ALS 426

PHONETICS:
The Sounds of Language
(Vowel)
PART 2 of PART 2
[Week 7]
CONTENT Sound segments
The phonetic alphabet
Part 1

Articulatory phonetics
Consonants
Vowels Part 2
Major phonetic classes
Noncontinuants & continuants
Obstruants & sonorants
Syllabic sounds
Prosodic features
Tone & intonation
The study of speech
sounds is called
phonetics.
The types of sounds of all languages fall into two classes:

Consonants Vowels

Consonants are
A vowel is a syllabic
produced with some
speech sound
restriction or closure in
pronounced without any
the vocal tract that
stricture in the vocal
impedes the flow of air
tract.
from the lungs.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

The International
Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA)
 VOWELS
Vowels are produced with little restriction of the airflow from the lungs out through
the mouth and/ or the nose.

The quality depends on the shape of the vocal tract as the air passes through.

Vowel sounds carry pitch and loudness.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 VOWELS
Different parts of the tongue may be high or low in the mouth; the lips may be spread or
pursed; the velum may be raised or lowered.

There are four ways to classify vowel:

(1) The tongue (3) The shape

position of lips
(4) The
(2) The part
duration
of the tongue
(tense & lax)

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 VOWELS
Three major questions to ask about a vowel:
(1) How high or low in the mouth is the tongue?
(2) How forward or back ward in the mouth is the tongue?
(3) Are the lips rounded (pursed) or spread?

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 VOWELS

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 (1) Tongue position

The upper two diagrams in Figure 5.4 show that the tongue
is high in the mouth in the production of the vowels [i] and [u]
in the words he and who.
In he the front part (but no the tip) of the tongue is raised; in
who it is the back of the tongue.
Prolong the vowels of these words and try to feel the raised
part of your tongue.
These are both high vowels, and the [i] is a high front vowel
while the [u] is a high back vowel.

To produce the vowel sound [a], the tongue is low in the

mouth.
The reason a doctor examining your throat may ask you to
say aah is the tongue is low and easy to see over.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

Vowel production & Tongue position

Front vowels
[i] bead, beef, key, me
[ɪ] bid, myth, women
[ɛ] bed, dead, said
[æ] bad, laugh, wrap

Central vowels
[ə] above, oven, support
[ʌ] butt, blood, dove, tough

Back vowels
[u] boo, move, two, you
[ʊ] book, could, put
[ɔ] born, caught, fall, raw
[ɑ] Bob, cot, swan

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

(2) The part of the tongue

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 (3) The shape of lips

Vowels also differ as to whether the lips are rounded or

spread.
The back vowels [u], [ʊ], [o] and [ɔ] in boot, put, boat and
bawd are the only rounded vowels in (American) English.
They are produced with pursed or rounded lips.
You can get a feel for the rounding by prolonging the word
who, as if you were an owl: whooooooooooo.

Now pose for the camera and say cheese, only say it with a
prolonged vowel: cheeeeeeeeeeeese. The high front [i] in
cheese is unrounded, with the lips in the shape of a smile,
and you can feel it or see it in a mirror.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 (4) The duration

Tense vowel may occur at the ends of words in see, say, sue,
sew, pa, sigh, how and soy.
The first vowel in each pair is generally produced with
greater tension of the tongue muscles than its counter part,
and it is often a little longer in duration.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Diphtongs & Monophthongs

A diphthong is a sequence of two vowel sounds bonded together.

A monophthongs is one vowel sound.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Diphtongs

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Subtle Variation
!Vowel sounds vary between one variety of English to another.

!Vowel sounds are often a key element in what we recognize as

different accents.

!In fact, some of these sound distinctions are not even used regularly.

!There are many other variations in the actual physical articulation of

the sounds

!These subtle differences enable us to identify individual voices and

recognize people we know as soon as they speak.

!Clearly, we are able to disregard all the subtle individual variation in

the phonetic detail of voices and recognize each underlying sound
type as part of a word with a particular meaning.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Major Phonetic Classes
Biologists divide life forms into larger and smaller classes. They may distinguish between animals and plants; within animals,
between vertebrates and invertebrates; mammals, reptiles and so on.

