Vowels

1. Vowels • Vowels are the most sonorant (or intense) and the most audible sounds in speech. • They usually function as the nucleus (or core) of a syllable. • The consonants that surround vowels often depend on them for their audibility.

2. Vowels • Take the word pop for example. • The [p]’s are heard mainly because of the way they affect the beginning and end of the vowel sound.

3. Vowels • Ask someone to describe where the tongue is at the beginning of a consonant and you will get a concrete answer. • Ask someone to describe where their tongue is at the beginning of a vowel, and you will get a variety of responses. • It is much more difficult to give a satisfactory articulatory description of vowels.

4. Vowels • Vowels are sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract, so they do not have a consonant-like point of articulation or manner of articulation. • Instead, the vocal tract above the glottis acts as a resonator affecting the sound made by the vocal folds.

5. Vowels • The shape of this resonator determines the quality of the vowel. • Since vowels are so very different from consonants, we have to use different features than those used to describe consonants.

6. Vowels • There are several ways in which speakers can change the shape of the vocal tract, and thus change vowel quality. • Using a new feature system, we can create a chart to describe vowels.

7. Vowels • Let’s begin by constructing a basic representation of the mouth. • You should keep in mind, however, that this (unlike the representation of the articulators involved in producing consonants) is only an abstract representation of the mouth.

8. Vowels • A representation of this abstract mouth can be found on the inside cover of your textbook • Be aware, however, that we will have to modify this representation somewhat to fully use our new feature system

10. Vowels • Tongue Height • If you repeat to yourself the vowel sounds in seat, set, sat, you will find that you open your mouth a little wider as you change from each sound. • These varying degrees of openness correspond to different degrees of tongue height: high, mid, low.

11. Vowels • High vowels are made with the front of the mouth less open because the tongue body is raised, or high. • Mid vowels are produced with an intermediate tongue height. • Low vowels are pronounced with the front of the mouth open and the tongue lowered.

13. Vowels • Tongue Advancement • Besides being held high or mid or low, the tongue can also be pushed forward or pulled back within the oral cavity. • For example, in beat, the body of the tongue is raised and pushed forward so it is just under the hard palate.

14. Vowels • In boot, however, the body of the tongue is in the back of the mouth, toward the velum. • The tongue is advanced or pushed forward for all the front vowels, and retracted or pulled back for the back vowels.

16. Vowels • Lip Rounding • Vowel quality also depends on lip position. When you say two, your lips are rounded. • For tea, however, they are unrounded.

18. Vowels • To make our chart complete,however, we are going to have to add in one more set of features • Tense vs. Lax • Vowels that are called tense are produced with an extra degree of muscular effort. • Lax vowels lack this extra effort.

19. Vowels • For example, tense front vowels are made with a stronger (i.e., longer and more extreme) tongue fronting gesture than lax front vowels, which are produced with a weaker fronting movement. • Tense rounded vowels are also made with stronger or tighter lip rounding than their lax counterparts.

21. Vowels • Charting Vowels • Starting from the upper left corner again, the first vowel that we encounter, a front, high, tense, unrounded vowel, is represented by the symbol [i] • This is the sound in the word beat.

23. Vowels • Next is a front, high, unrounded, lax vowel, represented by the symbol called a small capital I: • This is the sound in the word bit. • Here is what it looks like:

26. Vowels • Moving downward, we next encounter a front, mid, unrounded, tense vowel, represented by the symbol [e]: • This is the sound in the word bait.

28. Vowels • Next is a front, mid, unrounded, lax vowel, represented by the symbol called epsilon: • This is the sound in the word bet. • Here is what it looks like:

31. Vowels • Moving down again, we next encounter a front, low, unrounded, lax vowel, represented by the symbol called ash. • This is the sound in the word bat.

34. Vowels • Moving to the upper right corner of our abstract mouth, we next encounter a high, back, tense, rounded vowel, represented by the symbol [u]: • This is the sound in the word boot.

36. Vowels • Next is a high, back, lax, rounded vowel, represented by the symbol called upsilon: • This is the sound in the word foot. • Here is what it looks like:

39. Vowels • Moving downward, we next encounter a back, mid, tense, rounded vowel, represented by the symbol [o]: • This is the sound in the word boat.

41. Vowels • Next is a back, mid, lax, rounded vowel, represented by the symbol called open o (or sometimes backward c): • This is the sound in the word long (at least for me!!!). • Or maybe the first sound in “aw shucks” • Here is what it looks like:

44. Vowels • Moving downward, we next encounter a back, low, lax, unrounded vowel, represented by the symbol [a]. • This is the sound in the word father.

46. Vowels • Finally, moving to the middle of our abstract mouth, we encounter a central, mid, lax, unrounded vowel, represented by the symbol called a schwa: • This is the last sound in the word sofa. • Here is what it looks like:

49. Vowels • Schwa has a stressed counterpart known as inverted v or wedge • This is the vowel sound in the words but and putt. • It looks like this: