Phonetics-II

(Vowels)

Semester I

Prof. Younnes ELKHADIRI

 What is a vowel?

• consonants closure or obstruction in the

vocal tract,

• vowel sounds a relatively free flow of air

• They are all voiced

 Describing Vowels
How do we describe/ classify vowels?
• How high is the highest part of the tongue in the mouth?
• How front or back is the highest part of the tongue in the mouth?
• Are the lips rounded or unrounded?
Describing Vowels
 Describing Vowels

Try this:
• heat, hit, hat, hot
 Vowel Height

High Mid Low

[i] [ɛ] [æ]

eat/ key/ see dead, pet, said ban, laugh, sat
 Vowel Backness

Vowel Backness

Front Central Back

[i], [ɪ], [e], [u], [ʊ], [o],

[ә], [ʌ], [a]
[ɛ], [æ] [ɔ], [ɑ]
The stricture involved in the production of
vowels is open approximation:

The active • the front, the back, the

articulators center of the tongue

• the hard palate, the soft

The passive palate, the meeting point
articulators of the hard and soft
palates
 Cont.

The active articulator is raised towards the

passive articulator in such a way that there
is a sufficient gap between the two for the
air to escape through the mouth without
any friction.
Front Vowels: [i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ], [æ]

• [i]

• e.g. eat/ see / week / tree

• [ɪ]

• e.g. hit, myth, women, invite, pin

 Front Vowels

• [e]
• e.g. great, eight, locate, ballet

• [ɛ]

• e.g. dead, pet, said, bet, extra

 Front Vowels

• [æ]

• e.g. ban, laugh, sat, at

 Central Vowels:[ə], [ʌ], [a]

• [ə]

• e.g. above, support, zebra (British)

• farmer, waterfall
• [ʌ]

• e.g. blood, tough, sun, but, son

• [a]

• e.g. bomb, swan (American), path (British)

 Back Vowels:[u], [ʊ], [o], [ɔ], [ɑ]

• [u]

• e. g. move/ two/ too / drew

• [ʊ]

• e.g. could, foot, put

 Back Vowels

• [o]
• e.g. no, road, toe, hello, over

• [ɔ]

• e.g. ball, caught, raw, all, hall, jaw

 Back Vowels

• [ɑ]

• e.g. spa, father, clock, awkward

 Lip Roundedness

• Rounded [u], [ʊ], [o], [ɔ]

• [u] e.g. noon

• Unrounded [i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ], [æ], [ɑ], [ә], [a], [ʌ]

• [i] e.g. heat

 Types of vowels!

Monophthongs • vowels that do not change their

or pure vowels quality

• are combinations of two sounds-

Diphthongs English has 8 diphthongs

• are combinations of three sounds-

Triphthongs English has 1 triphthong
• (a diphthong + a schwa sound)
 Diphthongs
• A combination of two sounds

• begins with a vowel & ends with a glide [w] or [j]

• vowel + glide

• [aw]

• cow, down, loud, doubt

• [ɔj]

• boy, toy, noise, void

• [aj]

• ride, high, bye, eye, my

Examples of Diphthongs
 Vowels’ full description
• Vowels are classified according to three parameters:

height, backness, and lip rounding

• e.g.

• [i]

• high front unrounded vowel

• [u]

• high back rounded vowel

 References

JenniferESL. (2011, January 6). Learn pronunciation of

English vowel sounds 1- Introduction [Video file].
Retrieved from http://youtu.be/qMM_hwyHxaI

Yule, G. (2010). The study of language. (4th ed.)

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.