The 6 short vowels can be found in the following words: lick, leg, lack, lock, look, luck.

There are two main features of them: one is that they are, phonetically, shorter than the other vowels, as we shall see when we introduce the long vowels; the other is, that they are, phonologically, never able to appear at the end of a word in English - they must always be followed by a consonant. So, by introducing the short vowels first, we shall also have to practise the use of some of the consonant symbols. Some of the letters of the alphabet function also as phonetic symbols, such as b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z – all with their common English values. (Note that / g / represents the initial sound in get, not that of gem).

The symbols we will use are all authorised by the IPA, the International Phonetic Association, and can be used to represent the sounds of any language in the world. But please note that you must write them as printed, eg as / f /, not <f>; as / z /, not <Z>, etc.

Now, the first short vowel that we listed was in the word lick; that vowel is represented by a symbol that looks like a small capital < I >; lick is transcribed as

l I k

Notice that the < ck > at the end of the word represents a single sound, and so only a single phonetic symbol, / k / is required. Transcribe all these words too that rhyme with lick making sure that you write a / k / all by itself at the end:

pick, tick, kick, nick, wick, trick, slick, stick

___ , ___, ___,____,____ ,____,____,_____

One of these words could have been a name – Nick. The name Nick, and the common noun, nick, are pronounced in exactly the same way despite the use of the capital < N >; because they are pronounced the same, they must be transcribed the same: / n I k /. It would be phonetically incorrect to use a capital letter in a name as a phonetic symbol in a case like this. Notice also that the name, Nick, could also be spelt N I C or N I K, but because this makes no difference to the pronunciation, it makes no difference to the transcription either. So, nick, Nick, Nic and Nik are all transcribed as / n I k /. (Because they are pronounced the same, despite their different spellings, the words are called homophones.)

Now, transcribe these other names, making sure you do not use any capital letters as phonetic symbols:

Mick, Dick, Rick, Vic, Tim, Phil

___ , ___, ___,____,____ ,____,____,_____

Here some more words with the same vowel sound, to give you practice with the symbol / I /.

pip, bib, did, kid, gig, fit, trip, slit, film, trim

___ , ___, ___,____,____ ,____,____,_____

And now try these:

licks, sticks, kicks, tricks, wicks, slicks

___ , ___, ___,____,____ ,____,____,_____

Notice that they rhyme with the following names with apostrophe <’s >:

Nick’s, Dick’s, Rick’s, Vic’s, Mick’s

___ , ___, ___,____,____ ,____,____,_____

The apostrophe must not be included in the transcription, because it is not pronounced. And notice, too, that Mick’s and MIX are homophones – they are pronounced the same, and so should be transcribed the same: / m I k s /.

Transcribe: six, fix, mix ________________

You could also now transcribe the word quick, using only the symbols introduced so far: / k w I k /. Try:

quip, quit, quid, quiz, quill, quilt, squint, liquid, quick fix

You could also transcribe the word, knit, noting that the initial < k > is not pronounced and so is not transcribed: / n I t / (knit and nit are homophones.)

Transcribe the following words in which, in each case, a letter is silent:

whim, whip, whist, wrist, biscuit, snippet, ticket

Remember that / k / is used whatever the spelling for the / k / sound; so, click is / k l I k /. Then transcribe

crick, cricket, crib, crypt, script, clips, victim

____________________________________

Vic prints Nik’s scripts _________________________________

Kim nicks Philip’s biscuits _________________________________

Six miss Rick’s film _________________________________

1. A unit of sound in the phonological system of a language (known technically as a phoneme) must be represented by a single symbol, whatever variations may occur in spelling; eg <k, c, ck, q(u)> and an element of < x > all represent the one English consonant phoneme / k /.
2. Capital letters are not used for English phonemes; since < n > and < N > (etc) are pronounced identically, they must be represented by a single symbol, eg / n /.
3. Homophones – pairs (or sets) of words with the same pronunciation despite different spellings – must be transcribed with the same symbols, eg Mick’s, mix.
4. The apostrophe must not be transcribed, since it is not pronounced: Mick’s = / m I k s / ; Philip’s = / f I l I p s /
5. A single letter may represent two phonemes in transcription; each of those phonemes requires its own symbol; eg < x > (in six) = / ks /
6. A double letter may represent a single phoneme; in transcription that single phoneme must be represented by a single symbol; eg < ss > in miss = / m I s /; < pp > in snippet = / s n I p I t /.

