Float’ symbols

The vowels represented by the symbols [I Y U ə æ ɐ] are not cardinal, but vowels that are none the less useful in the description of languages. Their values are stated relative to CVs, hence the name ‘float’ symbols. Transcriptions of English commonly use some of these symbols, so we will consider them here.

The symbol [I] is commonly used for a short close spread vowel: the sound of RP or General American ‘bid’.

The symbol [υ], in the opposite corner of the chart, stands in the same relation to [u] as [I] stands in to [i]: somewhat more central and open. It is often used to represent the vowel of the word ‘good’.

Both [I] and [υ] are used to represent short vowels in opposition to the long vowels [i(:)] and [u(:)], as in pairs like ‘beat’ – ‘bit’, ‘book’ – ‘booed’ in e.g. RP and General American. Because the short vowels are also different in quality, the opposition is sometimes know as ‘tense’ [i] and [u] vs ‘lax’ [I] and [υ].

The symbol [æ] stands for a sound somewhere between CV3 and CV4. This is traditionally used to represent the short open vowel of the word ‘bad’ in many varieties. (The symbol was used traditionally to remind learners of English – especially French or German speakers – that the RP vowel is closer to [ε] than the [a]-like vowel found in many other languages.)

In between close-mid and open-mid is the vowel [ə], sometimes called ‘schwa’. This stands for a mid central vowel, sometimes called a ‘neutral’ vowel, and it is used to transcribe unstressed vowels in words such as ‘sofa’, ‘banana’, ‘assume’, ‘today’. In varieties such as RP and Australian English, where  is only pronounced before vowels, unstressed syllables in words like ‘butter’, ‘letter’, ‘perhaps’ also have this vowel or the more open [ɐ]. Its precise quality is highly variable, partly because it is very short and strongly coloured by neighbouring consonants; this is one reason why a ‘float’ symbol, with no precise definition, can be a useful tool for transcription: it can cover a wide range of qualities in one symbol.