Phonology - Session 3 - English Vowels
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Transcript of Phonology - Session 3 - English Vowels
DEFINITIONCHARACTERISTICS CLASSIFICATION
ENGLISH PURE VOWELS ENGLISH DIPHTHONGS
ENGLISH TRIPHTHONGS
SESSION 3: ENGLISH VOWELS
“Vowel sounds differ from consonant sounds in
that they are produced not by blocking air in
its passage from the lungs but by passing air
through different shapes of the mouth and
different positions of the tongue and lips
unobstructed by narrow passages (except at
the glottis).” [Finegan, 1994: 39]
DEFINITION
“Vowels are differentiated from consonants
by the relatively wide opening in the
mouth as air passes from the lungs out of
the body. This means that there is
relatively little obstruction of the
airstream in comparison to consonants. [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 28]
DEFINITION
Oral, i.e. the air flows out of the oral cavity (with the velum raised).
Voiced, i.e. vowels are produced with the vibration of the vocal cords.
Syllabic, i.e. a vowel can form a syllable itself.
Determined by the shape and size of the oral cavity (the positions of the tongue and lips), especially by the tongue height and the tongue part.
CHARACTERISTICS
Avery & Ehrlich (1995: 28) classify vowels in terms of:
Tongue Height — whether the tongue is high or
low in the mouth.
Frontness/Backness — whether the front or the
back of the tongue is involved.
Tenseness/Laxness — whether the muscles are
tense or lax.
Lip Rounding — whether the lips are rounded.”
Peter Roach (2000) would distinguish vowels in terms
of length – whether the pronunciation of vowels is
long or short – rather than tenseness/laxness.
CLASSIFICATION
The height of the tongue allows us to distinguish high
(close), low (open), or mid vowels:
The high/close vowels in beat /i:/, bit /I/, boot /u:/
and book /U/ are made with the tongue raised above
its rest position.
The low/open vowels in bat /{/, bar /A:/, and botch
/Q/ are made with the tongue below its rest position.
The mid vowel in bet /e/, but /V/ and bought /O:/ are
made with the tongue neither high nor low in the
mouth.
TONGUE HEIGHT
The tongue part allow us to classify vowels
either front, back or central:
The front vowels in beat /i:/ or bat /{/ are
made with the front part of the tongue.
The back vowels in boot /u:/ or botch /Q/ are
made with the back part of the tongue.
The central vowels in but /V/ or birth /3:/ are
made with neither the front nor the back
part of the tongue.
TONGUE PART
The tension (tenseness) of a vowel allows us to
classify it either tense or lax:
The tense vowels in beat /i:, boot /u:/, birth /3:,
and bought /O:/ are produced with extra muscle
tension.
The lax vowels in bit /I/, book /U/, botch /Q/,
bet /e/, and but /V/ are produced without this
tension.
Tense vowels are produced with much more effort
than lax vowels.
TENSION/TENSENESS
The back vowels in boot /u:/, book /U/, bought
/O:/, and botch /Q/ are all pronounced with the
lips rounded, i.e. with the corners of the lips
brought towards each other and the lips often
pushed forwards, resulting in some protrusion.
The low back vowel in bar /A:/is the only English
back vowel that occurs without lip rounding.
All non-back vowels are unrounded.
LIP ROUNDING
The front vowels in beat /i:/, bit /I/, bet /e/,
and bat /{/ are all pronounced with the lips
more or less spread, i.e. with the corners
of the lips moved away from each other as
for a smile.
All English front vowels are more or less
spread.
LIP ROUNDING
The central vowels in but /V/ and birth /3:/
are all pronounced with the neutral lips,
i.e. with the lips neither rounded nor
spread.
All English central vowels are neutral.
LIP ROUNDING
The length of a vowel allows us to classify it
either long or short. The pronunciation of long
vowels is held longer than that of short
vowels.
The seven English short vowels /I, e, {, V, U,
Q, and @/ are only relatively short. The five
English long vowels /i:, 3:. O:, A:, and u:/ tend
to be longer than short vowels in similar
context.
