Topic-073: American and British Vowels Many of the American vowels are essentially different than those of British – and that is why it is a different English (compare Standard American Newscaster English with British English as spoken by BBC newscasters. When you carefully listen to American vowels i, ɪ, ɛ, æ] as in words heed, hid, head, had (spoken by a native speaker of English) these vowels sound as if they differ by a series of equal steps. Even some Eastern American speakers would make a distinct diphthong in heed so that their i is really a glide (diphthong) starting from almost the same vowel as that in hid. Similarly, the back vowels also vary considerably in both forms of English (e.g., many Californians do not distinguish between the vowels in words father and author). Similarly, the vowels [ ʊ, u as in good and food also vary considerably as they have a very unrounded vowel in good and a rounded but central vowel in food. In short, American English in ways is distinct from the British English and as the students of phonetics and phonology we should try to explore these differences.
