2. ENGLISH PHONETICS: THE SCHWA
Our next move is going to take us, dear readers to English Phonetics! One of the main taught accents in the English language is RP or Received Pronunciation English. This accent is known as the "perfect English" or Queen and royalty language. Around 3% of the population in the world speaks it due to the fact that is one of the most difficult accents to master especially if your L1 has some kind of pre-established sounds when speaking English. RP has the purest sounds of the English language and is the main original British accent recognisable worldwide. Focusing a bit on phonetics here, RP has 12 vowel sounds. But wait! What's a vowel? Well... According to Cambridge Dictionary, a vowel is a speech sound that you make with your lips and teeth open. OK we all know the basic 5 vocals: a,e,i,o and u but here in RP we have as I said 12 vowel sounds, meaning that a sound can be represented for more than 1 vowel (a,e,i,o,u). Let's see how this works! This are the 12 vowels...