Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The conservative American vowel system -- 2.1 Major rules and conventions -- 2.1.1 Free and checked vowels, vowel length and duration -- 2.1.2 Segmental allophonic realizations -- 2.1.3 Neutralization of vowel contrasts before /ɹ/ -- 2.2 Formal aspects of the system -- 3 The progressive American vowel system -- 3.1 Significant features: Low-back merger and pre-r vowel changes -- 3.2 Conventions and formal aspects of the system -- 4 The conservative British vowel system -- 4.1 Major rules and conventions -- 4.1.1 Secondary phonemes -- 4.2 Free and checked vowels and formal aspects -- 5 The progressive British vowel system -- 5.1 Significant features -- 5.1.1 Lowering of /æ/ -- 5.1.2 Leveling of centering diphthongs -- 5.2 Vowels in unstressed syllables -- 6 Summary of the English vowel systems and convergence vs. divergence in American and British pronunciation -- 7 The conservative German vowel system -- 7.1 Standard pronunciation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland -- 7.2 The vocalic inventory and its structure -- 7.3 Major rules and conventions -- 7.3.1 Long and short vocalic segments and problems of syllable cut theory -- 7.3.2 Vocalic segments in non-prominent syllables -- 7.3.3 Schwa deletion before /n, m, l/ -- 7.3.4 Vowels and rhotic consonants -- 8 The progressive German system -- 8.1 Significant features and major rules -- 8.1.1 Free and checked vocalic segments and quantity assignment -- 8.1.2 The phoneme /e/ and its realization -- 8.1.3 The phonemes /ɑ/ and /a/ -- 8.1.4 Generalized schwa deletion before /n, m, l/ -- 8.1.5 Generalized r-vocalization -- 9 Summary of the German vowel systems and mixed systems -- 10 The conservative Dutch vowel system -- 10.1 Standard pronunciation in the Netherlands and Belgium: ABN and the Taalunie -- 10.2 Native vocalic segments and marginal vowels.

10.3 The phonetics of true diphthongs -- 10.4 Major rules and conventions -- 10.4.1 Subclasses of native vocalic segments and syllable structure -- 10.4.2 Qualitative allophones -- 10.4.3 Vowel-glide sequences (derived diphthongs) -- 10.4.4 Vowels in unstressed syllables -- 10.4.5 Quantity assignment -- 10.4.6 Some comparative remarks on allophonic vowel duration in Dutch, English, and German -- 10.5 Significant features of the conservative accent -- 10.5.1 Phonological diphthongs -- 10.5.2 Consonantal correlates: /r/ and fricatives -- 11 The progressive Dutch vowel system -- 11.1 Significant features -- 11.1.1 Diphthong lowering (Polder Dutch) -- 11.1.2 Consonantal correlates:Gooise r, loss of /ɣ/, and consolidation of /χ/ -- 12 Summary of the Dutch vowel systems -- 13 Universal and typological aspects -- 13.1 Phoneme inventories and numerical differences -- 13.1.1 Traditional vs. minimalist analysis of English vowel systems -- 13.1.2 The true diphthongs of English, German, and Dutch -- 13.1.3 Vowel inventories of standards and dialects -- 13.1.4 Number of vowel phonemes and vowel qualities -- 13.2 Structural forms and patterns -- 13.2.1 Form of the overall vowel systems -- 13.2.2 Classes of front vowels -- 13.2.3 Vowel heights -- 13.2.4 Vowel length: A tentative typology -- 13.2.5 Rhoticity -- 14 Epilogue: The recent developments and their external causes -- 15 References.