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Unit 5 English Front Vowels & Central Vowels

Unit 5 English Front Vowels & Central Vowels. Front vowels: / i: , I, e, A / Central vowel: / V:, E, Q /. Classification of Vowels. 1) Cardinal vowels

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Unit 5 English Front Vowels & Central Vowels

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  1. Unit 5 English Front Vowels & Central Vowels Front vowels: / i:, I, e, A / Central vowel: / V:, E, Q /

  2. Classification of Vowels • 1) Cardinal vowels • In the production of vowels ,the vocal organs do not come very close together to form obstruction to the airstream, so it is difficult to have a clear sensation of the whereabouts of the vocal organs. Therefore methods for describing vowels on some basis other than articulators were sought in the last century . Eventually , it occurred to the phoneticians that it would be a way out to establish, on an auditory basis, a set of arbitrary reference points--cardinal vowels , so that a given vowel could be described in terms of its relation to them. • Of the various cardinal vowel systems, the most satisfactory is the one devised by Daniel Jones. Jones first fixed the qualities of the two vowels which were produced with the tongue in most easily felt positions. • When the soft palate is raised and the lips are unrounded, the vowel produced with the tongue raised as high and as forward as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as / i/ ;and the vowel produced • with tongue held as low and as far back as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as / A /.Then between the / i/ and / A/ positions he selected three points where the vowel qualities seemed to be

  3. equidistant and symbolized them as /e ,3,a/. The same procedure was applied when the back of the tongue was raised from the / a/ position while the lips changed progressively from a wide open shape to a closely rounded one. Another three auditorily equidistant points were thus established from the highest position and they were given the symbols /o,u ao/. The first five of these vowels are pronounced with the lips unrounded and the remaining three are pronounced with the lips rounded. With the cardinal vowels as the standard ,the vowels in a particular language can be described with relative accuracy and ease. The English / i : / , for example ,may be described as pronounced with the front of the tongue in a bit lower and more centralized position than the cardinal / i / . The English /e / is pronounced with the front of the tongue in a position between the cardinal / e/ and / 3/. 2) Classification of vowels

  4. There are 20 vowels in English . Twelve pure vowels ( monophthongs) / i:, I, e,  ,  , :,  , : : , D,, u: / and eight diphthongs ( gliding vowels ) /eI , aI , I,J, aJ, I, e ,  / . The distinction between pure and gliding vowels is known more familiarly as one between monophthongs and diphthongs. A gliding vowel involves a change in quality within the one vowel. It glides from one element to a second element, and usually the first part is more prominent than the second. While a pure vowel has an unchanging quality, which can be prolonged at will, the quality of a gliding vowel is not the same at the end as it was at the beginning. Gliding vowels may be shown as an arrow which indicates the quality of the starting point and the direction in which the quality change is made (corresponding the tongue movement ).

  5. Tongue positions for English front and central vowels (unrounded):

  6. Classification of pure vowels • The pure vowels can be classified according to different 5 principles. • (1 ) According to the height of the raised part of the tongue,they are classified as close vowels ,half-close • vowels ,half-open and open vowels. • (2)According to the length of the vowels ,they are divided into long vowels and short vowels. The ones • with two dots are long vowels. The rest are short ones. • (3)According to the part of the tongue raised , they are called front vowels ,back vowels and central vowels.

  7. (4)According to the shape of the lips, the vowels can be divided into rounded vowels and unrounded vowels . The rounded vowels are / : , D, , u:/ and the rest are unrounded vowels including spread and neutral vowels. (5)According to the degree of tenseness of the muscles, the pure vowels are classified as tense vowels and lax vowels . ( All the short vowels are lax vowels because in the production of which the muscles of speech organs are lax. All the long vowels are tense vowels except / : / because the muscles are usually tense when they are produced.)

  8. Practice the following words: • // about aware flower • /:/ bird her fur • // bet set head • // hit bit pit • // cut hut duck • / i:/ beat feat weak • /A/ bat fat cat // cut hut duck

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