Assignment no.

1 why are front vowels more acoustically different from back

vowels? Give vivid examples and explanation.

Introduction

Vowels are classified in a couple of different ways, one of those ways is the

frontness of articulation, which indicates the part of the tongue used to pronounce

the vowel, we have front and back vowels. Acoustically front vowels are different

from back vowels. The word “Acoustically” refers to the properties of a speech

sound, this study explains how front vowels differ from back vowels acoustically.

Examples are gotten from Igbo, Urhobo and English Language.

The Main Body

Front vowels refer to vowels articulated towards the front of the mouth. A similar

distinction holds for back vowels, which can refer to vowels that are more back

than central or, more rarely, only to fully back vowels, i.e. the ones that are

articulated as back as possible in the mouth. The major acoustic differences

between front and back vowels are;

(1). Front vowels are produced at the front part of the tongue while back vowels

are produced with the tongue moving backwards toward the soft palate or velum.

(2). All front vowels are made with unrounded lips with most of the back vowels

are rounded with the exception of /a/.

(3). Front vowels are lighter, higher and more echoing while back vowels are

lower, darker and duller in sound.

We shall now examine front and back vowels using English, igbo and urhobo

langauges.

1. Front vowels: these are vowels sounds that are produced with the tip or front

part of the tongue. The mouth and tongue movement is vital when we have

to pronounce a word with vowels in them, speaking such words requires our

tongue to move forward and backward. The letters which need a forward

movement are known as front vowels, as mentioned earlier they need the

tongue to move forward as they are lighter, higher and more echoing. These

are produced with the front part of the tongue without any break of a

consonant.

Examples of front vowels include:

S/N SYMBOL IPA NAME WORDS

1 /i:/ high front rounded vowel tense beat, feel

2 /e/ mid front rounded vowel bet, wet

3 /I/ high front unrounded vowel lax first, sit

4 /ӕ/ low-front unrounded vowel lax fast, fat

From the examples above two of the front vowels are rounded and two are

unrounded and produced with the tip of the tongue.

Examples of Front vowels in Igbo:

According to Eme (2016) there are eight phonemic vowels in standard igbo, four

front phonemic vowels and four back vowels

S/ SYMBOL IPA NAME WORDS

1. /a/ Open front unrounded áká ‘hand’, álá ‘laid’

vowel

2. /e/ Half-open unrounded vowel é ké ‘python’, égbé ‘kite’

3. /i/ Close front unrounded ìtè ‘pot’, ìrí ‘ten’

vowel

4. /i:/ Hal-close front unrounded ḷgba ‘wooden drum’, ḷkpá

‘to weave’

Front vowels in Urhobo:

According to Rolle (2013) Urhobo consists of seven vowels. Each vowels

has oral and nasal counterparts. Vowel length is not contrastive, and no distinctive

phonations types exist. Vowels may occur in word initial or final position. The

vowel ‘a’ is considered a central vowel . the distinction between the nasal mid-

open and mid-close vowels is difficult to determine in certain world/tokens many

neighbouring languages only consist of one oral vowel at the mid-position.

Typically the mid-open vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ (e.g in Edo, Esan, Yoruba among others)

S/N SYMBOL WORDS

1. /i/ íbì ‘seeds’, èdì ‘palmnuts’, ìtuta ‘onions’

2. /e/ ébrì ‘darkness’, ibêkpè ‘wings’, eto ‘hair’

3/ /ɛ/ abɛrɛ ‘sword’, òrɛ ‘plantain’, ɛbɛ ‘goat’

2. Back Vowels: Back Vowels are vowel sounds that requires the tongue to move

backwards during pronunciation. They are comparatively lower, darker and

duller in sound compared to front vowels. Back vowels are created with the part

of the tongue closest to the throat without consonant pause.

Examples of back vowels in English:

S/N Symbol IPA NAME Words

1. /u/ high back rounded tense group, food

2. /ʊ/ high back rounded vowel pull, good

lax

3. /o/ mid-back rounded vowel row, gold

tense

4. /ɔ:/ mid-back rounded lax door, saw

 5. /ɒ/ low-back unrounded lax pot, cot

From the examples above the vowels are produced or pronounced at the back of

the tongue they are lower in acoustic sound compared to front vowels.

The largest group of simple vowels are the back vowels. These are shaped

with the back of the tongue raised towards the soft palate (velum). There are 6

back vowels compared to the four front vowels.

Examples of back vowels in Igbo:

There are four back vowels in Igbo (Eme 2016)

S/N Symbol IPA NAME Words

1. /o/ half-close back rounded òrómá ‘organge’, ótú ‘one’

2. /ɔ/ half-open back rounded ókú ‘fire’, ónú ‘mouth’

3. /u/ close-back rounded vowel ùgwù ‘honor’, ùdó ‘peace’

4. / ʊ/ half-close back rounded úsù ‘bat’, ázù – fish

vowel

Back vowels in Urhobo:

S/N SYMBOL WORDS

1. /u/ Ùrié ‘river’, ùgbòkò ‘back’, isiù ‘ stars’

2. /o/ ògbéi – ‘tortoise’, ùkòni – ‘kitchen’, èvó – ‘black’

3. /ɔ/ ósé ‘father’, ógòrò ‘palm wine’, òwò ‘leg’

Conclusion.

Different vowel sounds are made in part by varying the arch of the tongue; this

creates three types vowels: high, high-mid to low-mid, and low. Front-specific

vowels can be contrasted with back vowels, which are made with the tongue

placed as far back in the mouth as possible. The specification of vowels in terms of

the position of the highest point of the tongue is not entirely satisfactory for a

number of reasons. In the first place, it disregards the fact that the shape of the

tongue as a whole is very different in front vowels and in back vowels. Second,

although the height of the tongue in front vowels varies by approximately equal

amounts for what are called equidistant steps in vowel quality, this is just not

factually true in descriptions of back vowels. Third, the width of the pharynx varies

considerably, and to some extent independently of the height of the tongue, in

different vowels.

References
Aziza, R.O (2006): “An Overview of the tone system of Urhobo. Journal of African

Languages and Linguistics”. Vol.27, 113 – 126. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Hillenbrand, James, Laura A. Getty, Michael J. Clark, and Kimberlee Wheeler.

1995. Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels. Journal of the

Acoustical Society of America 97(5). 3099–111.

Johnson, Keith. 1997. Acoustic and auditory phonetics. Oxford and Cambridge,

MA: Blackwell.

Kent, Raymond D., Bishnu S. Atal, and Joanne L. Miller (eds.) 1991. Papers in

Speech Communication: speech production.

Ladefoged, Peter. 1962. Elements of acoustic phonetics.

Lehiste, Ilse. 1970. Suprasegmentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Lieberman, Philip, and Sheila E. Blumstein. 1988. Speech physiology, speech

perception, and acoustic phonetics.Cambridge: MIT Press.

Ojaide T. (2007): “Evolution of the Urhobo Language”. Lagos” Malthouse Press

Limited.
Assignment no.2. What do we mean by fundamental frequency? Show how it

relates to tone.

Introduction

Frequency Relates to the individual pulsations produced by vocal cord

vibrations for a unit of time. The rate of vibration depends on the length, thickness

and tension of the vocal cords and thus is different for child, adult make and adult

female speech. A speech sound contains two types of frequencies which are

fundamental frequency and formant frequency but this study focuses on

fundamental frequency as required. Fundamental frequency (FO) relates to vocal

card function and reflects the rate of vocal cord vibration during phonation (pitch).

Fundamental frequency is one of the acoustic properties of speech sounds.

The Main Body

Fundamental frequency relates to tone in the sense that it is received by the

ear as pitch and most times the tone perceived by the ear helps the listener

determine the sex or age of the speaker or mood of the speaker except in cases of

disorders. The fundamental frequency of the adult human voice ranges from 100-

300 Hz. Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech and

aims to analyse sound wave signals that occur within speech through varying

frequencies, amplitudes and durations.

