4.
The English Vowels
Vowels= speech sounds made with no significant obstruction of air
that flows from the lungs
Vowels are usually voiced
Vowels form the basis of syllables-> to count how many syllables in
a word count the number of vowels
Ex: the word lonely has two vowels, /o/&/i/ -> two syllables
There are four aspects of vowel articulation
1. Tongue height
2. Tongue advancement
3. Lip rounding
4. Tenseness
Table 2.4 Major differences between vowels aand consonants
Vowels Consonants
They are made with little They are made with a
obstruction in the vocal complete or partial closure
tract. of the vocal tract.
They are usually voiced. They can be voiced or
They are more sonorant voiceless.
and audible. They are less sonorant and
They form the nucleus of a audible.
syllable; they are syllabic They are typically not the
sounds. nucleus of a syllable; they
are non-syllabic sounds.
4.1 Tongue Height
High vowels= tongue raised
Low vowels= tongue lowered
Mid vowels= between the high and low vowels.
High vowels are produced with the mouth less open and low vowels are
made with the more open mouth.
Ex: beat /i/= high vowel
Bet /ɜ/= mid vowel
Bat /æ/= low vowel
Moreover, the mouth is open a little wider as we change from /i/ to / ɜ/, and
a little wider as we change from / ɜ/ to /æ/.
4.2 Tongue Advancement
Front vowels= the tongue advanced or moved forward
Back vowels= the tongue retracted or moved backward
Central vowels= the tonngue in its normal position
Ex: he /i/: tongue is raised and pushed forward
Who /u/: the tongue raised and pulled backward
Hah /a/: the back part of the tongue lowered
4.3 Lip Rounding
Rounded vowels= the lips are rounded
Unrounded vowels= the lips spread
Only four rounded vowels: /u/, /ʊ/, /o/, /ɔ/
Ex: who/hu/= rounded vowels
He/hi/= unrounded vowels
4.4 Tenseness
Tense vowels= greater tension of the tongue or the lips
Lax vowels= less so
There are four tense vowels in English: /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/
Most lax vowels in English do not appear in word-final position
4.5 The English Vowel Chart
4.6 Diphthongs
A diphthong= combination of two sounds, a vowel and a glide
Ex: right= vowel /a/ and glide /y/ -> /ay/
The vowels /e/ and /o/ are diphthongs, which are pronounced
as /ey/ and /ow/
Ex: say /sey/ and toe /tow/
5. Suprasegmental Features
Speech sounds include other phonetic elements such as length, tone,
intonation and stress, which is suprasegmental features ( prosodic
features).
Length: some sounds -> longer than others, marked by /:/ or /ː/
Ex: tense vowels /i/&/u/-> longer than lax vowels /ɪ/&/ʊ/
The length of a sound may be affected by the sounds surrounding
it
Pitch: the auditory property of a sound that can be ranged from
low to high
Tone: a prosodic feature that involves the use of pitch on a
word’s level.
Intonation: the pattern of rises and falls in pitch
Ex: the falling pitch at the end of a statement-> signals
completeness
The level or rising pitch -> incompleteness
Stress: a property of syllables, which is an entire syllable, not an
individual segment.
Stress syllables= more prominent than unstress ones
Unstress syllyables= less prominent; usually contain(weak)
vowels such as /ə/, /ɪ/
Rules of Stress in English
Some systematic rules of stress in the language, and we usually
make reference to the following properties of words:
1. The morphological structure of a word, cither simple (containing only
a root) or complex (containing a root and one or more affixes)
2. The grammatical category of a word, c.g., noun, verb, adjective, etc.
3. The number of syllables a word has.
4. The phonological structure of syllables in a word, either strong
(containing a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel with a coda, i.e.,
one or more final consonants) or weak (containing a short vowel, or a
reduced vowel [a] or in some cases [1] with a coda) (Roach 2000).
A list of some major rules of English stress placement
Simple words with syllables
Simple words with three syllables
Complex words with affixes
Compound words
Word-category pairs
6. Non-English Speech Sounds (Advanced)
Different languages-> different sets of speech sounds
The consonants and vowels in English, which a small part of the
speech sounds found in the world’s languages.
6.1 Vowels
Front vowels in English are always unrounded, but they can
also be rounded in some other languages.
The oral cavity or nasal vowels= tide/~/
6.2 Consonants
Non-English consonant sounds that are productive in many
languages include Fricatives.
Fricative sounds:
voiceless and voiced bilabials
voiceless and voiced velars
voiced glottal
Questions
5. Describe
a. Voiced, place_ nasal, manner_velar
b. Voiced, place_ glide, manner_ palatal
c. Voiceless, place_ fricative, manner_alveolar
d. Voiced, place_fricative, manner_labio-dental
e. Voiced, place_ fricative, manner_inter-dental
f. Front, high, lax, unround
g. Back, mid, tense, round
h. Back, round, lax, unround
i. Front, mid, lax, unround
j. Central, mid, lax, unround
6. A phonetic feature
a. Place_stop
b. Round
c. Manner_palatal
d. Manner_alveolar
e. Manner_bilabial
f. Central, mid, lax, unround
g. Manner_glottal
h. Place_ fricative
i. Low, lax, unround
j. Manner_velar
8. The primary stress
a. Banana: second stress
b. National: first stress
c. Donation: second
d. Amateur: first
e. Canada: first
f. Canadian: second
g. Record (N): first
h. Record (v): second
i. Imagine: second
j. Cancel: first
k. Combine: second
l. Improve: second
m. Red coat: second
n. Redcoat: first
