[b][size=25]
Notes about En:[/b]
It is the [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]vowels[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25] that differ most from region to region.
Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]General American[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25] accent; the second corresponds to British English, [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]Received Pronunciation[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25].
1-The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/.
2-The letter <[i]U[/i]> can represent either /u/ or the [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iotation][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]iotated[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25] vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in [i]tune[/i], [i]during[/i], [i]sugar[/i], and [i]azure[/i]. In American English, palatalization does not generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by [i]r[/i], with the result that /(t, d,s, z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ respectively, as in [i]nature[/i], [i]verdure[/i], [i]sure[/i], and [i]treasure[/i].
3- [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_length][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]Vowel length[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25] plays a phonetic role in the majority of English dialects, and is said to be phonemic in a few dialects, such as [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]Australian English[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25] and [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]New Zealand English[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25]. In certain dialects of the modern English language, for instance [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]General American[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25], there is allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes are realized as long vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable. Before the [/size][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift][u][size=25][color:9b2c=#0000ff]Great Vowel Shift[/u][/color][/size][/url][size=25], vowel length was phonemically contrastive. [/size]
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