Vowels

LIN228: Phone-cs, Fall 2021

University of Toronto Mississauga
Instructor: Avery Ozburn
How do you know what’s important?
• Points that come up repeatedly
• Summary slides
• Engagement ques7ons – these are generally about topics that are
important to know
Quiz 1
Quiz 2
• Monday, Sept. 27
• Available from noon to 1pm
• You’ll have 20min
• Based primarily on material from Unit 2
Assignment 1
• Will be posted on Oct. 1
• Due Oct. 8, by 11:59pm
• Covers material from the first three units
• Includes use of Praat that you’ve learned in tutorials
Phonemes vs. allophones
Phonemes and allophones
f vs. v n vs. n̪
Phonemes
are abstract /f/ /v/ /n/
categories

Allophones/phones
are the different
pronuncia7ons
[f] [v] [n] [n̪]
 BROAD/PHONEMIC NARROW/PHONETIC
TRANSCRIPTION TRANSCRIPTION
/slanted brackets/ [square brackets]

abstract: concrete:
represents what’s in the mind represents what we say

only includes contrastive information includes phonetic detail

phonemes allophones/phones

/ / [ ]
IPA: One sound ó One symbol
• Systematic transcriptions of sounds
• a universal code that is standard across languages
• But we can transcribe at different levels of detail.
• Broad transcription: less detail
• Narrow transcription: more detail

English key French qui

Broad transcription /ki/ /ki/
Narrow transcription [kʰi] [ki]
Broad transcription (preliminary definition)
• uses the simplest possible set of symbols
• captures how a word differs from other words (or possible words) in
the language

• this means we need to make use of sounds that are contras7ve...aka

phonemes!

phonemic = contras/ve!
English consonant phonemes

bilabial labio- dental alveolar palato- palatal velar glottal

dental alveolar
oral
stop p b t d k g ʔ
nasal
stop ---m ---n ---ŋ
fricative
f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
approx-
imant -(w) ---ɹ j ---w
lateral
approx- ---l
imant

*note also affricates tʃ, dʒ

IPA: One sound ó One symbol
• Each different sound gets its own symbol
What does
“different” mean?
We can change [f] in different ways.
Which of the following is a
“meaningful” difference? (and why?)

a. adding voicing
b. making it longer in duration
c. both
d. neither
IPA: One sound ó One symbol
In English, we need different symbols (or ‘phonemes’)
•forBut how/v/
/f/ and do we choose which sounds get symbols?
...but not for /f/ and long-/f/.

/fæn/ + voicing =
/væn/

/fæn/ + length =
/fæn/
IPA: One sound ó One symbol

• We can transcribe more detail using the IPA: [fffffæn]

= [f:æn]
• but we don’t NEED to in order to distinguish what word is
being said – it is extra detail.
 Broad vs. narrow transcrip5on:
preliminary defini5on
Broad transcription
- uses the simplest possible set of symbols (PHONEMES)
- captures how that word differs from other words in the
language

Narrow transcription
- includes more detail
- There is not one “correct” narrow transcription
- which detail to include depends on what you are
interested in representing
How to include more detail?
Narrow transcription: potential details
Speech pathology
A child is pronouncing an /s/ slightly
differently than expected

Comparing languages
Both English and Spanish have /t/
sounds, but an English /t/ is different
than a Spanish /t/.
Identifying accents
What are the differences between two accents
of the same language?
Narrow transcripHon in this class
The same phoneme can be pronounced
differently depending on where it is in the word

Narrow transcription: includes the details of

these contextual variants (allophones)
Phonemes vs. allophones
The same phoneme can be pronounced
differently depending on where it is in the word

/p/ /Phoneme/
‘p’ in ‘pie’
is different
than ‘p’ in
‘spy’ [pʰ] [p]
beginning after /s/
of word
[Allophones]
Phonemes vs. allophones
/p/

[pʰ] [p]
beginning after /s/
of word

[paɪ] [spaɪ]
Broad vs. narrow transcription: this class

Broad transcription:
PHONEMES only
written in /straight brackets/

Narrow transcription:
includes ALLOPHONES
written in [square brackets]
Phonemes vs. allophones
The same phoneme can be pronounced
differently depending on where it is in the word

/t/ /Phoneme/
‘t’ in ‘tie’
is different [Allophones]
than ‘t’ in ‘sty’ [tʰ] [t]
beginning after /s/
of word
‘tie’ ‘sty’
Phonemes vs. allophones
[Allophones] Distribution of
/Phoneme/ allophones is not

[t̚ ]
random...

