Topic-136: Vowels in BBC English While discussing vowels in English, we can explore vowels in BBC accent fora number of reasons. The first and the foremost comparison maybe with the American English (or varieties of American English. Both of the varieties have been discussed by linguists and politicians alike (from both sides. The vowels of BBC accent are different in both number (20 in total – both pure vowels and diphthongs) and quality. British English speakers distinguish the vowel [ ʌ] in cut from the vowel [ɜ] in curt. It does not have any r-coloring (rhotacization) mainly by the frequency of the first formant. Moreover, as the main feature of BBC English (to be noted here) is the distinction between the three back vowels a as in father and cart, [ ɑ] as in bother and cot, and [ɔ] as in author and caught. BBC vowels are really interesting in making it a standard variety of English.
