PHONETICS:

VOWELS









Phonetics and Phonology English
Tamara Oorts Daz
July 2014





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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .... 2

1 Theory

1.1 Definitions .... 3
1.2 Classification ... 3
1.3 Vowel Height ... 5
1.4 Vowel Backness . 6
1.5 Vowel Roundness .. 8

2 Practice
2.1 Visual Cues . 9
2.2 Fill-in the Blanks . 10
2.3 Long or Short? .. 11
2.4 Sing it .. 11

3 Conclusion . 12

4 Bibliography and References ... 12






















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INTRODUCTION

A language is a set of habits, so learning language consist of learning a new set of
habits. These habits involved the so called organs of speech which produce speech
sounds. Pronunciation habits differ from one language to another. Some habits can be
similar to another language but never the same.

A fundamental distinctive unit of a language is the phoneme; the phoneme is distinctive
in the sense that it is a speech sound class that differentiates words of a language.
Different languages contain different phoneme sets. Syllables contain one or more
phonemes, while words are formed with one or more syllables, concatenated to form
phrases and sentences. Linguistics is the study of the arrangement of speech sounds, i.e.,
phonemes and the larger speech units built from phonemes, according to the rules of a
language. Phonemes can differ across languages, but certain properties of the
grammatical rules combining phonemes and larger units of a language may be common
and instinctual.

The largest phoneme group is that of vowels. The word vowel comes from the Latin
word vocalis which means "speaking", according to the Online Etymology Dictionary
(http://www.etymonline.com). In English, the word vowel is commonly used to mean both
vowel sounds and the written symbols that represent them.

The following essay will cover different definitions of vowels, as well as their
classification in three main areas: height, backness and roundess.

DEFINITIONS:
According to Daniel Jones, in his Pronunciation of English (1988: 12-14), vowels are
speech sounds during whose production the tongue is held at such a distance from the
roof of the mouth that there is no perceptible frictional noise and a resonance chamber is
formed which modifies the quality of tone.
A.C. Gimson (1970: 35) defines vowels as a category of sounds normally made with
a voiced egressive air-stream, without any closure or narrowing such as would result in the
noise component characteristic of many consonantal sounds.
Gunnar Fant, (2006: 153-155) in his Speech Acoustics theories, mentions that vowels
need to fulfill a series of principles in order to be considered vowels:
The first condition is that a vowel must have sound energy visible in
sound spectrum, and that the source of the acoustic energy
originates from the vocal folds vibration. A vowel should also have
vowelike correlate in speech production, which means an unobstructed
pass of airstream. To classify a vowel as a diphthong, the speech sound
must satisfy the glide correlate, which in the production context
means moderate speed within a segment, seen as a relatively
slow [spectrum change] rate but faster than for mere combination of two
vowels.



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Finally, John Laver (2001: 167-172) defines vowels as a group of sounds articulated in
places of neutral articulation, when the potential active articulators lie in their neutral
anatomical position opposite their passive articulators.

CLASSIFICATION:
As with their definitions, there isnt one single universally accepted classification.
Rather, the classifications have answered to specific needs. For example, from the
acoustical point of view, there have been numerous models proposed for classifying
vowels based on some combination of fundamental frequency and formant frequencies,
with the idea of maximizing the differences between vowel categories, and minimizing the
differences in the same vowel spoken by different talkers, particularly those differences
associated with vocal-tract length variability.
Even among phoneticians, classifications vary according to the focus of their work.
Though basically using the same categories (stability of articulation, tongue position, lip
position and length) there are different ways to refer to them. While some charts and
definitions speak of tongue height, tongue backness, lip rounding, tenseness and laxness,
others work with concepts such as forward, central, and back, close, mid, and open,
rounded and unrounded. (Gimson 1970; Jones 1975; Ladefoged 2006; Laver 2001)

Reproduction of The International Phonetic Alphabet (Revised to 2005)
http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/vowels.html