/b/
/t/ Beginning of
word

[ɾ] Middle of word, before

unstressed syllable

[tʰ] [t] ...but depends on the

surrounding context
(environment)
Phonemes vs. allophones
Phonemes are

[t̚ ] [t]
abstract categories.

/t/
Allophones are all of
the different variants.
[tʰ] [ɾ]
Different types of allophones: Free varia/on
/kæt/
‘cat’ /t/ in
word-final
audible inaudible
release
position
release
[t] [t̚ ]
[kʰæt] [kʰæt̚ ]

[t] and [t̚ ] are in free variation in word-final position:

both can occur in the same environment
Broad vs. narrow transcripHon
Broad transcription: Narrow transcription:
PHONEMES only includes ALLOPHONES
/straight brackets/ [square brackets]

/kæt/ [kʰæt]
[kʰæt̚ ]
Different types of allophones: Complementary distribu/on

/paɪ/ /spaɪ/

aspirated unaspirated

[pʰ] [p]
[pʰaɪ] [spaɪ]

[pʰ] and [p] are in complementary distribution:

they occur in non-overlapping environments
Broad vs. narrow transcripHon
Broad transcription: Narrow transcription:
PHONEMES only includes ALLOPHONES
/straight brackets/ [square brackets]

/taɪ/ [tʰaɪ]
[taɪ]
DistribuHon of allophones
• Complementary distribution: Rules specify which allophone goes in
which environment.
• In word-initial position, /p/ is always aspirated [pʰ] unless it comes after /s/, in
which case it is unaspirated [p].

• Free variation: Different allophones can appear in the same

environment.
Broad vs. Narrow TranscripHons

/ / [ ][ ]
Vowel descriptions
IPA vowel chart
ArHculatory descripHons

Height and backness

supposed to correlate with
the tongue position
ArHculatory descripHons

Height and backness

supposed to correlate with
the tongue position
ArHculaHon vs. AcousHcs
• Ar9cula9on: Change in the shape of the vocal tract à
corresponds to an acous9c change in the “auditory quality”
of the vowels

• How do we “see” different vowel quali7es in spectrograms?

Vowel quality
• Differences in vowels = different vowel quality
• Ar7cula7on: changing vocal tract
• Acous7cs: differences in formants
Formants and arHculatory dimensions
• F1 inversely related to vowel height
• High vowels have lower F1 than low vowels
• F2 related to vowel frontness
• Front vowels have higher F2 than back vowels
AcousHc descripHons / Formants
F3
F2

F1
F1 and vowel height
F2 and vowel backness
Cardinal vowels
(8)

(1)

(7)
(2)

(6)
(3)

(4) (5)
Cardinal vowels
• Designed to provide reference points for descrip7on of vowels
• Represent the “extremes” of the vowel space
• Some can be defined by ar7culatory extremes (1 and 5).
• The others are interpolated from that.
What if there aren’t enough symbols?

• Add more!

[ɪ] – between [i] and [e]

[ʏ] – between [y] and [ø]
[ʊ] – between [u] and [o]
[æ] – between [ɛ] and [a]
Cardinal vowels
Primary Secondary
Primary and secondary cardinal vowels

Primary Secondary

Primary cardinal
vowels are more
common across the
world’s languages
Perception exercise: ABX task 1. Does X sound more
like A or B?

A B X a. A
b. B

1.

‘loup’ ‘lit’ ‘lu’

French
[lu] [li] [ly]

2. Does X sound more

2. like A or B?

a. A
Mandarin 怵 七 去 b. B
Chinese [tʂhu] [tɕi] [tɕy]
PercepHon exercise: ABX task
[u]
A [i]
B [y]
X

1.

‘loup’ ‘lit’ ‘lu’

French
[lu] [li] [ly]

2.

Mandarin 怵 七 去
Chinese [tʂhu] [tɕi] [tɕy]
Lip rounding
• Lower F2 corresponds to backer tongue posi7on
• Rounding the lips lowers F2
• So rounded vowels are heard as backer than unrounded vowels
• Na7ve English listeners ogen hear rounded /y/ as similar to /u/

Lip rounding and tongue backness both contribute to a

similar auditory property (and result in lower F2)
Other vowel quali8es
Vowel properHes so far
• Height
• Backness
• Rounding
Length
Definition Language example
(Articulatory and Acoustic)
Danish

Vowels can be shorter or

longer

*Estonian is said to have a three-way

Is vowel length in Danish length contrast!
phonemic?
Advanced Tongue Root (ATR)
Defini2on Language example
(Ar=culatory)
Akan (Ghana)
Larger vs. smaller pharyngeal
cavity, based on posi=on of
tongue root

ATR and tense/lax are

sometimes thought to be
similar phenomena
RhotacizaHon
Definition
Caused by different gestures:
acoustic correlate is Low F3

/ə˞, ɑɹ, ɪɹ/, etc.

