Unit 2 (Vowels)Vowels – sounds made with little or no obstruction in the vocal tractSounds produced by changingTongue heightTongue advancementLip roundingMuscle tension in the tongueTongue HeightHigh Vowelsproduced with the tongue raised to approach the roof of the mouthexamples: [i]as inheed[hid],![ɪ]as in!hit![hɪt],[u]as inwho'd[hud],[ʊ]as inhood[hʊd]Low Vowelsproduced with the tongue low in the mouthexamples: ![æ]!as inhat![hæt] and![a]!as in!hot![hat]**difference between the high and low!- comparing the position of your tongue whenpronouncing!heed/hat!andwho'd/hot**Mid Vowelsproduced with the tongue midway between high and low vowelsexamples: [e]!as in!hay![he],![ɛ]!as in!head![hɛd],![ə]!as in!sofa![sofə],![ʌ]!as in!hut![hʌt],![o]as in!home![hom], and![ɔ]!as in!golf![gɔlf]**[ə]and![ʌ]!represent a sound with tongue and lips in the same position, [ə]is mid centralvowel that is unstressed & [ʌ]!is mid central vowel that is stressed**Tongue AdvancementFront Vowelsproduced with the tongue body advanced or pushed forward in the oral cavityexamples: [i],![ɪ],![e],![ɛ], and![æ]Back Vowelsproduced when the tongue is retracted or pulled backexamples: [u],![ʊ],![o],![ɔ], and![a]Central Vowelstongue is neither advanced nor retractedexamples: [ə]!and![ʌ]Lip RoundingRounded Vowels in English ![u],![ʊ],![o],![ɔ]Unrounded Vowels – All other vowelsDegree of Muscle Tensionthe amount of muscle tension in the vocal tractLax Vowelsproduced with less tensionmuscles slightly lower the tongue and shorten the duration of the soundexample: [ɪ]and[ʊ]Tense Vowelsproduced with more tensionexample: [i]and[u]Other tense/lax vowel differences distinguish the mid front vowels![e]!and![ɛ]!and the mid back vowels![o]!and![ɔ].! The low front and low back vowels![æ]!and![a]!and the mid central vowels![ə]!and![ʌ]!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 [ ɪ] is lowered to [ɛ], and the low front vowel [æ] shifts back to [a] in words like!that, and raises before nasals in words likestand.!Naming the Vowelsuse the information on tongue height, tongue advancement, lip rounding, and tongue muscle tension to provide a unique name for each of the vowelsexample: [i], as in!heed - high, front, unrounded, tense!vowelIs 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.Dipthongsvowel sounds produced when the tongue moves quickly from the articulation of a vowel to a glidediphthong [ay]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]diphthong [aw]vowel [a]. It then moves to the position of the labial glide [w]articulated in the same space as the high back vowel [u]diphthong [ɔy]vowel [ɔ] 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 whenthe tongue moves from a mid position to the nearest high position, a relatively short distance compared to the diphthongs [ay], [aw], and [ɔy]. 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 ConsonantsSyllablesConsonants and vowels combinedNucleus / Sonorant Peaknoisy segment of each syllableTypically the nucleus of a syllable is a vowelFor 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 nucleusliquid and nasal consonants can also function as syllable nucleinasals 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 barfor the transcription of syllabic consonants.**Remember liquid & nasal consonants are not always syllabic as shown by the words in theNon-Syllabic column in the chart above. In these words the syllable nuclei are vowels.**Transcribing Speech Soundsrepresentation of speech sounds using the IPA symbols for consonants and vowelsThere 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