accent in CUBE

1 SSB: the default accent of CUBE
2 Differences between current SSB and classic RP
3 Customizing CUBE’s default transcription
4 Other accents in CUBE

1 SSB: the default accent of CUBE

CUBE stands for ‘CUrrent British English’. CUBE’s search results always include a phonetic transcription, in blue, which the editors consider a representative pronunciation of the word in contemporary ‘Standard Southern British’ (SSB). This kind of English may be thought of as characteristic of university-educated young adults from the south of England. It is heard from a majority of presenters and correspondents in British news broadcasting. Clearly it is not a majority accent in the UK (so the term ‘General British’ used by some publishers is misleading). But English speakers around the world are familiar with it — it is often heard in Hollywood films, for example — and internationally it is associated with Britain.

Many sources, including the Cambridge, Collins, and Longman dictionaries, still use for their British English transcriptions a set of vowel symbols which was chosen by A. C. Gimson more than half a century ago to describe explicitly the upper class speech of the period before the tumultuous social changes of the 1960s: classic Received Pronunciation (RP).

This Gimsonian transcription does not give an explicit indication of 21st century SSB. In fact, if its vowel symbols are pronounced with the explicit values of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the result is an accent which now sounds to native speakers old-fashioned, ‘posh’ and even amusing. Unfortunately publishers and authors typically fail to make this discrepancy clear to their readers, who often take the symbols more literally than is now appropriate. (Another problem with the Gimsonian vowel symbols is that they make the wrong groupings. For example, the vowels which Gimson chose to write with the IPA length symbol /ː/ no longer constitute — if they ever did — any kind of true phonetic or phonological grouping.)

Because this rather inaccurate and misleading old system is still so widely used, CUBE includes the option to display it (in black) by ticking the box ‘Gim’ under SYSTEMS. We hope that you find it useful to compare it with our more accurate transcription in blue.

2 Differences between current SSB and classic RP

This section briefly summarizes the ways in which the standard reference/teaching accent of British English has changed since classic RP. CUBE’s default transcription (displayed in blue) reflects these changes, while the traditional Gimsonian type of transcription (optionally displayed in black) still describes classic RP, which is rarely heard in the 21st century. Most but not all of the differences are in the vowels.

DRESS. Classic RP had a relatively close mid vowel, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /e/. Current SSB has an opener vowel, nearer to [ɛ]. (This symbol is also used for DRESS by Oxford Dictionaries online and Collins online.) The same change applies to the start-point of the FACE diphthong.

TRAP. Classic RP had a relatively nonlow vowel, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /æ/. Current SSB has an opener vowel, nearer to [a]. (This symbol is also used by Oxford Dictionaries online.)

LOT. Classic RP had a relatively low vowel, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ɒ/. Current SSB has a higher vowel, nearer to [ɔ]. (This symbol is widely used for the very similar vowel of German kommen and Italian posso, etc.)

THOUGHT. Classic RP had a relatively low mid vowel, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ɔː/. Current SSB has a higher vowel, nearer to [oː]. (This symbol is used for the very similar vowel of German Sohn and Italian sono, etc.) The same change applies to the start-point of the CHOICE diphthong.

FOOT. Classic RP had a relatively back vowel, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ʊ/. Current SSB has a fronter vowel, nearer to [ɵ]. (The symbol /ʊ/ is accurate for Northern England FOOT and German kaputt.) Classic RP used this vowel extensively in unstressed syllables, eg popular, but CUBE opts for the more modern option of ə in such words. Classic RP also allowed this vowel to occur finally and before vowels, eg thank you, graduation; in such cases CUBE uses GOOSE.

FACE, PRICE, CHOICE. In classic RP, these diphthongs ended in a less-than-high quality, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ɪ/. In current SSB, when these are pronounced in their fullest form, they end in [i] or [j]. The start-point of PRICE was relatively front in RP, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /aɪ/. In current SSB, the start-point is backer, nearer to [ɑ].

FLEECE. In classic RP, this was often a very close monophthong, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /iː/. In current SSB, when pronounced in its fullest form, it is a diphthong [ɪi] or [ɪj]. It therefore belongs to the set of front-closing diphthongs, with FACE, PRICE, and CHOICE. This affiliation is further demonstrated by the fact that, like the other diphthongs, it can occur immediately before another vowel with the same word, eg museum, crayon, lion, voyage.

MOUTH, GOAT. In classic RP, these diphthongs ended in a less-then-high quality, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ʊ/. In current SSB, when these are pronounced in their fullest form, they end in [u] or [w].

GOOSE. In classic RP, this was often a very close monophthong, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /uː/. In current SSB, when pronounced in its fullest form, it is a diphthong [ʉu] or [ʉw]. It therefore belongs to the set of back-closing diphthongs, with MOUTH and GOAT. This affiliation is further demonstrated by the fact that, like the other diphthongs, it can occur immediately before another vowel with the same word, eg fluid, power, oasis.

SQUARE. In classic RP, this was a diphthong moving from mid-front to mid-central, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ɛə/ or /eə/. In current SSB, it is a long open-mid monophthong, [ɛː]. (This symbol is also used by Oxford Dictionaries online.)

NEAR. In classic RP, this was a diphthong moving from lax ɪ to mid-central, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ɪə/. In current SSB, it is becoming a long near-close monophthong, [ɪː]. When heavily accentuated, it may also be pronounced [ɪjə].

CURE. In classic RP, this was a diphthong moving from lax ʊ to mid-central, shown in Gimsonian transcription as /ʊə/. In current SSB, this tends to be replaced with the THOUGHT vowel, eg poor, sure. tourist. When preceded by a palatal consonant, many speakers have [ɵː], eg Europe, security, during, mature.

