1. Spoken language phonetics: Vowel articulation, transcription
LING 200
Spring 2006

2. Homework #2 Due Thurs. Apr 13 at the beginning of section
Ch. 6 problems
(5) a-g, j
(6)-(7)
(9)
(10) a, c, e
(11)-(12)

3. Announcements
Quiz on Ch. 6 extended to 2:30 pm today (**just this once**)
Quiz on Ch. 7 (minus first section, ‘The Pronunciation of Morphemes’) opens Sunday (4-9) 10 am, closes Wed (4-12) noon
Clickers should be in book store today
extra credit?

4. A FAQ Which phonetic symbols do we have to memorize in this class?
Answer: those used for English

5. Manner of articulation (degree of occlusion)
How close are lower and upper articulator?
Relatively close: consonants
Relatively far apart: vowels

6. Vowels Some dimensions of vowel systems Height: high, mid, low
Backness: front, central, back
Labiality (lip rounding): rounded, unrounded
some descriptive parameters
backness = backness of highest point of tongue (roughly)

7. Vowel backness x height

8. The Human Language Evolves. “With and Without Words”
Clip on vowel systems

9. (place of articulation)
A five vowel inventory
e.g. Spanish
(place of articulation)
front
central
back
vowel height
high i u
mid e o
low A

10. Spanish vowels front central back high [misA] ‘Mass’ [musA] ‘muse’ mid
[mesA] ‘table’
[moskA] ‘housefly’
low
[mAsA] ‘dough’

11. Lip rounding (place of articulation) front unrounded central back
vowel height (degree of occlusion)
high i u
mid e o
low A

12. Phonetic description of vowels
(height – backness – rounding)
[i] = high front unrounded vowel
[e] = mid front unrounded vowel
[o] = mid back rounded vowel
[u] = high back rounded vowel
[A] = low central (-back) unrounded vowel
cf. [a] = low front unrounded vowel

13. IPA vowel chart

14. Another five vowel inventory
Mandarin (Chinese)
[y] = high front rounded vowel
[] = mid back unrounded vowel
front
unrnd
rnd
back
high i y u
mid 
low A

15. Mandarin vowel quality
front
back
unrnd
rnd
high
[l] ‘advantage’
[ly] ‘green’
[lû] ‘road’
mid
[l] ‘happy’
low
[lA] ‘spicy’
[  ] = high falling tone

16. Long vs. short vowels Vowel “quality” height: high vs. mid vs. low
backness: front vs. central vs. back
rounding: rounded vs. unrounded
Vowel “quantity”: long vs. short

17. Danish front vowel qualities

18. Danish vowel length contrasts

19. English vowels English, a Germanic language Proto-Germanic
West North East
Faroese Icelandic Norwegian Swedish Danish Gothic
German Afrikaans Dutch Frisian English

20. Proto-Germanic Vowels
i i:
u u:
e e: o: A
As reconstructed by Joe Voyles (and others)

21. Middle English vowels
< The English Language

22. Middle English long and short vowels
minus the diphthongs i: u: I U e:  o:
E: E
:  a A:

23. Modern English Historical length > ‘tense’/ ‘lax’ contrast
Long vowels > ‘tense’
Short vowels > ‘lax’

24. Western North America front central back high i u lower-high   mid
Basic set of contrasts in stressed syllables
front
central
back
unrounded
rounded
high i u
lower-high  
mid
higher-mid e o
lower-mid E 
low  A
Fromkin et al. say that i-I, u-U, e-E, o- ( not on this slide) are tense-lax pairs, where the lax member of each pair is shorter. This really isn’t true of the relation between o and . Notice too that they don’t classify the other vowels in terms of tense and lax.

25. Western North America front central back high heed who’d lower-high
contrasts in stressed syllables
front
central
back
unrounded
rounded
high
heed
who’d
lower-high
hid
hood
mid
higher-mid
hayed
hoed
lower-mid
head
HUD
low
had
hod, hawed

26. Acoustic plot of vowel quality
a female speaker from southern California
Notice: relative positions of e and I, rather central u and U, ^ and A in basically central-back relation

27. Further east in North America
contrasts in stressed syllables
front
central
back
unrounded
rounded
high i u
lower-high  
mid
higher-mid e o
lower-mid E  
low  A

28. Further east in North America
contrasts in stressed syllables
front
central
back
unrounded
rounded
high
heed
who’d
lower-high
hid
hood
mid
higher-mid
hayed
hoed
lower-mid
head
HUD
hawed
low
had
hod

29. [] vs. [] cot vs. caught Polly vs. Paulie Don vs. dawn
A female speaker from New York City
cot vs. caught
Polly vs. Paulie
Don vs. dawn
coffee vs. cough
body vs. bawdy

30. Acoustic plot of vowel quality
a male speaker from southern New Jersey
Notice: positions of I-e, central /u/, relation between ^, A, and O (A more central than back in this variety)

31. [] in Western N. America
In Western North America, [] only before [r]:
[mr] more
[mor] mower ([r] = syllabic [r])
[mAr] mar

32. English vowels: rhotic nuclei
A basic set of [Vr] combinations in North American English
front
central
back
high
[ur]
[r]
mid
[Er]
[r] = [r]
[r]
low
[Ar]

33. English vowels: rhotic nuclei
A basic set of [Vr] combinations in North American English
front
central
back
high
boor
beer
mid
bear
burr
bore
low
bar
some varieties have more vowel quality distinctions before [r]: Mary [e], merry [E], marry []

34. More on [r]
Continuation of clip from The Human Language Evolves. “With and Without Words”

35. Diphthongs 2 vowel qualities [w]/[w] = []: [hwd] how’d
[j] = []: [hjd] hide
[j] = []: [tjd] toyed
For many native speakers of English, [e], [o] are diphthongs
[ej] = [eI] [hed] ([hejd]) hayed
[ow] = [oU] [hod] ([howd]) hoed

36. Unstressed vowels Stressed and unstressed syllables verbs: nouns:
to [riEkt] a [ríEkt] reject
to [protEst] a [prótEst] protest
to [prótEst] (‘stage a protest’)
Stress can alternatively be transcribed (IPA method) [riEkt]

37. English unstressed vowels
[] only occurs in unstressed syllables
unstressed []
cf. stressed []
hiccup [hkp]
cup [kp]
wicked [wkd]
cud [kd]
racket [rkt]
cut [kt]

38. English unstressed vowels
[] + nasals, liquids
For many speakers,
[r] [pkr] picker
[l] = [l] [pkl] [pkl pickle
[n] = [n] [Tkn] [Tkn] thicken
[m] = [m] [rDm] [rDm] rhythm
[ ] = syllabic

39. Transcription practice
scrimmage
schism
asthma
azalea
mayonnaise

40. Transcription practice
scrimmage [skrIm]
schism [skIzm]
asthma [zm]
azalea [zelj]
mayonnaise [mnez]

41. More transcription practice
kook
cucumber
mortgage
grammar
language

42. kook [kuk]
cucumber [kjukmbr]
mortgage [mrg]
grammar [græmr]
language [leNgw]