Southeastern phonology: vowels and diphthongs

Table 1 shows the inventory of London vowels and diphthongs on the basis of Wells (1982: 304). For the purposes of comparison, Table 2 gives an overview of the variants used by adolescent speakers from the Southeast of England, including London, in the late 1990s. The forms for Milton Keynes and Reading are taken from Williams and Kerswill (1999: 143), those for London from Tollfree (1999: 165) and, in individual cases, from Altendorf (2003). Altendorf’s study covers fewer variables and will only be cited when results do not tally with those reported by Tollfree.