Nasalization
Definition Language example
(Articulatory)
French

Velum is lowered so part of

‘laid’ [lɛ] ‘lain’ [lɛ]̃
the airstream can escape
through the nose. ‘là’ [la] ‘lent’ [lã]

Doesn’t show up very well in ‘lot’ [lo] ‘long’ [lõ]

spectrograms

What about vowel

nasalizaVon in English?
Semivowels (“Glides”)
Defini2on
Language example
Very short, nonsyllabic versions of French:
certain vowels: “glides” into the
following vowel.

[j]: palatal approximant, oui vs. huit

corresponds to [i] ‘yes’ vs. ‘eight’
[w]: labiovelar approximant,
corresponds to [u]
[ɥ]: labial-palatal approximant, [wi] [ɥi]
corresponds to [y]
[ɰ]: labial-velar unrounded,
corresponds to [ɯ]
English vowels
English vowel phonemes
Dialectal variation in back vowels

Canadian AE RP
/ɑ/ /ɑ/ /ɑ/ father, spa
/ɑ/ /ɑ/ /ɒ/ cot, knob, box, Tom
/ɑ/ /ɔ/ /ɒ/ long, dog
/ɑ/ /ɔ/ /ɔ/ bought, paw, jaw

https://corpus.linguistics.berkeley.edu/acip/course/chapter4/vowel_examples/
English vowels: Overview

• English vowels (General American): Stressed monophthongs.

/i/ /u/

/ɪ/ /ʊ/

/ɛ/ /ɔ/

/æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑ/

From: Ladefoged, Vowels & Consonants

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vowels/contents.html
English vowels: Overview
• English vowels (General American): Diphthongs

/ ej / / ow /
/ ɔj /
/ aw / / aj /

ə /
• Budda / ___ schwa
 Front Central Back
/i/ green /u/ blue
High
/ɪ/ silver /ʊ/ wood
/eɪ/ gray /oʊ/ rose
Mid /ʌ/ mustard
/ɛ/ red Note: this is from an
/ɔ/ auburn American source! In
Canadian English,
Low /æ/ black /ɑ/ olive ‘auburn’ and ‘olive’
have the same vowel.

https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/color-vowel-chart
English vowels

high back
high front rounded
unrounded

1. Tongue height
low back
2. Tongue backness unrounded
3. Lip rounding
Vowel produc/on: MRI

Gick et al. 2002. MRI evidence for commonality in the post-oral articulations of English vowels and liquids.
Journal of Phonetics, 30, 357–371.
Vowel quality
• Differences in tongue posi7on (backness and height) and lip rounding
contribute to differences in “quality”

• Change the shape of the vocal tract à changes the “auditory quality” of the
vowels
Acoustic descriptions
F2

F1

From Ladefoged (2011), Vowels and Consonants, p. 115-116

Vowel ar/cula/on parameters

i
ɪ

Height: high, mid, low ɛ

æ
ɑ
Vowel articulation parameters

i
ɪ

ɛ
ʌ
æ
ɑ
Backness: front, central, back
Vowel articulation parameters

i u

Rounding: rounded, unrouned

Diphthongs
/aj/ and /aw/ /ej/ and /ow/

j w j w

e o

Diphthongs: complex vowels (a vowel + a glide)

Monophthong vs. Diphthong
Note on symbols
• Two ways of wri7ng the glide part of a diphthong:
• j/w or ɪ/ʊ
• E.g. ej = eɪ
• Both nota7ons are acceptable
[ǝ] or [ʌ]?
• Both vowels sound essentially the same in English
• When unstressed: [ǝ]
• When stressed: [ʌ]

sofa tomorrow hush running

/ə/ /ə/ /ʌ/ /ʌ/
Tense vs. Lax vowels
• Two groups of vowels that pakern differently in English words.

