Vowel symbols

The following chart contains five IPA systems for the vowels of British English. Some of the differences are due to different analyses, some to language change: Sweet’s system is from the end of the 19th century, Jones’ is almost a hundred years old, Gimson’s is fifty, Upton’s is twenty, Lindsey’s is current British English, ie CUBE. Colours represent the first of the five systems in which the symbol is used. Only one option is given for each CUBE symbol, but in fact they are much less rigidly defined, allowing a number of alternatives. The categorization of the vowels (checked, R, free, unstressed) follows the CUBE system.