In all these cases – “afraid”, “London” and “breakfast” – the vowel in question is in unstressed syllable. Unstressed vowels tend to degenerate to ə.
Say the words aloud slowly to yourself, BC. (or listen to them using one of the sound files in a dictionary). After a while you should find it easier to define the sounds and you will notice that the a in afraid and breakfast doesn’t sound like the ‘a’ in apple. It makes more of an ‘uh’ noise. The second o in London makes the same ‘uh’ sound but uses different phonemes (letters/letter groups) to do so.
Other examples of the same ‘uh’ sound represented by ə, but using different phonemes:
teacher, collar, doctor, measure, zebra, garden, fossil, lion, circus.
To my knowledge, this reduction (the use of the “schwa” sound for unstressed syllables) does not occur in some languages. There are languages out there where every syllable of every word is pronounced distinctly, without reduction (I think this pertains to Italian).
That’s why I thought BC might be better off listening to someone else pronouncing the words.
Would you please tell me how I can identify the difference between the sounds for the letter “o” when it comes in the middle of a word like the word “rock”, the symbol for it is ɒ
and the word st[color=red]op, why their symbol is ɒ
I have also recorded my voice for the word “stop”.
And other words that have letter “o” in the middle like “home” the symbol for it is oʊ
Can you explain me, please?
Here is my voice recording for the word “stop”
mediafire.com/?w7yx76jhc97saxx
If you can’t hear my speach, well I said in the record.
The word is “stop”, why don’t I say it “stop”?
‘Stop’ and ‘home’ both contain the same second letter, but the second letter makes a different sound when you say it.
The only thing you can do is listen carefully for the differences. It will get easier in time.
You pronounced ‘stop’ correctly.
stop shop rock all have the same sound for ‘o’ and the symbol for that sound is [ɒ]
The ‘o’ in home is pronounced differently from above.
home stone rope all have the same ‘o’ sound. It is the same sound as the letters ‘oa’ make in ‘coat’ and the symbol for that is [oʊ]
I’ve just tried again to get the voice recorder working but it’s still stuttering. I think I’m going to have to reinstall Java. I don’t have time right now though. Perhaps one of the other native English speaklers could oblige if they see this message?
Thanks,
but what I meant is that how do I know the correct sound for the letter “o” for different words?
By listening to the correct pronunciation carefully. There’s no other way.
Your phonetics course is about how words sound, not how they look.
Hi,
I’ve taken the liberty of recording what Bev has said but of course I don’t have a Welsh accent!
‘Stop’ and ‘home’ both contain the same second letter, but the second letter makes a different sound when you say it.
The only thing you can do is listen carefully for the differences. It will get easier in time.
You pronounced ‘stop’ correctly.
stop shop rock all have the same sound for ‘o’ and the symbol for that sound is [ɒ]
The ‘o’ in home is pronounced differently from above.
home stone rope all have the same ‘o’ sound. It is the same sound as the letters ‘oa’ make in ‘coat’ and the symbol for that is [oʊ]
Unfortunately, you sometimes just have to learn the words separately. There is no way of telling, for example, that the “o” is pronounced in three different ways in “love”, “move” and “rove”, except by learning the pronunciations individually. Although there are no foolproof rules, there are a few guidelines. For example, it’s virtually certain that the “o” in “totter” is pronounced as /ɒ/ because it is followed by a double “t”. On the Internet you will find numerous attempts to formulate such “rules” ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_sp … el_letters lists what it calls “major values” (which I suppose means most likely/common pronunciations) and “minor values” (less common pronunciations) for vowels in various positions. But, to reiterate, any “rules” to do with English pronunciation and spelling are most likely to have exceptions.
Thank you! That’s very helpful and, I suspect, far less confusing than with a Welsh accent.
I can’t understand the difference between this two vowel symbols:
oʊ and ɒ
oʊ as in h[color=red]ome
and ɒ as in h[color=red]ot, r[color=red]ock
What is the difference, please?
Both of the symbols, the words have the letter “o” in the middle of the words, and I also noticed they have the same pronunciation
There’s a world of difference between them 
I scoured the internet and came up with this excellent explanation (mind you: it’s American pronunciation, as Bev has laid out below, it doesn’t apply to British pronunciation):
The “ah” sound:
rachelsenglish.com/vowel_ah_father
The “oh” sound:
rachelsenglish.com/diph_oh_no
Examples:
ah:
- Father
- Hot
- Rock
- Chock
- Drop
…
oh:
- No
- Home
- Scold
- Loan
- Roll
…
I still don’t understand, this is too complicated and sorry for asking too much.
But what I meant is that how can I know which symbol of these two symbols is the right one that indicates to the letter “o” in a word?
When in transcription question… Suppose I read a new word and I know it’s a letter “o” in the middle of that word… How can I pronounce it correctly in order to transcribe the letter “o” to the right symbol either oʊ or ɒ
You are correct about them being very different in terms of pronunciation, but I’m not sure your internet sources were up to scratch, Tort.
‘Father’ does not match the other words in your first list, but is the only one that makes an ‘ah’ sound.
hot, rock, chop and drop have an o like the initial sound of the word ‘orange’.
no, home, scold and roll have an o sound like the initial sound of the word ‘owing’. ‘Loan’ also has this sound, but it is made from the digraph ‘oa’.
The only accurate way is by listening carefully to the correctly pronounced word.
As I’ve explained previously, sounds and letters don’t always match.
home: long vowel sound: /həʊm/(BrE) or /hoʊm/(AmE)
hot: short vowel sound: /hɒt/(BrE) or /hɑːt/(AmE)
Hi Bev,
I went on to listen through the whole clip and the coach seems to liken the stressed vowel sounds of the words “father”, “bottle”, “bother”, “mom”, etc…
Also, from all appearances she’s an American, so it’s must be a difference between AmE and BrE.
Ahhh, thank you very much Beeesneees!!!
I got it now.
So I can recognize them from the short or long vowel…
Short vowel sound is ɒ
and long vowel sound is əʊ
OK Beeesneees I have another question.
In the symbol “i” which is also a short symbol.
As in (p[color=red]in - w[color=red]omen - b[color=red]usy - t[color=red]ip)
In the word “busy”. It’s lucky that I already know the pronunciation of this word so it’s familiar for me to transcribe the letter “u” to the symbol “i”…
But, many other people as soon as they see the letter “u” they will think that they are supposed to transcribe it to the symbol “ʊ”
So, what’s your best advice to me about this?
How to make a difference for this letter “u” when it comes in the middle of a word as it sometimes means “i” pronunciation as in the word “b[color=red]usy”…
And so “u” in this word is transcribed to the vowel symbol [color=red]ɪ
I haven’t any more to add to what I’ve already said. To sum up:
There is no shortcut.
Dozy has already posted a list of general rules which would help point someone in the general direction, but they aren’t foolproof.
You have to learn each pronunciation, then listen to the way the phonics sound.
I have now listened to the clip, which explains the ‘a’ in ‘father’. To me, regardless of differences in accent, I do not relate that sound to the sound in the ‘sample words’ listed. They are very different sounds. I imagine the sample words are just general examples of what happens to the tongue during all vowel sounds, not just the ‘ah’ sound, as she says this:
“Notice that, as in all vowels, the soft palate is raised.”
Hi Bev,
I searched the internet some more and bumped into this video on youtube, where a British dude contends that (and I quote) In the US, most people pronounce the words ‘father’, ‘fall’ and ‘fog’ with the same vowel sound in the middle.
youtube.com/watch?v=Hycj95SDnI4
By the way, I’m anxious to know what you gleaned from the video you said you were about to listen to. ))