Monday, October 29, 2018

Pronunciation of the Allomorph /-es/

The English allomorph /-es/ occurs in plurals and third personal singular verbs. Examples of plurals  include boxes, judges and roses. The allomorph also occurs with third personal singular verbs such as catchesfixes and wishes. The allomorph has two possible pronunciations: it can be pronounced [əz] and [Iz].

The pronunciation [əz] is used in Canada, the northern United States, Australia and New Zealand. In Received Pronunciation, the pronunciation [Iz] is used. This pronunciation is also used in southern England and the southern United States.

The English schwa only occurs in unstressed syllables. However, the high front lax vowel is also common in unstressed positions. In certain dialects such as Australian, Canadian and Northern American, the schwa is used in the allomorph /-es/ but in others such as Received Pronunciation and Southern American, the high front lax vowel is used.


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