Today, we’re looking at an interesting pair of vowel sounds: /Ʌ/ and /ʊ/. So, I’m going to start by telling you about my own history with these sounds, because you may have noticed I use them inconsistently. My parents are from southern England, where the /Ʌ/ sound is used, and so, before I started school, I also used this /Ʌ/ sound. However, I grew up in northern England, where the /Ʌ/ sound doesn’t exist – /ʊ/ is used instead - and I quickly lost the /Ʌ/. However, since leaving home, I’ve travelled so much, and modelled the /Ʌ/ sound so often for my students, that it has crept back in a little. I still have to really think about making it, though, and you’ll notice that it doesn’t always come out the same! As with all sounds, whether you make it or not is only half the reason for spending some time on it: we do need to be able to recognise both sounds while listening, and also recognise that that /Ʌ/ sound can be replaced with the /ʊ/ sound for many speakers.
Let’s talk about how to make the sounds.
/Ʌ/ is made with the mouth pretty open, and mainly in the centre or slightly towards the back of the mouth. It can be easiest to start from the relaxed ‘schwa’ sound, if you mastered that in season 1. So, start with the mouth fully relaxed, as you would for schwa, and then open the jaw down, and move the back of the tongue down. Vibrate your vocal cords quickly, and you should get /Ʌ/. Let’s listen to me doing both steps, firstly from schwa to opening my jaw, and then the difference between opening my jaw and lowering my tongue. Although I find that most of my learners do have this /Ʌ/ sound by the time I meet them, some do find it difficult to distinguish from /æ/ (again, refer back to that episode in season 1 if you need to). For me the difference is in mouth position: it’s hard to make the /ae/ sound without at least stretching the sides of my mouth a little (it can be almost imperceptible). The mid and back of the tongue is also higher in the mouth for /æ/. It’s *not* a long sound, so if you’re confusing it with a long vowel like /ɑ:/, you’re holding it too long.
We’ll look at some common words with /Ʌ/.
1. above
2. adult
3. brother
4. bus
5. but
6. butter
7. club
8. colour
9. company
10. country
11. cousin
12. culture
13. cup
14. customer
15. cut
16. enough
17. front
18. fun
19. hundred
20. hungry
21. husband
22. just
23. love
24. luck
25. lunch
26. Monday
27. money
28. month
29. mother
30. much
31. must
32. nothing
33. number
34. other
35. result
36. run
37. son/ sun
38. subject
39. summer
40. sun
41. umbrella
42. uncle
43. under
44. up
To make /ʊ/, it also helps to start from a schwa position. This time, rather than lowering your jaw, you’ll raise your mid tongue in your mouth (still keeping it as relaxed as possible), and at the same time you’ll alter the position of your lips, rounding and flaring them. Again, vibrate your vocal cords quickly, and you should get /ʊ/.
And now let’s think about some common – and less common - words with /ʊ/.
1. brook
2. bullet
3. bully
4. bush
5. butcher
6. cook
7. crook
8. cushion
9. could
10. foot
11. full
12. good
13. hood
14. hook
15. look
16. push
17. put
18. should
19. stood
20. sugar
21. took
22. woman
23. wood/ would
24. wolf
I should note that ‘could’ and ‘should’ have the /ʊ/ sound when stressed, but their weak form is usually reduced to schwa.
If you want to play about with accent, let’s read some of the /Ʌ/ list again in a northern English accent, replacing the /Ʌ/ with /ʊ/.
1. above
2. adult
3. brother
4. bus
5. but
6. butter
7. club
8. colour
9. company
10. country
11. cousin
12. culture
13. cup
14. customer
15. cut
16. enough
17. front
18. fun
19. hundred
20. hungry
21. husband
22. just
23. love
24. luck
25. lunch
26. Monday
27. money
28. month
29. mother
30. much
31. must
32. nothing
33. number
34. other
35. result
36. run
37. son/ sun
38. subject
39. summer
40. sun
41. umbrella
42. uncle
43. under
44. up
There are a few minimal pairs with /Ʌ/ and /ʊ/, but we get into some pretty high-level vocabulary for most of them. Also, these are only minimal pairs for speakers who *do* distinguish between the sounds: many would be homophones for northern English speakers, and in fact some northern accents have their own way of pronouncing some of these words, for example “look” and “book” may become /lu:k/ and /bu:k/
buck book
luck look
crux crooks
putt put
stud stood
tuck took
Try these sentences:
He bought a book about bucks.
It’s lucky you looked!
Identifying the crooks is the crux of the issue.
Put the ball here, then putt it.
She stood on the studs.
I took him to bed and tucked him in.