<P> Phonological analysis of English often concentrates on or uses, as a reference point, one or more of the prestige or standard accents, such as Received Pronunciation for England, General American for the United States, and General Australian for Australia . Nevertheless, many other dialects of English are spoken, which have developed independently from these standardized accents, particularly regional dialects . Information about these standardized accents functions only as a limited guide to all of English phonology, which one can later expand upon once one becomes more familiar with some of the many other dialects of English that are spoken . </P> <P> A phoneme of a language or dialect is an abstraction of a speech sound or of a group of different sounds which are all perceived to have the same function by speakers of that particular language or dialect . For example, the English word "through" consists of three phonemes: the initial "th" sound, the "r" sound, and an "oo" vowel sound . Notice that the phonemes in this and many other English words do not always correspond directly to the letters used to spell them (English orthography is not as strongly phonemic as that of many other languages). </P> <P> The number and distribution of phonemes in English vary from dialect to dialect, and also depend on the interpretation of the individual researcher . The number of consonant phonemes is generally put at 24 (or slightly more). The number of vowels is subject to greater variation; in the system presented on this page there are 20 vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation, 14--16 in General American and 20--21 in Australian English (CITE). The pronunciation keys used in dictionaries generally contain a slightly greater number of symbols than this, to take account of certain sounds used in foreign words and certain noticeable distinctions that may not be--strictly speaking--phonemic . </P> <P> The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English, in addition to / x /, whose distribution is more limited . Fortis consonants are always voiceless, aspirated in syllable onset (except in clusters beginning with / s /), and sometimes also glottalized to an extent in syllable coda (most likely to occur with / t /, see T - glottalization), while lenis consonants are always unaspirated and un-glottalized, and generally partially or fully voiced . The alveolars are usually apical, i.e. pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the roof of the mouth, though some speakers produce them laminally, i.e. with the blade of the tongue . </P>

How many sounds are there in english phonetic
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