Unit 2 Vowels Vowels sounds made with little or no obstruction in the vocal tract Sounds produced by changing Tongue height Tongue advancement Lip rounding Muscle tension in the tongue Tongue Height High Vowels produced with the tongue raised to approach the roof of the mouth examples i as in heed hid as in hit h t u as in who d hud as in hood h d Low Vowels produced with the tongue low in the mouth examples as inhat h t and a as in hot hat difference between the high and low comparing the position of your tongue when pronouncing heed hat andwho d hot Mid Vowels produced with the tongue midway between high and low vowels examples e as in hay he as in head h d as in sofa sof as in hut h t o as in home hom and as in golf g lf and represent a sound with tongue and lips in the same position is mid central vowel that is unstressed is mid central vowel that is stressed Tongue Advancement Front Vowels produced with the tongue body advanced or pushed forward in the oral cavity examples i e and Back Vowels Central Vowels produced when the tongue is retracted or pulled back examples u o and a tongue is neither advanced nor retracted examples and Lip Rounding Rounded Vowels in English u o Unrounded Vowels All other vowels Degree of Muscle Tension the amount of muscle tension in the vocal tract Lax Vowels sound example and Tense Vowels produced with more tension example i and u produced with less tension muscles slightly lower the tongue and shorten the duration of the Other tense lax vowel differences distinguish the mid front vowels e and and the mid back vowels o and The low front and low back vowels and a and the mid central vowels and are all lax Linguist Penelope Eckert is currently researching variation in a much more localized variety of English northern California pre teen girls In this variety the back vowels u and o tend to be fronted the mid front vowel is lowered to and the low front vowel shifts back to a in words like that and raises before nasals in words likestand Naming the Vowels use the information on tongue height tongue advancement lip rounding and tongue muscle tension to provide a unique name for each of the vowels example i as in heed high front unrounded tense vowel Is produced with the tongue raised therefore it s high Is produced with the tongue pushed forward therefore it s front Is produced with the lips spread therefore it s unrounded Is produced with tension in the tongue therefore it s tense vowel sounds produced when the tongue moves quickly from the articulation of a vowel Dipthongs to a glide diphthong ay diphthong aw diphthong y vowel a It then moves swiftly to the position of the palatal glide y articulated in the same space as the high front vowel i vowel a It then moves to the position of the labial glide w articulated in the same space as the high back vowel u vowel and moves rapidly to the position of the palatal glide y two more sounds that are usually pronounced as diphthongs Say the words day de and boat bot out loud For most speakers of English e and o are not simple vowels but are actually produced with a following glide i e dey and bowt ey and ow are produced when the tongue moves from a mid position to the nearest high position a relatively short distance compared to the diphthongs ay aw and y This is one of the reasons why ey and ow in English are often transcribed as e and o We often refer to phonological variation as having an accent For example people who say ma l for mile and na t for night are said to have Southern accents This is because speakers who pronounce the diphthong ay as a monophthong a tend to live in Southern dialect regions To better understand this point do the following activity Syllabic Consonants Syllables Consonants and vowels combined Nucleus Sonorant Peak noisy segment of each syllable Typically the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel For example the words a an and phone all have one syllable and each syllable nucleus is a vowel The word telephone has three syllables and each highlighted vowel forms a syllable nucleus liquid and nasal consonants can also function as syllable nuclei nasals and liquids are noisier that is more sonorous than other consonants The syllabic consonants are either transcribed with a small vertical bar beneath the phonetic symbol or the phonetic symbol is preceded by a schwa In this course we will use the vertical bar for the transcription of syllabic consonants Remember liquid nasal consonants are not always syllabic as shown by the words in the Non Syllabic column in the chart above In these words the syllable nuclei are vowels Transcribing Speech Sounds representation of speech sounds using the IPA symbols for consonants and vowels There are no silent letters in transcription Every symbol you ve transcribed will be pronounced Transcriptions are always given in square brackets Capital letters are not used in transcription unless they stand for a specific sound http home cc umanitoba ca krussll phonetics practice 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