Class March 16th, 2021

WELCOME TO
PERIOD II

Presented by Vilma Majano

Topic 1: AMERICAN
VOWEL SOUNDS
 EXERCISE 1: How many American
vowels do you recognize?
Identify as many vowel sounds you can recognize in
American English.

/i/ /an/ /ɸ/ /y/ /oo/ /ei/ /aa/

/a/ /ɚ/ /ɛ/ /ɣ/ /ay/ /ee/ /u/
/æ/ /ʊ/ /ka/ /ae/ /ɔ/ /ma/ /ʌ/
 Vowels can be divided in

Monothongs Diphthongs

It is a single vowel like for It is a vowel combination: /ei/

example: /i/, /u/ ,etc. /ou/ /ai/
Vowel Sounds’ Chart
 VOWEL SOUNDS EXAMPLES
/i/ Seat, feel, sheep, leaves, /ʌ/ Bug, cut, hut, fun, shut,
onion, money, honey
/ɪ/ Still, fill, hill, lives /u/ Do, fool, shoe, you, few,
huge
/e/ Bake say, may /ʊ/ Good, put, should, could
/ɛ/ Let, get, met, /o/ Snow, go, ghost, road, toe
/æ/ Cat, cap, lamp, match, had, /ɔ/ Ought, born, dawn, pork,
dad roar, salt
/ə/ A, ago, again, /a/ Box, car, not, cost swam
 A vowel sound is..

a speech sound in which the mouth is

open and the tongue is not touching the
top of the mouth, the teeth, etc.
(Oxford Learner Dictionary)
Let’s analyze these diagrams:
 What distinguishes a vowel from
a consonant sound?
All vowels involve a free passage of lung
air through the upper vocal tract. The
vowel sounds’ impediment to the
airstream is located in the glottis.

All vowel sounds are voiced.

 Vowel sounds can be described in four
dimensions:

1- Height
2- Frontness

3- Lip Rounding

4- Tension
 1- Height
It refers to the vertical position of the
tongue towards the palatal area (high,
mid or low)

Levels:
High: /i/
Mid: /e/
Low: /æ/
 2- Frontness

It refers to the horizontal position of the

tongue in relation to the front or back of
the mouth.

Levels:
Front:
Central
Back
 3- Lip Rounding

It refers to the position of the lips

during the production of the vowel.

Levels:
Rounded
Unrounded
 Rounded vowels
It requires the lips to be open and protruded to
some degree.
 Unrounded vowels
It requires the lips to be spread and the
corners of the mouth retracted to varying
degrees.
 4- Tension

It refers to the degree of tightness

of the muscles of the tongue or lips
to articulate the vowels.

Levels:
Tense
Lax
 Tense vowels

It shows the strong tightness in

the articulation of vowels.
 Lax vowels

It happens when the tongue is

not pushing any extreme of the
mouth and it is a relaxing
articulation.