Strut Vowel in American and British Accents

The STRUT sound, as in the words up, supper, and love, is quite different in the US than it tends to be in the UK. Americans tend to make it very much like the schwa sound, so that the vowel in both syllables of "above" sound nearly identical. Coaching ESL speakers may require a shift from what they're used to so that Americans more clearly understand them - and Americans need to make a subtle shift in this vowel for most British accents as well.

Here's a transcript of the video:

I want to talk about the STRUT vowel - that turned V.

So this turned V vowel, which is on the vowel chart here. This is the front of the mouth, this is the back of the mouth, the top, and the bottom. Theoretically this UH sound happens way in the back. Up, supper, love. So it's not very far from the AH vowel of FATHER.

Now for an RP speaker, Standard British, that sort of posh British accent, you will tend to, for many Americans it will sound like, for a word like up, supper, love, that they're actually saying up, sah, supper, love. Up, supper, love. Because these vowels are actually kind of close to one another, whereas most Americans take this turned V, and they move it very much towards the schwa sound, so that the word "above" for most Americans, it's going to feel like it's the same vowel in both syllables. Whereas it's commonly transcribed as "above" so that it's a schwa for the first syllable and the turned V for the second syllable.

But the reality is most Americans take this turned V, and do it closer to the schwa.

So you could represent that in a variety of ways. For the moment I'll use this diacritic of a plus sign, which means that it moves towards the front of the mouth. So that the UH becomes a little bit more like something in here. It's not precise as to where it moves, but that it moves in that direction. And that's the way that it happens for most Americans.

And I'll say when I tend to work with ESL, English as a second language speakers, who are trying to speak in a way that they can be distinctly understood by Americans, one of the things we have to work on is that they don't say a word like up or supper or love, as up supper love, but instead think of it as the schwa - UH UH - the schwa: up, supper, love. Because to Americans that will sound like the UH sound, whereas for many English speakers the UH sound will sound more to an American ear like an AH.

It can be very confusing as to which one it is so you want to be aware what the audience is looking for and what they're used to hearing, because for an American ear the turned V sound is incredibly different than it is to many British ears. And to many English as a second language speakers' ears.

There you go!

For more info on accents in general, check out AccentHelp.com.