The International Phonetic Association maintains the International Phonetic Alphabet, or
IPA, which is a standard set of characters to describe the sounds of human speech. The
IPA separates phonemes into consonants and vowels, as well as a few other types of
sounds that are not present in English, and then arranges each group according to the
way the phonemes are constructed by the speaker. Vowels are described in terms of three
parameters: vowel height (represented vertically on the chart), vowel backness
(represented horizontally), and vowel rounding (intersections). (Gimson 1970; Jones 1975;
Ladefoged 2006; Laver 2001)




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VOWEL HEIGHT:
Peter Ladefoged (2006: 189) says that traditional articulatory descriptions such as
height and backness are not entirely satisfactory", and when phoneticians describe a vowel
as high or low, they are in fact describing an acoustic quality rather than the actual position
of the tongue.
This height refers to the distance between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, that
is, the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture
of the jaw. In high vowels, such as [i] and [u], the tongue is positioned high in the mouth,
whereas in low vowels, such as [a], the tongue is positioned at a low point.
The IPA prefers the terms close vowel and open vowel, which respectively describe the
jaw as open or closed. However, vowel height is an acoustic rather than an articulatory
quality and is defined not in terms of tongue height, or jaw openness, but according to the
relative frequency of the first formant (F1). The higher the F1 value, the lower (more open)
the vowel; height is thus inversely correlated to F1. (Laver 1994; Crystal 2005; Ladefoged
2006)
1) The high vowels are articulated with the jaw relatively high--that is, with the mouth
nearly closed:

/i/ (the phoneme spelled ee in beet): high front vowel.

// (the phoneme spelled i in bit): high front vowel. This vowel is articulated slightly
lower and slightly further back than is the preceding vowel /i/.

/u/ (the phoneme spelled oo in food): high back vowel.

// (the phoneme spelled u in put): high back vowel. This vowel is articulated
slighter lower and slightly further forward than is the preceding vowel /u/.

2) The mid vowels are articulated with the jaw approximately in the middle of its range
of vertical motion--that is, with the mouth about half open:

// (the phoneme spelled e in bet): mid front vowel. This vowel is articulated
slightly lower and slightly further back than is the preceding vowel /e/.

// (the phoneme spelled au in caught): mid back vowel. This vowel is
articulated slighter lower and slightly further forward than is the preceding
vowel /o/.

// (the phoneme spelled u in but): mid central vowel.

3) The low vowels are articulated with the jaw relatively low --that is, with the mouth
fully or almost fully open:

// (the phoneme spelled a in bat): low front vowel.

// (the phoneme spelled a in father): low central vowel.



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VOWEL BACKNESS:
Vowel backness is named for the position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel
relative to the back of the mouth. However, vowels are not defined according to actual
articulation, but according to the relative frequency of the second formant (F2). The higher
the F2 value, the fronter the vowel; backness is thus inversely correlated to F2. (Laver
1994; Crystal 2005; Ladefoged 2006)
The following diagram shows the tongue positions of front vowels with their highest point
indicated. This position is used to determine vowel height and backness:

Credited to IPA
As found on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

1) The front vowels of Present-Day English are the vowels that are articulated near the
front of the oral cavity:
/i/ (the phoneme spelled ee in beet): high front vowel.
// (the phoneme spelled i in bit): high front vowel. This vowel is articulated slightly
further back and slightly lower than the preceding vowel /i/.
// (the phoneme spelled e in bet): mid front vowel. This vowel is articulated slightly
further back and slightly lower than the preceding vowel /e/.
// (the phoneme spelled a in bat): low front vowel.

2) The central vowels are articulated near the center of the vocal cavity.
// (the phoneme spelled u in but): mid central vowel.
// (the phoneme spelled a in father): low central vowel.
3) The back vowels are articulated near the rear of the vocal cavity:
/u/ (the phoneme spelled oo in food): high back vowel.
// (the phoneme spelled u in put): high back vowel. This vowel is articulated
slightly further forward and slightly lower than is the preceding vowel /u/.
// (the phoneme spelled au in caught): mid back vowel. This vowel is
articulated slightly further forward and slightly lower than is the preceding
vowel /o/.