LENGTH
It is believed that English long vowels are
produced with greater tension of the tongue
muscles than their short counterparts.
Therefore they are referred to as tense vowels.
It is also believed that English short vowels
are produced with much lesser tension of the
tongue muscles and thus tend to be lax.
LENGTH
English long vowels differ from English short
vowels not only in length but also in quality.
Distinct differences in quality result from
differences in the tongue height, the tongue
part, the lip-rounding and the tenseness of the
vowels. Therefore, English long and short vowel
symbols should be different from each other.
LENGTH
It is necessary to say that the length of all
English vowels varies very much according to:
context: compare vowels in beat, bit, and bet
vs. vowels in bead, bid and bed.
presence or absence of stress: compare the
vowel in to record vs. the vowel in a record.
LENGTH
“A vowel which remains constant and do not glide is called a pure vowel.”
[Roach, 2000: 21]There are twelve pure vowels in English: /I,
e, {, V, U, Q, @, i:, 3:. O:, A:, u:/.
Classified according to the tongue part, English vowels fall into sets: front vowels, back vowels and central vowels
PURE VOWELS
/i:/ long, tense, high/close, front, spread vowel
FRONT VOWELS
/I/ short, lax, high/close, front, slightly spread vowel
/e/ short, lax, mid, front, slightly spread vowel
FRONT VOWELS
/{/ short, low/open, front, slightly spread vowel, a bit tenser than /e/
/u:/ long, tense, high/close, back, rounded, slightly protruded vowel
/U/ short, lax, high/close (a bit lower than /u:/), back, slightly rounded and protruded vowel
BACK VOWELS
/O:/ long, tense, mid, back, rounded but not protruded vowel
/Q/ short, lax, low/open, back, slightly rounded but not protruded vowel
/A:/ long, tense, fully low/open, back, neutral vowel
BACK VOWELS
/@/ short, lax, mid, central, neutral vowel, only occurs in unstressed syllables
/3:/ long, tense, between mid and open-mid, central, neutral vowel
/V/ short, lax, fairly low/open, central, neutral vowel
CENTRAL VOWELS
PURE VOWELS
Diphthongs are “sounds which consists of
a movement or glide from one vowel to
another.”
The first part is much longer and stronger
than the second part.
[Roach, 2000: 21]
In terms of length, diphthongs are like
long vowels.
DIPHTHONGS
DIPHTHONGS
The English eight diphthongs are usually divided into two main groups:
Centring diphthongs glide towards /@/ (the schwa)
/ I@/ the starting point is a little bit closer than /I/: beard, Ian, fierce
/e@/: aired, cairn, scarce
/U@/ the starting point is slightly closer than /u:/: moored, tour, pour
CENTRING DIPHTHONGS
Closing diphthongs all glide from a relatively more open vowel towards a relatively more close vowel. Three dipthongs glide towards /I/ are:
/eI/: paid, pain, face
/aI/ the starting point is between front and central: tide, cycle, nice
/OI/: boy, coin, voice
CLOSING DIPHTHONGS
Two diphthongs glide towards /U/, so that as the tongue moves closer to the roof of the mouth, there is at the same time a rounding movement of the lips.
/@U/: load, some, most
/aU/ the starting point is quite similar to /A:/: loud, gown, house
CLOSING DIPHTHONGS
DIPHTHONGSIt is believed that English long vowels and diphthongs are tense, and short vowels are lax.
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption.
Five English triphthongs are composed of the five closing diphthongs plus the “schwa” /@/ at the end.
/eI/ + /@/ = /eI@/: layer, player /aI/ + /@/ = /aI@/: liar, fire /OI/ +/@/ = /OI@/: loyal, royal /@U/ + /@/ = /@U@/: lower, mower /aU/ + /@/ = /aU@/: power, hour
TRIPHTHONGS
In English triphthongs, the extend of the vowel movement is very small, except in very careful pronunciation. The middle of the three vowel qualities of the triphthong can hardly be heard and the resulting sound is difficult to distinguish from some of the diphthongs and long vowels.
There is also a problem of whether a triphthong is felt to contain one, or two syllables.
TRIPHTHONGS