(NURSE. This vowel is essentially unchanged, a long schwa, əː. Gimson, however, was determined not to use the same symbol in any pair of short and long vowels, and was keen to preserve a dogma that ‘schwa does not occur in stressed syllables’. For this reason an extra symbol ‘ɜː’ was employed for NURSE in classic RP, and it survives in many sources. CUBE’s əː is also used by Oxford Dictionaries online.)

happY. Classic RP allowed the KIT vowel finally and before vowels, eg happy, react. In current SSB, the FLEECE vowel is used instead. Starting around the 1990s, many sources began to reflect this change partially, by using a special symbol /i/. This was intended to mean not a new phoneme, but rather the possibility of KIT or FLEECE. This special symbol, sometimes nicknamed ‘schwee’, has been almost universally misunderstood. CUBE is a strictly phonemic dictionary and so does not use it, even in its Gimsonian transcriptions. CUBE’s ‘Gim’ transcriptions are not meant to indicate classic RP pronunciation per se, but current pronunciation expressed in terms of the old, ‘establishment' symbols.

The consonant system has remained far more stable. Probably the biggest change now underway is the loss of θ and ð, already widespread among the youngest speakers throughout Britain. This is not yet sufficiently advanced to be recorded in CUBE’s default transcription; but it is available as an option under ACCENTS (see below).

Perhaps the main consonantal difference between classic RP and current SSB is the extent to which the clusters tj and dj become the affricates tʃ and dʒ, especially in unstressed syllables, eg RP spætjʊlə > SSB spatʃələ. (The old RP transcription of this word survives in several dictionaries.) CUBE shows palatalization in unstressed syllables, but elsewhere is rather conservative: Tuesday, for example, retains tj by default. However, full palatalization can be chosen as an option under ACCENTS (see below).

3 Customizing CUBE’s default transcription

The purpose of CUBE is not to promote a new transcription system but to improve the understanding of English pronunciation. Transcription is an imperfect tool to help describe pronunciation, and there is always more than one way to transcribe a word or phrase. We can choose symbols which show more detail, or symbols which are more familiar to the non-specialist. (One of the main shortcomings of the well-established Gimsonian system is that it uses many ‘specialist’ symbols, but uses them in ways that are no longer accurate.)

For example, CUBE by default shows the consonant of ray, raw, and arrow as ɹ, which is the accurate IPA symbol for this English sound. Strictly, the IPA symbol [r] is a trill, as in Spanish perro. It can be useful for non-native English learners and users to be reminded of the differentness of English ɹ. However, for users who prefer a simplified transcription, upright r can be chosen as an option under SYMBOLS. It should be noted that these symbol customizations do not imply a change in pronunciation: they merely reflect the flexibility or indeterminacy which is inherent in phonetic transcription.

You are encouraged to experiment with the customizations available under SYMBOLS. More detail is given here.

4 Other accents in CUBE

As explained above, the default reference accent for CUBE is contemporary ‘Standard Southern British’. This accent is certainly not general throughout Britain’s regions and socioeconomic groups. We have begun to implement options which allow you to display results with certain phonetic differences. These may be selected by ticking the boxes under ACCENTS.

Unlike the customizations which are available under SYSTEMS and SYMBOLS, these options indicate actual differences in pronunciation.

The ACCENTS options are work in progress, and you are encouraged to explore them and send us any comments and suggestions you have. Here are brief explanations of the current options:

baθ

Ticking this box effectively reverses the process of BATH-broadening which took place in southern England in the 18th century. Prior to this, words like trap and bath contained the same vowel. BATH-broadening lengthened the latter set, which contains many frequent words with a following voiceless fricative or nasal-plus-consonant, eg bath, path, laugh, after, class, ask, answer, example. Ticking this box will display all such words with the same vowel as bad, pack, lad, avenue, clap, have, cancel, handle. Unbroadened BATH is characteristic of northern England (and North America).

tjʉwn

Ticking this box undoes, the palatalization of tj and dj clusters to tʃ and dʒ. The default SSB accent of CUBE currently has palatalized ʧ and ʤ clusters before stressed vowels, eg tune and dune. However, some SSB speakers still fail to palatalize in these clusters these in some or all words.

fɪŋk

Ticking this box applies the changes which are widely known by Jack Windsor Lewis’s term ‘TH-fronting’: θ becomes f, while ð becomes d initially and v elsewhere. TH-fronting is stigmatized to some degree with older speakers, but it is now extremely common among the youngest speakers throughout Britain, across socioeconomic groups. It can already be heard to a limited extent from TV presenters, including newsreaders. It is possible that θ and ð will become marginal in future SSB.

mɪwk

Ticking this box applies the change known as L-vocalization. In accents with this feature, l becomes a high back vocoid when not before a vowel. Some accents with L-vocalization retain a vowel system like SSB, but in other L-vocalizing accents there are radical changes to the vowel system, so that eg feel merges with fill and field rhymes with build. CUBE’s mɪwk option is currently work in progress and gives only a general idea of the phenomenon.

gɔwl

Ticking this box retracts the GOAT vowel before non-prevocalic l, so that goal is gɔwl (Gim gɒʊl) while goat remains gəwt (gəʊt). Phonetically, this is certainly a feature of SSB pronunciation. However, it is debatable whether it constitutes a phonemic change, so CUBE’s default transcriptions retain non-retracted GOAT in words like goal. Note that a more progressive form of this change actually replaces GOAT with LOT, so that goal is gɔl (Gim gɒl).