 One way we can analyze the acoustic properties of speech sounds is through

looking at a wave form. Pressure changes can be plotted at a waveform, which

highlights the air particles being compressed and rarefied, creating sound waves

that spread outwards. For example a metal fork or spoon been struck can provide

an example of the pressure fluctuations in the air and how the air particles oscillate

(move in one direction rhythmically) when we perceive sound.

The fundamental frequency (FO) of a sound can be analyzed on a waveform.

Frequency can be calculated through the number of cycles on a periodic waveform

with a repeating pattern. The higher the number of cycles per second the higher the

frequency and perceived pitch. Frequency is usually expressed in Hertz (Hz) 200

complete cycles per second within the waveform, so 200 times the vocal folds have

opened.

In reality most speech sounds have a rather complex pattern and are known

as complex waves. These are made up of two or more simple sine waves and the

fundamental frequency can also be calculated on complex waveforms by counting

the number of cycles per second on a waveform.

Listeners are able to recognize the sounds of their language with relative

ease despite the fact that the physical characteristics of these sounds vary a good

deal from speaker to speaker. However the same variation that hinders speech

perception affords the listener with a wealth of information regarding the speaker.
For example, listeners are able to judge the gender of an adult speaker with relative

ease (except in cases of voice disorders).

They are also able to make consistent judgements regarding the apparent

size of the speaker using only information available from the speaker’s voice

(Moxness 1995). From the perspective of speech production, the fundamental

frequency (FO) of a vowel are more or less independent so that (FO) should have

only a small effect on the spectral content of a vowel. If vowel quality were

entirely determined by the spectral content of a vowel, a change in (FO) alone

should cause no change in vowel quality.

The Larynx produces an approximately triangular complex waveform,

consisting of a fundamental frequency about 80Hz – 150 Hz for men (greater range

possible), about 160Hz – 300Hz for women (greater range possible). Many

overtones which are audible up to about 20KHz, different intensities of overtones,

relative to each other, which determines the overall waveform and therefore the

timbre or quality of the sound which the source produces. During voicing the

larynx generates a waveform which is rather like “sawtooth” sequence.

From a listener’s point of view sounds may be said to vary in pitch, loudness

and quality. The pitch of a sound with a periodic wave form i.e Voiced sounds are

determined by its fundamental frequency or rate of repetition of the cycles of air

pressure. For a speaker with a bass voice, the fundamental frequency will probably
be between 75 and 150 cycles per second. Cycles per second are also called hertz

(Hz).

Conclusion

The quality of a sound is determined by the smaller variations in air pressure

that are superimposed on the major variations that recur at the fundamental

frequency. These smaller variations in air pressure correspond to mental frequency,

each time above the fundamental frequency. Each time the vocal cards open and

close there is a pulse of air from the lungs. These pulses act like sharp taps on the

air in the vocal tract which is accordingly set into vibration in a way that is

determined by its size and shape. In a vowel sound, the air in the vocal tract

vibrates at three or four frequencies simultaneously. These frequencies are the

resonant frequencies of that particular vocal tract shape.

 References

Asher, R., and Eugenie Henderson (eds.) (1981). Towards a history of phonetics.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Assmann, P.F & Neary, T.M (2007) “Relationship between fundamental and

formant frequencies in voice preference”. Journal of the acoustical society of

America 122:EL35-EL43

Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edition, 1996.

Fant, Gunnar. 1960. Acoustic theory of speech production. The Hague: Mouton.

Flanagan, James L. 1965. Speech analysis synthesis and perception. Berlin:

Springer-Verlag.

Hardcastle,William, and John Laver (eds.) 1997. The handbook of phonetic

sciences. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Helmholtz, Hermann von. 1877. Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als

physiologische Grundlage fur die Theorie der Musik. Braunschweig: F.

Vieweg; As On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory

of music, translated by Alexander J. Ellis, London: Longmans, Green, 1885.

Jakobson, Roman, Gunnar Fant, and Morris Halle (eds.) 1952.

Stephen K.N (1998): “Acoustic Phonetics” Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Stevens, Kenneth N. 1998. Acoustic phonetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Woodbury, New York: Acoustical Society of America.