Vyatka State University of Humanities

The Faculty of Linguistics

The reduction of English vowels

in the flow of speech

Student:
Group:

Kirov
2010

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Plan

1. The term ……………………………………………………………………3

2. Weakening of vowels ……………………………………………………….3

3. Vowel reduction in English …………………………………………………4

4. Unstressed but unreduced vowels …………………………………………..5

5. Alternation …………………………………………………………………..5

6. Literature ………………………………...………………………………….6

1. The term Vowel Reduction

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Vowel reduction is the term in phonetics that refers to various changes in the acoustic quality of
vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or
position in the word, and which are perceived as "weakening". It most often makes the vowels
shorter as well.

In phonology, vowel reduction refers to a reduction of the number of distinct vowels, rather than
their quality, either over time or when comparing related dialects. In some cases these two
concepts may be related. For example, when vowels are phonetically reduced in English, there is
also a reduction in the number of vowel contrasts. In other cases, however, phonemic reduction
is due to historical vowel mergers (such as the merger of the «a» vowels in Mary, merry, marries
in much of the United States) and has nothing to do with "weakening".

2. Weakening of vowels

Phonetic reduction most often involves a centralization of the vowel, that is, a reduction in the
amount of movement of the tongue in pronouncing the vowel, as with the characteristic change
of many unstressed vowels at the ends of English words to something approaching schwa. A
well-researched type of reduction is that of the neutralization of acoustic distinctions in
unstressed vowels, which occurs in many languages. The most common reduced vowel is schwa.

Whereas full vowels are distinguished by height, backness, and roundness, reduced unstressed
vowels are largely unconcerned with height or roundness. English /ə/, for example, may range
phonetically from mid [ə] to [ɐ] to open [a]; English /ɨ/ ranges from close [i], [ɪ], [e], to open-
mid [ɛ]. The primary distinction is that /ɨ/ is further front than /ə/, contrasted in the numerous
English words ending in unstressed -ia. That is, the jaw, which to a large extent controls vowel
height, tends to be relaxed when pronouncing reduced vowels. Similarly, English /ɵ/ ranges
through [ʊ] and [o]; although it may be labialized to varying degrees, the lips are relaxed in
comparison to /uː/, /ou/, or /ɔː/. The primary distinction in words like folio is again one of
backness. However, the backness distinction is not as great as that of full vowels; reduced
vowels are also centralized, and are sometimes referred to by that term. They may also be called
obscure, as there is no one-to-one correspondence between full and reduced vowels.

Sound duration is a common factor in reduction: In fast speech, vowels are reduced due to
physical limitations of the articulatory organs, e.g., the tongue cannot move to a prototypical
position fast or completely enough to produce a full-quality vowel.
Different languages have different types of vowel reduction, and this is one of the difficulties in
language acquisition; see, e.g., "Non-native pronunciations of English" and "Anglophone
pronunciation of foreign languages". Vowel reduction of second language speakers is a separate
study.

Such vowel reduction is one of the sources of distinction between a spoken language and its
written counterpart. Vernacular and formal speech often has different levels of vowel reduction,
and so the term "vowel reduction" is also applied to differences in a language variety with
respect to, e.g., the language standard.

3. Vowel reduction in English

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In English, vowel reduction is the centralization and weakening of an unstressed vowel, such as
the characteristic change of many vowels at the ends of words to schwa. Stressed vowels are
never reduced in English.
Reduced vowels (schwas)

Vowel reduction is phonemic in English. That is, there are two "tiers" of vowels in English, full
and reduced; traditionally many English dictionaries have attempted to mark the distinction by
transcribing unstressed full vowels as having "secondary" stress, though recently this has been
abandoned in dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). English has up to five
reduced vowels, though this varies with dialect and speaker. Schwa is the most common, and
orthographically it may be denoted by any of the vowel letters:

The a in about.
The e in synthesis.
The o in harmony.
The u in medium.

The following are also schwas, except in dialects that have two distinct reduced vowels
.
The i in decimal.
The y in syringe.

Whereas the sound represented by the er in water is a schwa in non-rhotic accents like Received
Pronunciation, in rhotic dialects like most of North American English, "er" designates an r-
colored schwa, [ɚ], which is pronounced like schwa, except the tongue is pulled back in the
mouth and "bunched up".

