DEFINITION rCHARACTERISTICS r CLASSIFICATION r ENGLISH PURE VOWELS r ENGLISH DIPHTHONGS r ENGLISH TRIPHTHONGS

DEFINITION
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
little

means

that

there
of

is
the

relatively

obstruction

airstream in comparison to consonants.

[Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 28]

CHARACTERISTICS
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.

CLASSIFICATION
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.

TONGUE HEIGHT
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 PART
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:/ botch /Q/ part of the tongue.

or

are made with the back or birth

The

central vowels in but /V/

TENSION/TENSENESS
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.

LIP ROUNDING
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.

 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.

 The

central vowels in but /V/ and birth

are all pronounced with the

/3:/

neutral lips, i.e. with the lips neither rounded nor spread.
All

English central vowels are neutral.

LENGTH
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, {, V, U, Q, 3:. and O:,

e,

@/ are A:, and

only relatively short. The five English long

vowels /i:, u:/ tend to be longer than short vowels

 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.

 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.

 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.

PURE VOWELS
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

FRONT VOWELS
r/i:/

long, tense, high/close, front, spread vowel

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

FRONT VOWELS
r

/e/ short, lax, mid, front, slightly spread vowel

r/{/ short, low/open, front, slightly spread vowel, a bit tenser than /e/

BACK VOWELS
r /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

/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,

CENTRAL VOWELS
r

/@/ 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

PURE VOWELS

DIPHTHONGS

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
The English eight diphthongs are usually divided into two main groups:

Centring diphthongs glide towards /@/ (the schwa)

r/

I@/ the staqting point is a little bit closeq than /I/: beard, Ian, fierce /e@/: cairn, scarce aired,

Closing diphthongs all glide from a relatively more open vowel towards a relatively more close vowel. Three dipthongs glide towards /I/ are:
r /eI/:

face

paid, pain,

/aI/ the staqting point is between front and central: tide, cycle, nice

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.
r/@U/:

most

load, some,

/aU/ the staqting point is ruite

DIPHTHONGS
It is believed that English long vowels and diphthongs are tense, and short vowels are lax.

TRIPHTHONGS
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 r /aI/ + /@/ = /aI@/: liar, fire r /OI/ +/@/ = /OI@/: loyal, royal
r

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.