Phonetics 2 - Vowels

Introduction to
English Phonetics and Phonology

Lecture 2
How many speech sounds are
there in English?
VOWELS
/p/
What is a vowel?
• A sound produced without major
constriction in the vocal tract
–No articulators touching or even
coming close
–English vowels are all voiced and
oral.
Nasal vowels (E.g./ɑ̃/)
Types of vowels
Pair-work
1. Say “he” and “ha”
Do you notice the difference in tongue height?
2. Say “he” and “who”

Which part of the tongue is raised? ( front,
central, back)
[hi] [hu:]
he who
[ha:]
ha
Tongue height
Tongue position
Back vowels
Front vowels
Central vowels
• Front vowels • High vowels
• Central vowels • Mid vowels
• Back vowels • Low vowels
• Front vowels: the front of the tongue raises
toward the hard palate.
• Central vowel: the center of the tongue raises
toward the juncture of the hard palate and the
soft palace.
• Back vowel: the back of the tongue raises
toward the soft palate.
Note
• High vowel = close vowel

• Low vowel = open vowel
Vowel quadrilateral
Lip rounding
• Rounded
[u]
• Unrounded
[i]
Vowel quadrilateral
Vowels
• Vowels can be classified by answering three
questions:
• How high is the tongue? (height)
• High- mid - low
• What part of the tongue is involved? (frontness)
• Front- central- back
• What is the shape of the lips? (rounding)
• Rounded or unrounded
Parameters to classify vowels
• Tongue height
• Frontness (backness)
• Closeness (openness of the mouth)
• Lip rounding
Vowel quadrilateral
Cardinal vowels chart
(Daniel John)
[. . . ] Daniel Jones proposed a series of eight
cardinal vowels, evenly spaced around the
outside of the possible vowel area and
designed to act as fixed reference points for
phoneticians. In no case is the quality of a
cardinal vowel exactly the same as that of an
English vowel.
Peter Ladefoged and Keith Johnson, A Course

in Phonetics (2010)
Cardinal vowels
Extreme vowels that serve as a reference to
describe vowels of different languages
Cardinal vowel 1: the most front vowel + the
highest tongue position in the mouth
Cardinal vowel 4: the most front vowel + the
lowest possible tongue position
Cardinal vowel 5: most back+ lowest tongue
position
Cardinal vowel 8: most back + highest tongue
position
Cardinal vowels
i Si, linguistique
i
See
:
:
:
/ɪ/
sit seat
Find the differences in pronunciation of the
following sound pairs:
central
Complete the table

:
:
:
Full vs. Fool
:
:
:
Man, Cat
:
:
:
/ɔː/
Or storm, door, horse
ou four
oar board
aw Law
au laundry
al Hall, wall, salt, call
:
:
:
/3:/
HER SERVE
er Her, serve
ir Sir, stir
ear earn, learn
ur burn
or work, word
:
:
:
father, car, market
:
:
:
Schwa
/ә /
• away, banana, sugar
• garden, agent , paper,
• kingdom, ketchup
:
:
:
/ʌ / Cut, much, love
:
:
:
Men, end, lemon, head, friend, leg,
bell
:
:
:
/ɒ/ dot, hot, walk
• The vowel /ʌ/ is actually a back vowel, but is
often centralized
REVISION
Describe the
vowel in the
word “ hat”
Open, front, unrounded

Describe the
first vowel in
the word
“any”
Mid, front, unrounded

Describe the
vowel in the
word “ fur”
mid, central, unrounded

What’s the open, back, unrounded
vowel?
1.
2.
3.
What’s the open, back, unrounded
vowel?
1.
2.
3.
Which word contains the mid,
central, unrounded vowel?
1. cup
2. saw
3. Ten
Which word contains the mid,
central, unrounded vowel?
1. cup
2. saw
3. Ten
Single vowels
Vowels in English
• Single vowels (pure vowels)
• Diphthongs
• Triphthongs
Diphthongs
• Does the tongue stay constant ?

