The GOOSE vowel

The GOOSE vowel is often very front in modern English, especially following alveolar consonants like [s t]; some transcription systems represent this through use of the symbol  . However, in older, more conservative varieties of both RP and General American, the GOOSE vowel was much backer, which partly explains the use of [u] to represent it. This vowel can also be unrounded, in which case a more accurate transcription might be  ; it is often produced this way in the south east of England in phrases like ‘it’s really good’  . This pronunciation is not, as one might think, new: it is found in phonetic descriptions of English at least from the 1920s.