Ratih Aulia Fitri

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TBI 5 C

LINGUISTICS

English Vowels (Monophthongs and Diphthongs)

Watch the videos about cardinal & primary English vowels (monophthongs) and diphthongs.
Answer the following questions:

1. How can you differentiate between the production of consonants and vowel sounds?

Consonants are sounds that are produced with the articulators more or less close.
That is, they are produced with a close articulation, going from completely together to
only approximating. Consonantal sounds are classified according to three dimensions: a)
Voicing b) Place of articulation c) Manner of articulation Voicing refers to the activity of
the vocal folds. When the vocal folds are wide apart, consonants are said to be voiceless,
when they are closely together and vibrating, consonants are said to be voiced. The place
of articulation refers to that area in one of the resonating cavities (larynx, mouth) where
the articulators are opposing some kind of stricture or obstacle to the passing of air. The
manner of articulation refers to the way the articulators are set so that the resonance
effect is possible.

Vowels are the sounds during the articulation of which active organ of speech
comes against the passive organ of speech in such a way so as to leave a sufficient wide
gap for the air to escape without any friction or obstruction. The air escapes freely.
Vowel sounds are divided according to the part of the tongue raised. If front of the tongue
is raised toward hard palate with sufficient gap between them for the air to escape freely,
the sounds thus articulated are front vowels. Similarly center of the tongue against the
place between hard and soft palate and back of the tongue against soft palate generate
 central and back vowels. We can understand the classification of vowels by knowing the
part of the tongue raised, the height to which it is raised, and the position of lips.

2. How can linguist describe vowels sounds? (use vowel chart to see its features)

Vowel Sounds

A vowel is a sound made by the relatively free movement of air through the
mouth, usually forming the main sound of a syllable. You need to understand the basic
conceptual separation of letters and sounds in English. The letter vowels are: a, e, i, o,
and u.

Many languages have pure vowels, when the tongue and lips are relatively
stationary while these vowels are being pronounced. But many of the vowels in English
are not pure. This means they are lengthened and spoken with the tongue moving from
one sound into another sound.

There are 15 vowels sounds in English:

/i:/ eat, bead, bee

/ɪ/ id, bid, pit

/eɪ/ eight, wade, bay

/ɛ/ bet, fed

/æ/ ask, bat, glad

/ʌ/ under, putt, bud

/ɑ:/ cot, bomb

/u:/ boot, two, tube

/ʊ/ foot, should, put

/oʊ/ oat, own, zone, blow

/ɔ/ caught, paw, port

/ɚ/ merge, bird, further

/aɪ/ ice, bite, tie

/aʊ/ out, gown, plow

/oɪ/ oyster, coil, boy

All 12 main vowel sounds in English and the three diphthongs are organized and
described in terms of the following characteristics: The American English vowel sounds
are described in terms of height (high, middle, low); backness (front, central, back); lip
position (rounded, spread or unrounded); length (short, long, complex); and tenseness
(lax, tense).

This chart show the height, backness, and tenseness of the vowels:

VOWELS Tense/Lax FRONT CENTRAL BACK

Tense i: ɚ u:

HIGH

Lax ɪ ʊ

oʊ
MIDDLE Tense eɪ
ʌ (ə) (**)
VOWELS Tense/Lax FRONT CENTRAL BACK

Lax ɛ

Tense
LOW
Lax Æ ɑ ɔ (*)

3. Find similarities between closing and centring diphthongs, give examples

According where the glide in the diphthong ends, they are classified as closing
diphthongs (or rising diphthongs) and centering diphthongs. Closing diphthongs are those
whose last vowel is near-high. Since both vowels have to be lax, the only two
possibilities are [ɪ] and [ʊ]. Centering diphthongs ends in vowel [ə] (schwa). American
English diphthongs can be explained from their British counterpart. Figure 1 illustrates
the classification of British English diphthongs. If a diphthong carries is labelled with
(BrE) it means that diphthong only occurs in British English; similarly, label (AmE) is
used when the diphthong only appears in American English.

Examples of diphthongs are: [aɪ] as in high[haɪ], [eɪ] as in play[pleɪ], [ɔɪ] as in boy[bɔɪ], or [aʊ]
as in now[naʊ].