phonology - session 3 2-1112 english vowels

8/12/2019 Phonology - Session 3 2-1112 English Vowels

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rDEFINITION

rCHARACTERISTICSrCLASSIFICATION

rENGLISH PURE VOWELS

rENGLISH DIPHTHONGS

rENGLISH TRIPHTHONGS


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Vowelsounds differ from consonant sounds in

that they are produced not by blocking air in

its passage from the lungs but by passing airthrough 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


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Vowelsare 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


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Oral, i.e. the air flows out of the oralcavity (with the velum raised).Voiced, i.e. vowels are produced with

the vibration of the vocal cords.Syllabic, i.e. a vowel can form asyllable itself.Determined by the shape and size of

the oral cavity (the positions of thetongue and lips), especially by thetongueheightand the tonguepart.

CHARACTERISTICS


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Avery & Ehrlich (1995: 28) classify vowels in terms

of:

TongueHeightwhether the tongue is high or

low in the mouth.

Frontness/Backnesswhether the front or the

back of the tongue is involved.

Tenseness/Laxnesswhether the muscles are

tense or lax.

LipRoundingwhether the lips are rounded.Peter Roach (2000) would distinguish vowels in terms

of lengthwhether the pronunciation of vowels is

longor shortrather than tenseness/laxness.

CLASSIFICATION


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The height of the tongue allows us to distinguish high(close), low (open), or mid vowels:

The high/closevowels in beat /i:/, bit

/I/, boot/u:/ and book/U/are made

with the tongue raisedaboveits rest position.

The low/openvowels in bat /{/, bar /A:/, and

botch/Q/ are made with the tongue below its rest

position. The midvowel in bet /e/, but/V/ and bought

/O:/ are made with the tongue neither high

nor low in the mouth.

TONGUE HEIGHT


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The tongue part allow us to classify vowelseither front, backor central:

The frontvowels in beat/i:/ or bat

/{/are made with the front part of the

tongue.

The backvowels in boot/u:/ or

botch/Q/ are made with the back

part of the tongue.

The centralvowels in but/V/ or birth

TONGUE PART


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The tension (tenseness) of a vowel allows us to

classify it either tenseor lax:

The tensevowels in beat/i:, boot

/u:/, birth/3:, and

bought/O:/ are produced with extra

muscle tension.

The laxvowels in bit /I/, book

/U/, botch/Q/, bet /e/, andbut

/V/ are produced without this tension.

Tensevowelsare produced with much more

effortthan laxvowels.

TENSION/TENSENESS


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The backvowels 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 towardseach otherand the lips often pushed forwards,

resulting in some protrusion.

The lowbackvowel inbar/A:/is the onlyEnglish backvowel that occurs without lip

rounding.

All non-backvowels are unrounded.

LIP ROUNDING


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The frontvowels in beat /i:/, bit

/I/, bet /e/, and bat /{/are

all pronounced with the lips more or lessspread, i.e. with the corners of the lips

moved away from each other as for a

smile.

All Englishfrontvowels are more or less

spread.


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The centralvowels in but/V/and birth

/3:/ are all pronounced with the

neutrallips, i.e. with the lips neither

rounded nor spread.

All Englishcentralvowels are neutral.


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The lengthof a vowel allows us to classify it

either longor short. The pronunciation of

longvowelsis held longer than that of short

vowels.

The sevenEnglish shortvowels/I, e,

{, V, U, Q, and @/are

only relativelyshort. The fiveEnglish long

vowels/i:, 3:. O:, A:, and

u:/ tendto be longer than short vowels

LENGTH


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It is believed that English longvowels are

produced with greater tension of the tongue

muscles than their shortcounterparts.

Therefore they are referred to as tense

vowels.

It is also believed that English shortvowels

are produced with much lesser tension of the

tonguemuscles and thus tend to be lax.


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English longvowels differ from English short

vowels not only in lengthbut also in quality.

Distinct differences in qualityresult from

differences in the tongue height, the tongue

part, the lip-rounding and the tenseness of

the vowels. Therefore, English longand short

vowel symbols should be different from each

other.


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It is necessary to say that the length of all

English vowels variesvery much according

to:

context: compare vowels in beat, bit, and

betvs. vowels in bead, bid and bed.

presence or absence of stress: compare

the vowel in to record vs. the vowel in a

record.


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A vowel which remains constant and donot 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: frontvowels,backvowels and centralvowels

PURE VOWELS


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r/i:/ long,tense, high/close,front, spread vowel

FRONT VOWELS

r/I/ short,lax, high/close, front,slightly spread vowel


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r/e/ short, lax,mid, front, slightlyspread vowel

FRONT VOWELS

r/{/short, low/open,front, slightly spread vowel,

a bit tenser than /e/


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r/u:/ long,

tense, high/close,back, rounded,

slightly protrudedvowel

r /U/ short, lax,high/close (a bit lowerthan /u:/), back,slightly rounded andprotruded vowel

BACK VOWELS


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r/O:/ long,tense, mid, back,rounded but notprotruded vowel

r/Q/ short,lax, low/open,back, slightlyrounded but not

protruded vowel

r/A:/ long,tense, fully

low/open, back,


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r/@/short, lax,mid, central, neutralvowel, only occurs inunstressed syllables

r/3:/ long,tense, between midand open-mid, central,neutral vowel

r/V/ short, lax,fairly low/open,central, neutral vowel

CENTRAL VOWELS


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PURE VOWELS


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Diphthongs are sounds which consists ofa movementor glidefrom one vowel to

another.

The first part is much longerand stronger

than the second part.

[Roach, 2000: 21] In terms of length, diphthongsare like

longvowels.

DIPHTHONGS


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DIPHTHONGS

The English eightdiphthongs are usually divided intotwomain groups:


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Centringdiphthongs glide

towards /@/(theschwa)

r/ I@/ the

staqting pointis a littlebitcloseqthan/I/: beard, Ian,

fierce

r/e@/: aired,cairn, scarce


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Closingdiphthongs all glidefrom a relatively moreopen vowel towards arelatively more closevowel. Threedipthongsglide towards /I/are:

r/eI/: paid, pain,face

r/aI/ thestaqting pointis between front and

central: tide, cycle, nice


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Two diphthongs glide

towards/U/, so that asthe tongue moves closerto the roof of the mouth,there is at the same time

a roundingmovement ofthe lips.

r/@U/: load, some,

most

r/aU/ thestaqting point

is ruite


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DIPHTHONGS

It is believed that English longvowels and

diphthongsare tense, and shortvowels are lax.


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A triphthong is a glide from onevowel toanotherand then to a third, all producedrapidlyand without interruption.

Five English triphthongs are composed of

the five closingdiphthongsplus theschwa /@/at the end.

r/eI/ + /@/= /eI@/: layer,

playerr/aI/ + /@/= /aI@/:

liar, firer/OI/ +/@/ = /OI@/: loyal,

royal + =

TRIPHTHONGS


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In English triphthongs, the extend of the vowelmovement is very small, except in verycarefulpronunciation. The middleof the threevowel qualities of the triphthong can hardly

be heard and the resulting sound is difficultto distinguish from some of the diphthongsand long vowels.

There is also a problem of whether atriphthong is felt to contain one, or twosyllables.

TRIPHTHONGS

phonology - session 3 2-1112 english vowels

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