• Does the first part or the second part sound
stronger?
Diphthongs
• Movement/glide from one vowel to
another
• 1st part longer and stronger than the 2nd
part
Why are they
called “centring
dipthongs?”
Why are they
called “closing
dipthongs?”
Closing vowels
Give examples of words with the
/әυ/ sound
Spelling
o hope,
oa Road
ow follow,
ew sew
/әυ/
o hope, both, clothes, open, whole

oa road, coat
ow pillow, follow,
ew sew
/aυ/
ou mouse, ………………..
ow Vowel…………………..
/aυ/
ou mouse, mountain, thousand,

ow vowel, now, flower
/oı/
oi Coin,………………………….
oy Toy,…………………………..
/oı/
oi coin, boil,
oy enjoy, royal, toy
/aı/
y Sky,………………………………
i Design, ………………………..
igh Might,………………………….
ui Quite,…………………………
/aı/
y sky, fly, cry, supply,

i design, mind
igh might, high, night, delight, right
ui quite, guide
Diphthongs
• 8 diphthongs
• 2 groups: centring and closing
ending in /∂/ ending in / I /, /ʊ/
• Movement/glide from one vowel to
another
• 1st part longer and stronger
• 2nd part shorter and quieter
Layer Tripthongs
Lower
loyer
(/eı/ /aı/ /‫כּ‬ı/ / əʊ/ /aʊ/ + /ə/)

CLOSING DIPTHONGS
Triphthongs
• Composed of: closing diphthongs + /ə/)
(/eı/ /aı/ /‫כּ‬ı/ / əʊ/ /aʊ/ + /ə/)
E.g. layer liar royal lower hour
• A glide from one vowel to another and then

to a third one
• Produced rapidly and without interruption
Single vowels
Diphthongs
Describing a single vowel
Parameters
e to describe vowels
Closeness
Tenseness (tense - lax)
Try producing the following vowels:
/i:/, /u:/, /3:/ /‫כּ‬:/ /a:/
and
• Tense vowels require tension in particular

muscles for production
• E.g. /i:/, ./i/, /u:/, /3:/ /‫כּ‬:/ /a:/
• Tense vowels are in long duration.
Lax vowels
• Lax vowels are produced when the muscles
are in resting postures and are short in
duration.
• E.g.
Note
What have we learnt so far?
• Vowels in English
• Characteristics of vowels ( height, frontness,
rounding, closeness, length, tenseness)
Describing a vowel
1. Tongue shape
2. Lip shape
3. Whether tongue and lip shape are held
constant or undergo change. (single
vowels/dipthongs/tripthongs)
4. Duration
Find the differences between the two systems
: :
:
Length mark
Listen for the word
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/de
finition/english/hay?q=hay
Watch a video
References
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq2hOb1
GMzE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzNRoSG
Bh44
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeaghqkL
Ri8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj8R5Px
mA4A
Practice
• Choose the word that has a different vowel
sound:
1. A. pen B. said C. mess D. mean
2. A. meat B. steak C. weak D. theme
3. A. sane B. paid C. lace D. mast
4. A. ton B. toast C. both D. note
• What is a vowel? How many vowel sounds
are there in English?
• What are the parameters to describe
vowels?
• What is the cardinal vowel chart?
• What are the different types of vowels?
• What are the differences between British
vowels and American vowels?
• “ee” (cheese)
• “ea” (meat)
• “ie” (piece)
• “ei” (ceiling)
• “ey” (key)
• “eo” (peope)
• “i” (ski)
• “ay” (quay)
8
Same or different
Decide whether the underlined parts of
these words are pronounced in the same
or different way
Same or Different
Twin Team
DIFFERENT
Same or Different
/ɪ/ /i:/
single machine
DIFFERENT
Same or Different
law hall
SAME
Same or Different
salt call
SAME
Same or Different
heart hurt
DIFFERENT
Same or Different
clerk per
SAME/
DIFFERENT
https://www.internationalphoneticalp
habet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-
sounds/
https://padlet.com/hienhoa/jb25y3n
2mufmozbu

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Introduction to

English Phonetics and Phonology

2. Say “he” and “who”

• High vowel = close vowel

Peter Ladefoged and Keith Johnson, A Course

Complete the table

Open, front, unrounded

Mid, front, unrounded

mid, central, unrounded

• Does the tongue stay constant ?

o hope, both, clothes, open, whole

ou mouse, mountain, thousand,

y sky, fly, cry, supply,

(/eı/ /aı/ /‫כּ‬ı/ / əʊ/ /aʊ/ + /ə/)

• A glide from one vowel to another and then

• Tense vowels require tension in particular

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