The British English RP vowel system is more complex than that of Arabic. The RP vowels inventory includes pure vowels or (monophthongs) which include /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ʊ/, /ɒ/, /ə/, /iː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, /uː/, /ɑː/, and diphthongs /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /əʊ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/. In addition, there are also triphthongs including /aɪə/, /aʊə/, and /ɔɪə/.

 

 

 

 

Figure 3 shows the English RP monophthong chart, noting that all long monophthongs are followed by the IPA length symbol /ː/. Figure 4 shows the diphthongs of RP English, where the arrows show the direction of the glide between two vowels; the figures are based on charts taken from Roach (2004, 242).

 

 

 

According to Roach (2004), RP English has been characterized as including a large vowel inventory divided into short vowels, long vowels, and diphthongs. Diphthongs are either categorized as centering diphthongs (ending in /ə/) or closing diphthongs (ending in [ɪ] or [ʊ]). It is probably worth mentioning that a closing diphthong can have a [ə] vowel added to it as in /ədˈmaɪə/ ‘admire’, and the generated complex vowel unit is often classified as a triphthong if pronounced as a single syllable.