Pronunciation
APPENDIX M
ENGLISH
(Trager and Smith's analysis)
| Front Unrounded | Central Unrounded | Back Rounded | |
| High | i (pit) | ɨ | u (put) |
| Mid | e (pet) | ə (putt) | o (as in coat, but no w—glide) |
| Low | a (pat) | a (pot, American) | ɔ (pot, Standard British) |
[The high central vowel sound ɨ is very frequent in speech, but is only rarely in contrast with other English vowel sounds, and is therefore hard to illustrate for non-phoneticians.]
20.THAI
(Symbols as in Yates and Tryon)
| Front | Central-Back Unrounded | Back Rounded | |
| High | i (pii) | y (khyy) | u (duu) |
| Mid | e (thee) | ə (pə̀ət) | o (too) |
| Low | ɛ (jɛ̂ɛ) | a (sǎa) | ɔ (tòo) |
21. By far the most important difference between these two vowel systems is that in Thai the vowel y is in full contrast with all other vowels, while in English the vowel ɨ can almost always be replaced by some other vowel without a change of meaning. There are however certain noticeable differences between the Thai vowels and their closest English counterparts. (For details, see Noss, pp. 15-17.)
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