7. A letter may be redundant as far as pronunciation is concerned: if a letter represents ‘silence’, it must not have a corresponding symbol in the transcription of a word, eg < w > in wrist = / r I s t /.
8. Word spaces are retained as in orthography, even when there is no ‘space’, or silence, in pronunciation. Note that the phrase snip it is pronounced identically to the single word snippet. However, word spaces are preserved to aid reading: / s n I p I t /.

A few more rules will need to be added in due course.

The second short vowel that we listed occurred in the word leg; that vowel is represented by an IPA symbol that looks like the Greek letter < E >, (epsilon). So leg is transcribed as

l E g

Some dictionaries use the ordinary Roman letter < e >, because it has a more familiar look; however, in IPA, < e > represents the sound in a French word like theæ, or German Tee, Italian teæ, Welsh teì; or in many an English accent a word like lake. That vowel sound is distinctly different from the vowel in leg. Compare another pair of words: the word LATE in many English accents is pronounced: "late", compared to let. So, for comparative purposes, when, for instance, comparing the vowels of English and another language, or the vowels of two different accents of English, we need to keep the ordinary Roman letter < e > as the IPA symbol for the / e / sound, and rely on the Greek < E > as the IPA symbol for the / E / sound. Thus, egg is / E g /.

Using the symbol / E /, now transcribe

peg, beg, keg ________________________

and pet, net, debt, well, tent, send, kept, crept, twelve

_______________________________________

and the names: Ben, Greg, Kent, Meg, Rex, Brett

___________________________

The vowel sound / E / is spelt in various ways including < ea >. Transcribe

head, dead, dealt, meant ____________________________

and the homophones bread and bred, and wrecks and Rex ____ ____

ATE, the past tense of eat in a British accent is / E t /.

Now transcribe friend and said ____ ____

Fred kept twelve tents ____________________________

Ted said ten; Ed meant twelve____________________________

Did Meg wed Denis ____________________________

Meg kept Denis in debt ____________________________

Did Tim edit Phil’s film script____________________________

Ed will edit it ____________________________

Now try the word EXTENT, remembering not to use the < x > letter. The first

< e > is either / e / or / I / : /E k s t E n t/, or /I k s t E n t/

Now transcribe expend, excel, excess, except, expect, extensive, expensive, excessive, expressive.

____________________________________________________________________

How do you pronounce the word EXIT: / E k s I t /, or / E g z I t / ? British people seem to be equally divided, but note the < x > can represent either pronunciation. Which pronunciation occurs in the word exist? How would you transcribe it?

Transcribe the following words, carefully noting how the < x > is pronounced.

excess, exempt, exhibit __________________________

Did you notice the different rhythm in the two words exit and exist? In the first, the first syllable is stronger: EXit – however the < x > is pronounced. In the second the second syllable is stronger: exIST. In transcriptions, there is a mark ' placed at the beginning of a syllable to indicate the stronger stress. Thus

'E k s I t (or "E g z I t ) E g"z I s t

We have already used words with two syllables, disyllabic words, to illustrate the two short vowels / I / and / E /. We should now add the stress mark to each of them, eg biscuit = / "b I s k I t /. Add the stress mark to the phonetic transcription of

snippet, ticket, wicket, cricket, Philip___________________________

extent, expect, excess, except ___________________________

And to the three-syllabled (trisyllabic) words

extensive, expensive, excessive, exhibit

________________________________

Transcribe the following words, including stress

mystic, cryptic, wicked, quintet, sextet, septic, sceptic (or American:

skeptic), tennis

_______________________________________________________

chemist, Celtic (two possibilities), dissent, dispel, distil,

_____________________________________________

diskette, dissect, incense (two possible stress patterns)

______________________________

dismissive, etiquette, sensitive, dyslexic, disincentive

____________________________________________

Before we turn to the third short vowel, we can add four more rules to good transcription practice.