VOWEL ROUNDNESS:


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The classification refers to the amount of rounding, or vocalic labialization, the lips
sustain during the articulation of a vowel. When pronouncing a rounded vowel, the lips
form a circular opening, while unrounded vowels (also called spread vowels) are
pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages, front vowels tend to be unrounded,
while back vowels tend to be rounded. (Laver 1994; Crystal 2005; Ladefoged 2006)
There are two types of vowel rounding, endolabial and exolabial (or protruded and
compressed). In protruded rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together and the
lips protrude like a tube, with their inner surface visible. In compressed rounding, the
corners of the mouth are drawn together, but the lips are also drawn together horizontally
("compressed") and do not protrude, with only their outer surface visible.
J.C. Catford, in his Fundamental Problems in Phonetics (1982: 172), observes that
back and central rounded vowels are typically protruded, while front rounded vowels are
typically compressed. Back or central compressed vowels and front protruded vowels are
rare to find, so much that there are no dedicated IPA diacritics to represent the distinction.
According to IPA, in their diagram, whenever there is a pair of symbols together, the
sounds only differ with respect to lip posture, with the left symbol being unrounded and the
right symbol being rounded.
1) The rounded vowels of are:
y o u
2) The unrounded vowels on the IPA diagram are:
i e a

1) Fill- in the blanks:
Students should use the short vowel words in the box to complete each sentence:
wish sun truck stop track
best lunch spin fast big

1. My friend can run really ____________________.
2. Throw a penny into the well and make a ____________________.
3. When the light is red you must ____________________.
4. The ____________________ was bright in the sky.
5. I had French fries and a drink for ____________________.
6. The garbage ____________________ came by to pick up the trash.
7. I had the ____________________ birthday party yesterday.
8. I ate a ____________________ bowl of cereal for breakfast.
9. They taught us to ____________________ in dance class.
10. The train went fast down the ____________________

2) Long or short?
Students have to decide if the underlined word has a Long /a/ sound or a Short /a/
sound, and then circle the correct choice:
1. hat ---Long /a/ ---Short /a/ hat
2. day ---Long /a/ ---Short /a/ d
3. wait ---Long /a/ ---Short /a/ wt
4. can ---Long /a/ ---Short /a/ kan
5. map ---Long /a/ ---Short /a/ map
6. fade ---Long /a/ ---Short /a/ fd



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CONCLUSION:

As teachers, it is important to consider how important a role phonetics play in the
learning process of students; more specifically, how learning to correctly differentiate and
pronounce the different vowel sounds can have a big impact, not only in the development
of their oral skills, but also in their reading and spelling.

Starting to include phonetics since the beginning of the learning process of a second
language is bound to bring a lot of benefits, as children will learn to differentiate the sounds
through games and songs and thus consider phonetics as an integral part of learning a
second language.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES:
Catford, J. C. (1982) Fundamental Problems in Phonetics. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
Crystal, David (2005) A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics (Fifth Edition),
Maldern, MA/Oxford: Blackwell.
Disner, S. F. (1980) Evaluation of vowel normalization procedures. Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America.
Fant, Gunnar. (2006) Speech Acoustics and Phonetics: Selected Writings.
Springer.
Gimson, A. (1970) An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English by A. C. Gimson.
2nd ed. London: Edward Arnold.
Jones, Daniel. (1975) An Outline of English Phonetics. Cambridge University Press.
Ladefoged, Peter. (2006) A Course in Phonetics (Fifth Edition), Boston, MA:
Thomson Wadsworth.
Laver, John. (2001) Linguistic Phonetics: The Handbook of Linguistics. Ed. Mark
Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers.
Online Etimology Dictionary: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php