Vowels A comparative analysis of vowels in 4 languages ENS701M Experimental Phonetics Maddalena Tovazzi Minna Marika Timonen

1. Cardinal vowels 2. Vowel length

Cardinal vowels: Finnish and Icelandic

Cardinal vowels: Italian and English

2. Vowel length Finnish  Phonemic  always shown in spelling  Tuli-tuuli  Ahtisaari  0,117/ 0,177 Icelandic  Allophonic  VC = Long vowel  VCC = Short vowel  Fara-banna  0,153 / 0,294

Exceptions in Icelandic LONG vowels also in:  one-syllable words with word-final vowel  Þú 0,362 sec, fúll 0,227 sec  vowels preceding consonant clusters pr, tr, kr, sk, pj, tj, sj and tv, kv  Esja 0,288 sec, penni 0,098 sec

Italian There is no noticeable difference in lenght Vowels in final position are always pronounced clipped Vowels in stressed open syllables are long The distinction between close-mid (e o) and open-mid ( ɛ ɔ ) is made in stressed syllables only.

elemento

modo

English There is a well-known distinction between long and short vowels Nevertheless, many accents are nowadays “losing” this distinction More importance is given to lax/tense distinction, or free/checked distinction

Vowels are generally longer when in stressed syllables: peoplecarriage

Allophonic length Certain dialects display allophonic vowel length In the coda of a syllable, vowel phonemes are realized as allophones before voiced consonant phonemes

For example, in bat the phoneme is realized as a short allophone. In bad there is a longer realization, due to the presence of the voiced consonant: badbat

Alternation of vowels in a word Some Italian words seem to vary greatly between speakers One well known example is the word bene (good). There are 4 different realizations

1. closed + closed (0.175; 0.169)

2. open + closed (0.199; 0.086)

3. closed + open (0.114; 0.095)

4. open + open (0.167; 0.158)

According to standard grammar, the correct pronunciation of the word is as shown in 3 (open/closed). All the four variations are nevertheless found everywhere. The alternation is NOT on a regional basis.