLETE (ZERO) REDUCTION.

I. Quantitative reduction results in the change of the length (quantity) of a vowel in an unstressed syllable. It affects long vowels and diphthongs which become half-long or short, e. g.

°We have done it. /wi:/-long

We have °done it. /wi·/ - half-long

We °did it. /wi/ - short

Diphthongs become half-long when followed by an unstressed syllable, or short, when followed by a stressed one, but it is not reflected in transcription, e. g.

°I’ve done it.

I have °done it.

I °did it.

II. Qualitative reduction is connected with the change of the quality of a vowel. There are two types of it.

1. Qualitative soft reduction, resulting in the /I/ phoneme. The letters “e, i, y” correspond to it in spelling: e xpect, cin e ma, cit y, serv i ce.

2. Qualitative hard reduction, resulting in the neutral vowel /@/. The letters “a, o, u” and the suffixes –er, -ar, -or, -ous correspond to it in spelling: fam ous, pil o t, mel o dy, act or, pol ar.

III. Complete reduction results in a full disappearance of a vowel in an unstressed position. It occurs before the syllabic sonorants /m, n, l/ when they are posttonic and preceded by a consonant: conversation /Sn/, written /tn/, pencil /sl/ as well as in different /"dIfÿr@nt/, history/"hIstÿrI/, I’m/aIÿm/, I’ve/aIÿv/.

There are some words in English that retain their full forms even when they are unstressed:

1. The following words have no weak forms: ON, WELL, WHAT, THEN.

2. The negative particle ‘not’ is never reduced except when met in contracted forms: can’t, couldn’t etc.: But èwhy not? /nQt/. Of èècourse not. /nQt/

3. Prepositions in sentence-final or sense-group final positions are so slightly reduced that the quantity of short phonemes is not changed; long vowels become half-long,

e. g. "What are you °thinking of? /Qv/ "What have you °done it for? /fO·/

4. “to have” as a principal verb has no weak form though unstressed in affirmative sentences, e. g. I have a °sister. /aI h{ v @ °sIst@||/

Full forms	Reduced Forms	Full Forms	Reduced Forms
Articles	Pronouns
The A+C A+V	/"Di:/ /"eI/ /"{n/	/D@/+C, /Di/+V /@/ /@n/	you he she we her us them your some that	/"ju:/ /"hi:/ /"Si:/ /"wi:/ /"h3:/ /"Vs/ /"Dem/ /"jO:/ /"sVm/ /"D{t/	/ju/ /hi/ /Si/ /wi/ /h3/ /@s/ /D@m/ /jO/ /s@m/ /D@t/
Prepositions
at from of into for to	/"{t/ /"frQm/ /"Qv/ /"Intu:/ /"fO:(r)/ /"tu:/	/@t/ /fr@m/ /@v/ /Int@/ /Intu+ V/ /fO/ /t@/ /tu+ V/
Verbs	Particles
can	/"k{n/	/k@n/	there to	/"De@/ /"tu:/	/D@/ /t@/ /tu+ V/
must	/"mVst/	/m@st/
shall	/"S{l/	/S@l/
do	/"du:/	/d@/ /du+V/
does	/"dVz/	/d@z/
could	/"kUd/	/k@d/
would	/"wUd/	/w@d/	Conjunctions
should	/"SUd/	/S@d/	and but than as or	/"{nd/ /"bVt/ /"D{n/ /"{z/ /"O:/	/@nd/ /b@t/ /D@n/ /@z/ /O/
have	/"h{v/	/h@v/
has	/"h{z/	/h@z/
had	/"h{d/	/h@d/
be	/"bi:/	/bi/
been	/"bi:n/
am	/"{m/	/@m/
are	/"A:/	/A/
was	/"wQz/	/w@z/
were	/"w3:/	/w@/

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