Articulation and Description of English Vowels Phonetics Continued Articulation and Description of English Vowels

Properties of Vowels Most Sonorant (Audible) Sounds Almost always voiced Vowel sounds change according to SHAPE of vocal tract, no obstructions in vowels

How many vowels in English? Teacher said 5 and sometimes y We say 11 and 3 diphthongs 1/2 of languages have 5, some have 3

Parameters Review: Consonant parameters? Voicing, Place of articulation, Manner of articulation Vowel articulation is described using FOUR parameters.

Four parameters of vowels Tongue HEIGHT high / mid / low Tongue BACKNESS front / central / back Lip ROUNDING round / unround TENSENESS tense / lax

Vowel Trapezium U front central back high mid low i  e E Q ´ u o ç a Lax Tense Round

Tongue Height Put your hand under you chin and say seat, set, sat High: leak, lick, Luke, Look [i], [], [u], [U] Mid: bait, bet, but, bought, boat [e], [E], [´], [ç], [o]

Tongue Height Cont. Low: cat, con [Q], [a]

Tongue Backness Front: seek, sick, sake, sec, sack Central: luck [i], [], [e], [E], [Q] Central: luck [´] Back: ooze, look, road, law, dot [u], [U], [o], [ç], [a]

Lip Rounding In English, only the high and mid back vowels are produced with lip rounding Round vowels: [u], [U], [o], [ç] Unround vowels: all the other vowels

Tenseness Tense vowels Lax vowels Compare Pete and pit the tongue is at an extreme height or backness Lax vowels the tongue is not at an extreme position Compare Pete and pit

Diphthongs A diphthong is a complex vowel where the tongue begins in one place and moves to another (a two part vowel sound) The vowel diphthongs: [aj]: bite [aw]: bout [oj]: boy