Tense vowels Lax vowels

/ɑ, eɪ, i, oʊ, u, aɪ, aʊ, ɔɪ/ /æ, ɛ, ɪ, ʊ, ʌ/
longer duration shorter duration
can appear in open or do not (usually) occur in
closed syllables stressed open syllables

- Open syllables end in a vowel

- Closed syllables end in a consonant
Tense vs. Lax vowels
• Difference between tense vs. lax vowels not very well defined
• What you need to know:
• lax vowels /ɛ, ɪ, ʊ, æ, ʌ/ are shorter than tense vowels (all else being equal)
• and can’t usually occur in stressed open syllables
Which of these English words is a closed
syllable?

a. “spy”
b. “mice”
c. “fish”
d. (b) and (c)
e. all of the above
Tense vs. Lax vowels: distribution
vowel closed syllable (CVC) open syllable (CV)
/ɑ/ lot /lɑt/ pa /pɑ/
/æ/ mat /mæt/
/ej/ great /gɹejt/ bay /bej/
/ɛ/ bet /bɛt/
/i/ beat /bit/ bee /bi/
/ɪ/ sit /sɪt/
/ow/ load /lowd/ low /low/
/ʊ/ look /lʊk/
/u/ rule /ɹul/ do /du/
/ʌ/ mud /mʌd/
/aj/ lied /lajd/ lie /laj/
/aw/ loud /lawd/ cow /kaw/
/ɔj/ avoid /ə.vɔjd/ boy /bɔj/
Allophonic variation in English
vowels
Allophones of English vowel phonemes
• Length
• Nasalization
• Canadian Raising
Voicing-conditioned length distinction
• Vowels in open syllables are longer than in closed syllables
• In closed syllable vowels before voiced consonants are longer than
those before voiceless obstruents

/si/ > /sid/ > /sit/

Voicing-conditioned length distinction
• What about length distinctions in tense vs. lax vowels?
• Tense vowels are ______ than lax vowels
a. Tense vowels
• inherent are longer
property than
of the lax vowels
vowel
b. Lax vowels
• /sid/ are longer than tense vowels
> /sɪd/
c. There is no difference in length
All else being equal…
• Tense vowels are longer than lax vowels

/si/ > /sid/ > /sit/ (Tense)

*/sɪ/ > /sɪd/ > /sɪt/ (Lax)

Spectrogram examples
Allophony: Vowel length
Inherent length: acoustic vowel duration

[biːd] [bɪˑd]
Allophony: Vowel length
• Inherent length: beat [biˑt], bait [bejt] > bit [bɪt]
• tense vowels are longer than lax vowels [ˑ] = half-long
[ː] = long
• Contextual length beat [biˑt] < bead [biːd] , bee [biː]
• vowels are shorter before voiceless consonants & in unstressed syllables

ej eˑj eˑj

iˑ iː iː

ɪ ɪˑ
Vowel nasalization
• Vowels are nasalized when followed by a nasal consonant in the same
syllable.

man /mæn/ [mæ̃ ˑn]

• Allophonic in English
• No meaning difference from vowel nasaliza7on
• Occurs in a specific environment (before nasal consonant)
Canadian raising
Canadian raising
a boot
u
ʊ

ʌʊ about

aʊ abound
Canadian raising
• Diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ begin with higher vowels (/ʌ/ instead of /ɑ/)
when occuring before voiceless sounds in Canadian English
• side [saˑjd] sight [sʌjt]
• loud [laˑwd] lout [lʌwt]

Spectrogram example:
• knives [naj:vz] knife [nʌjf]
Knives vs. knife
Knives Knife

Lower F1 in
knife à
diphthong
starts at a
higher vowel
Allophony: Canadian Raising
[ʌw]
/aw/ loud, how, to house lout, mouth, a house
/aj/ ride, lie, wives right, like, wife
[ʌj]

• Canadian Raising:
• /aw/ and /aj/ are pronounced as [ʌw] and [ʌj]
• before voiceless consonants.