Reduced front vowel (i-coloured schwa or schwi)

In some dialects of English there is a distinction between two vowel heights of reduced vowels,
schwa and "schwi", the near-close central unrounded vowel [ɪ̈] (or equivalently [ɨ̞]). In the
British phonetic tradition, this is written /ɪ/, and in the American tradition /ɨ/. (The OED has
recently converted to /ᵻ/ (ɪ).) An example of a minimal pair contrasting schwa and schwi:
The e in roses is a schwi
The a in Rosa’s is a schwa

Rounded reduced vowel (u-coloured schwa or schwu)

Many dialects also retain rounding in reduced vowels, with /uː/ and /ʊ/ reducing to [ʊ̈] (or
equivalently [ʉ̞ ]; /ᵿ / (ʊ ) in OED transcription), as in into /ˈ intʊ /,and /oʊ / reducing to /ɵ /, as in
widow /ˈwɪdɵ/. Bolinger (1989) cites a three-way contrast, a mission /əˈmɪʃən/, emission /ɨ
ˈmɪʃən/, and omission /ɵˈmɪʃən/.

A word with all three schwas is (in OED transcription) /ˈbjuːtᵻfᵿlnəs/ beautifulness.

The vowels and diphthongs /ɔː/, /aʊ/, and /ɔɪ/ are never reduced, and all vowels may occur in
unstressed position without reduction, especially in compound words. (These are often
transcribed in dictionaries as having secondary stress, but that is a convention for unreduced
vowels that occur after the primary stress. See secondary stress.)
4. Unstressed but unreduced vowels

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 Vowel Example Pronunciation
/iː/ manatee [ˈmænətiː]
/ɪ/ chauvinism [ˈʃoʊvɨnɪzm]
/eɪ/ Monday [ˈmʌndeɪ]
/ɛ/ Enlist [ɛnˈlɪst]
/æ/ Valet [væˈleɪ]
/ʌ/ unknown [ʌnˈnoʊn]
/ɑː/ grandma [ˈɡræmɑː]
/ɒ/ neon [ˈniːɒn]
/ɔː/ outlaw [ˈaʊtlɔː]
/oʊ/ limo [ˈlɪmoʊ]
/ʊ/ fulfill [fʊlˈfɪl]
/uː/ tofu [ˈtoʊfuː]
/aʊ/ discount [ˈdɪskaʊnt]
/aɪ/ idea [aɪˈdiːə]
/ɔɪ/ royale [ɹɔɪˈæl]

Nonetheless, some vowels, such as /ɪ/ and /ʌ/, reduce quite readily, so that there are few English
words that have them in unstressed positions.

One of the effects of vowel reduction is the partial loss of voicing distinctions in preceding
consonants. With a full vowel, as in manatee, an unvoiced consonant is typically aspirated:
[ˈmænətʰiː]. However, with a reduced vowel, as in humanity, aspiration is lost and the consonant
may even become partially voiced. In American English, in the case of /t/, it may also be
flapped: [hjʊˈmænɪ̈ɾi].

5. Alternation

Vowel reduction occurs with varying degrees of stability. In some words, an unstressed vowel is
never reduced, and in some it is always reduced, but in a large number the extent of reduction
depends on how quickly or carefully the speaker enunciates the word. For example, the o in
obscene may be pronounced either as full [ɒ] or as reduced [ə], but the historical o sound in
gallon is never a full vowel, no matter how carefully one enunciates.

Many English grammatical (function) words alternate between having full but unstressed vowels
and reduced vowels, depending on context. For example, the is typically /ðiː/ before a vowel-
initial word (the apple) but /ðə/ before a consonant-initial word (the pear), though this distinction
is being lost in the United States. Similarly with to: to America /tuː/ vs. to Britain /tə/. Most
words, however, alternate depending on how much emphasis they are accorded. When stress
shifts to the word, the vowel must be full. Some of these are:
can: I can go [ˈaɪ kŋ ɡoʊ], but you can? [juː ˈkæn]
and: [ænd], but also you and me [ˌjuː ən ˈmiː],
he: He will go [ˈhiː wɨl ɡoʊ], but also will he go? [ˈwɪl ɪ ɡoʊ],

and so on with a, at, would, that, has, etc.

6. Literature
The information was taken from the internet:

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• Ladefoged, Peter. A Course in Phonetics (1975)
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty
Ltd. ISBN 1-876429-14-3
• R. M. Dauer. "Stress-timing and syllable-timing reanalyzed". Journal of Phonetics. 11:51-
62 (1983).
• Wells (1990), "Syllabification and allophony", in Ramsaran, Susan, Studies in the
pronunciation of English, pp. 76–86