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VOWELSVOWELS

English Phonetics and Phonology

Lesson 4A

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VOWEL GROUPSVOWEL GROUPS

SHORT bad bed, friend, head good, put, should his, it, kiss hot, of, on love, must, number the, about

LONG

car, park

door, more, caught

free, me, please

girl, third, world

who, you

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Vowels may differ in three waysVowels may differ in three ways

Quality (i.e. the difference between /i:/ and /u:/

Oral or nasal production (unlike French, this does not have a phonemic function in English)

Length

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We will now look at how vowels vary in We will now look at how vowels vary in quality…quality…

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These are x-rays of a person producing These are x-rays of a person producing different vowelsdifferent vowels

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In the close front position In the close front position (unrounded) we produce /i/ - (unrounded) we produce /i/ -

pitpit

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In the open front position In the open front position (unrounded) we produce /a/ - (unrounded) we produce /a/ -

patpat

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Back open (Back open (ununrounded) - pot rounded) - pot

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Back close (rounded): /u/ Back close (rounded): /u/ - put- put

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Connecting these points gives us a box called Connecting these points gives us a box called the the Vowel QuadrilateralVowel Quadrilateral

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All the vowel sounds that the human voice can All the vowel sounds that the human voice can produce may be plotted within the limits of the produce may be plotted within the limits of the

quadrilateralquadrilateral

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Here is the vowel quadrilateral divided into Here is the vowel quadrilateral divided into sectors with the IPA symbols at fixed points. sectors with the IPA symbols at fixed points.

These are called These are called Cardinal VowelsCardinal Vowels..

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N.B. Do not confuse symbols for N.B. Do not confuse symbols for cardinal vowels with language cardinal vowels with language

specific phonemesspecific phonemes The IPA vowel quadrilateral is a grid on which we

can plot vowels It indicates the total area in which vowels can be

produced by human beings, the cardinal vowels are fixed reference points on this chart, just like lines of longtitude and latitude on a map

Plots of language specific vowels do not usually correspond to the cardinal vowels, e.g. the Italian /a/ does not correspond to the cardinal vowel [a]

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The four corners of the quadrilateral may The four corners of the quadrilateral may be seen as the four corners of a map – be seen as the four corners of a map –

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Plotting vowels within the chart is like Plotting vowels within the chart is like plotting the irregular outlines of plotting the irregular outlines of

topographytopography

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These are the places of articulation of English These are the places of articulation of English short and long pure vowelsshort and long pure vowels

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The chart of Standard Italian vowels would look The chart of Standard Italian vowels would look like this:like this:

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The fact that Italian lacks vowels in the central area may well explain why Italian students of English have so much trouble with these sounds

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However, it is important to remember that However, it is important to remember that the cardinal vowel system describes the cardinal vowel system describes vowels from an articulatory point of vowels from an articulatory point of

view…view…

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……whereas vowels are an acoustic whereas vowels are an acoustic phenomenon and may also be described phenomenon and may also be described

according to their acoustic properties. according to their acoustic properties.

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Plotting the values of the 1Plotting the values of the 1stst and 2 and 2ndnd formants results in a graph which greatly formants results in a graph which greatly

resembles the quadrilateralresembles the quadrilateral

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We can note that the values of the We can note that the values of the acoustic properties are not always exactly acoustic properties are not always exactly the same: they tend to vary considerablythe same: they tend to vary considerably

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This type of analysis can be used to This type of analysis can be used to illustrate the difference between native illustrate the difference between native

(left) and non-native speakers’ production (left) and non-native speakers’ production (right)(right)

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Native (left) and non-native speakers’ Native (left) and non-native speakers’ production (right)production (right)

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LengthLength

English vowels differ in length as well as in quality

These differences are as important to perception as quality

English long vowels are far longer than Italian equivalents (e.g. /i:/, /u:/)

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The distinction between long and The distinction between long and short vowels is not always very clearshort vowels is not always very clear

The realisation of long and short vowels depends on their context, this is called Clipping

This means that long vowels and diphthongs tend to be shortened before voiceless consonants e.g. /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/ etc.

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Vowel length in centiseconds:Vowel length in centiseconds:

(Data from Gimson 1980:98)

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Potential ambiguityPotential ambiguity

Italian speakers of English often produce vowel sounds that can be misinterpreted by native speakers

This is particularly important in the case of minimal pairs i.e. where substituting one vowel sound for another leads to semantic changes

This can be due to the irregular orthography of English or interference from L1. We will now examine this second case.

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/ i: / v. / i: / v. / i // i /

e.g. sheep v. ship. Italian speakers often use one vowel sound, the Italian /i:/ for both. In the case of sheep the vowel length is too short, in that of ship the quality does not exclude ambiguity.

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Other casesOther cases

e.g. ban and bun – here the problem is one of vowel quality

e.g. coat and court – the Italian /o/ is often used for both