9. A letter may represent two (or more) quite distinct phonemes, each of which must be transcribed distinctively; eg < c > may represent / k / as in crib (= / k r I b /) or / s / as in cent (= / s E n t /); < x > may represent / ks / as in except ( = / ^E k ^"s E p t /) or / gz / as in exempt
(= / E g ^"z E m p t /).
10. Two words spelt identically but pronounced differently – these are called homographs – need to be transcribed differently; Celtic, incense.



11. Degrees of syllable strength need to be marked, especially in words of more than one syllable, polysyllabic words; incense (an aromatic substance) = / "I n s E n s / and incense (to enrage) = / I n"s E n s /.
12. Alternative pronunciations in a single accent must be respected and corresponding alternative transcriptions acknowledged: EXIT may be either / ^"E k s I t / or / ^"E g z I t /; EXIST may be either

The third short vowel listed was in the word lack; it is represented by an IPA symbol that looks like the Old English ‘ash’ letter / { / as if a letter < e > was joined to < a >. You draw it by starting with a reverse < c >; then loop back through the middle of it, and finish with an < e >.

You can then transcribe: pack, back, mac, knack, whack, quack, stack, track

_________________________________________

and also: cap, stab, flat, pram, lamb, ant, mass, tramp, axe, plaits.

____________________________________________

Try: packet, acid, traffic, graphic access, active (remember the stress mark!)

__________________________________

and the names Ann(e), Dan, Pat, Zac, Pam, Stan, Sam, Alice, Annette, Patrick

___________________________________________________

And now this k w I k t E s t (1)

pick peck pack ___ ___ ___

sit set sat ___ ___ ___

tin ten tan ___ ___ ___

sinned send sand ___ ___ ___

trick trek track ___ ___ ___ (See Key)

The fourth short vowel in the list was in the word lock; this vowel is represented by an IPA symbol that looks like a handwritten < a > upside down: / Q /. To draw it start with the hook at the top left; then drop down vertically and return with a curve to the right, up and round to the original hook.

You can then transcribe: dock, mock, knock, sock, rock, crock, flock, clock

_________________________________________

and also: pop, blob, trot, odd, clog, pomp, bond, off, moss, ox

__________________________________________

and: pocket, toxic, horrid, wedlock, con trick (with stress marks!)

_________________________________

Notice these words that all have the vowel sound / Q / despite their spelling with the letter <a>: what is / w Q t /.

Transcribe: want, wasp, swan, swamp, quad, squad, quadratic, squalid

______________________________________________

and the names Tom, Don, Dot, Ron, Scott, Colin.

___________________________

The fifth short vowel in the list was in the word look; the IPA symbol that represents this sound as it typically occurs in most accents of England and Wales looks like the Greek letter ‘omega’, but upside down: / U /. You can draw this by starting with a hook at the top left and then descend and rise with a u-shape, finishing with a hook at the top right.

The word look is transcribed l U k

You can then transcribe: took, book, cook, nook, hook, brook, stook

___________________________________

and also: foot, good, soot, put, pull, bull, full, wood/would, could

____________________________________________

And finally, the sixth short vowel in the list was in the word luck; the IPA symbol for this vowel looks like an upside down < v >: / V /. The word luck is transcribed l V k

You can then transcribe: buck, duck, tuck, muck, ruck, truck, pluck

__________________________________

and also: pup, cub, strut, slug, dumb, fund, sulk, slump, drum, crumb, struck

______________________________________________________

and these names Gus, Huck _____ _____

and then these with <o, oo>: monk, blood, flood, dove, come, love, front

And then these homophones: sun / son ____

sum / some ____

plum / plumb ____

Distinguish carefully between look, luck; took, tuck; rook, ruck; book, buck.

The word ONE is pronounced as either / w V n / or / w Q n /, or even / w U n / in some accents. Check your own pronunciation and transcribe: someone

_______

and: summit, pundit, uphill, uphold, upset (two stress possibilities, either as a noun (an upset) or a verb (to upset)

________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

___________

And another k w I k t E s t (2)

pit pet pat pot put putt

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

stick stack stock stuck ____ ____ ____ ____

hit hat hot hut ____ ____ ____ ____

hack hock hook Huck ____ ____ ____ ____

hid head had hod hood

____ ____ ____ ____ ____

tick Tec tack tock took tuck

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

slip slap slop ____ ____ ____

rick wreck rack rock rook ruck

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ (See Key)