GA aw Can. ʌw
aˑw aˑ

GA aj Can. ʌj
aˑj aˑ
Narrow transcriptions: vowel allophones
life /laɪf/ [lʌɪf]
• Allophonic length dis7nc7ons grain /gɹeɪn/ [kɹeɪ:̃ n]
• Vowel nasaliza7on bed /bɛd/ [pɛ:d]
• Canadian raising
Vowel
Nasal
nasalization

Voiced OR
Following
No following Long vowel
consonant (in
consonant
the same
syllable)?
CAN
Raising:
Voiceless
/aɪ, aʊ/ à
[ʌɪ, ʌʊ]
Vowels before /ɹ/
Can you think of a
Is the contrast between minimal pair where /i/
/i/ and /ɪ/ phonemic in and /ɪ/ contrast when
English? they occur before /ɹ/?

a. yes /__iɹ/ vs. /__ɪɹ/

b. no
a. yes
b. no
Vowels before /ɹ/
Front Central Back
High
dear
eɪ oʊ
/dɪɹ/, /diɹ/ Mid

Low
No contrast before /ɹ/
(in Canadian English or GA)
Rhotic vowel ə˞, and /ɹ/ after vowels

ɚ turn, hurt
ɪɹ , iɹ beer, pier
ɛɹ, eɹ, eɪɹ bare, air
ɑɹ bar, car
ɔɹ, oɹ, oʊɹ boar, or
ʊɹ, uɹ tour, poor
Rhoticized schwa

• Vowels in bird, turn, burner?

• /ə/ + /ɹ/: [ɚ] - rhotacized schwa
[bɚd] [ˈbɚnɚ]
Rhotic dialects
• Accents that permit some form of /ɹ/ after vowels are called “rhotic”
• “rhotic” consonants = r-like consonants
• [r], [ɾ], [ʀ], [ɹ]…
• Most dialects of North American English are rhotic
Dialectal variation in vowels before /ɹ/
Canadian/AE RP
/ɛɹ/ /ɛɹ/ merry, sherry
/ɛɹ/ /æɹ/ marry, harry
/ɛɹ/ /ɛəɹ/ Mary, hairy

merry vs. marry vs. Mary

a. all the same?
b. all different?
c. Mary = marry, merry different
d. Mary = merry, marry different
 How do you pronounce
Mary/merry/marry?

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/12/mary_christmas_apparently_only_people_in_nj_think_thats_wrong.html
Stress
• Levels of stress
• Primary stress
• Secondary stress
ˈˌ
• No stress

ˈˌ ˈ ˈ ˌ ˈ
ˈ ˌ ˌ ˈ ˌ ˈ ˌ ˈ
• Strong and weak forms
• at - /æt/ vs. [ət] or [əʔ]
• the - /ði/ or /ðʌ/ vs. [ðə] or [ðɪ]
Unstressed syllables
Most unstressed vowels are
pronounced similarly, as a
mid-central vowel /ə/
• sofa /ˈsow.fə/
• elephant /ˈɛ.lə.fənt/
• demonstrate /ˈdɛ.mən.strejt/
• above /əˈbʌv/
Unstressed syllables
• However, vowels in unstressed syllables are not always pronounced as
schwa.
• creation /kɹi.ˈeɪ.ʃən/
• computation /kɑm.pju.ˈteɪ.ʃən/

• In suffixes, the quality is often more like /ɪ/ than /ə/

• kisses [ˈkɪ.sɪz] or [ˈkɪ.səz] or [ˈkɪ.sɨz]
• In these cases, either form will be accepted.
Putting things together
• Vowel allophony
• See also the text on nasalization and gliding
In narrow transcription, we show tense
before /l/. monophthongs half-long before
voiceless consonants and long before
voiced ones or word-finally (pp. 78-79).
• Broad and narrow transcription

ˈtulˌbɑks ˈthuə̯ɫˌbɑˑks

ˈsædəl ˈsæˑɾɫ̩

ˈpɹajvət ˈpɹ̥ aˑjvət˺

Summary
Broad vs. Narrow Transcriptions
Formants and arHculatory dimensions
• F1 inversely related to vowel height
• High vowels have lower F1 than low vowels
• F2 related to vowel frontness
• Front vowels have higher F2 than back vowels
English vowels

high back
high front rounded
unrounded

1. Tongue height
low back
2. Tongue backness unrounded
3. Lip rounding
IPA symbols for English vowels

Height Height

Backness Backness
Reviewing broad vs. narrow transcripHon
(as used in this course)
• Broad transcriptions include all regular phonemic contrasts in
Canadian English, plus:
• Schwa in unstressed syllables (where appropriate)
• Vowel distinction before /ɹ/
• Syllables and primary stress on words of more than one syllable.
Reviewing broad vs. narrow transcription
(as used in this course)
• Narrow transcriptions include the following allophonic detail:
• Consonants
• Voicing/aspiration in stops
• Stops unreleased before another stop
• Syllabic nasals/liquids
• Approximant devoicing
• Dentalization, /l/ velarization
• Vowels
• Length distinctions
• Vowel nasalization
• Canadian raising