Linguists describe speech sounds similarly. All the classes of sounds described so far in this chapter combined to form larger,
more general classes that are important in the patterning of sounds in the world’s languages.

(1) Noncontinuants & (2) Obstruents & (3)

continuants sonorants Syllabic sounds

Stops and affricates belong to the The non nasal stops, the fricatives and the affricates Sounds that may function as
class of noncontinuants. There is form a major class of sounds called obstruents. the core of a syllable posses
a total obstruction of the air The air stream may be fully obstructed or nearly the feature syllabic.
stream in the oral cavity fully obstructed.

All other consonants and all Sounds that are not obstruents are sonorants. The
vowels are continuants, in which sounds are produced with much less obstruction to
the stream of air flows the air flow which permits the air to resonate.
continuously out of the mouth.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Prosodic features
Length, pitch and stress (or “accent”) are prosodic or suprasegmental
features.
They are features over and above the segmental values such as place or
manner of articulation.

The term prosodic refers to the metrical structure of verse. Japanase,

Finnish and Italian and many other languages have long consonants that
may contract words. English is not a language in which vowel or
consonant length can change a word. For example “puleeeeeeeeze” to
emphasize your request, but the word is still please.

Pitch depends on how fast the vocal cords vibrate: the faster they
Vocal cords
vibrate, the higher the pitch. If larynx is small (eg in children) the shorter
vocal cords vibrate faster and the pitch is higher.

In many languages including English, certain syllables are louder, slightly

higher in pitch and somewhat longer in duration than other syllables in
the word and these are called stressed syllables.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Tone and intonation
Languages that use pitch of individual vowels
or syllables to contrast meanings or words are
called tone languages.

There are two kinds of tones:

(1) register tone; pitch is level across the
syllable and
(2) contour tone; if pitch changes across
syllables, whether from high to low or vice
versa

Intonation is variation of pitch that does not

distinguish words. English and French are
examples of intonation languages.

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

English Phonetic Chart

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Solve the riddles
–[æt dʌsk aɪ kʌm wɪˈðaʊt ˈbiːɪŋ fɛʧt. æt dɔːn aɪ ˌdɪsə
ˈpɪə wɪˈðaʊt ˈbiːɪŋ ˈstəʊlən. aɪm ə ˈpəʊɪts teəz ænd ə
ˈseɪləz gaɪd].

–[juː wɔːkt wʌn deɪ daʊn ðə striːt. juː faʊnd ˈsʌmθɪŋ

ðæt æz wɜːθ ˈsʌmθɪŋ. juː meɪd ʃʊə juː dɪdnt luːz
ɪt. ɪt hæz ˈkʌlə, saɪz ænd ʃeɪp. ˈɛvrɪwʌn ɒv ðɛm ɪz
ˈdɪfrənt. juː ɪnˈʤɔɪ ɪt ə lɒt. juː laɪk ɪt ænd juː kaʊnt
ɪt ˈəʊvər ænd ˈəʊvə].

-[ə ˈvɛri ˈprɪti θɪŋ æm aɪ, ˈflʌtərɪŋ ɪn ðə peɪl-bluː

skaɪ. ˈdɛlɪkɪt, ˈfræʤaɪl ɒn ðə wɪŋ, ɪnˈdiːd aɪ æm ə
ˈprɪti θɪŋ].

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Solve the riddles (answer)
–At dusk I come without being fetched. At dawn I
disappear without being stolen. I'm a poet's tears and a
sailor's guide (STARS)

–You walked one day down the street. You found

something that as worth something. You made sure you
didn't lose it. It has colour, size and shape. Everyone of
them is different. You enjoy it a lot. You like it and you
count it over and over. (Money)

–A very pretty thing am I, fluttering in the pale-blue sky.

Delicate, fragile on the wing, indeed I am a pretty thing.
(Butterfly)

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020

 Watch this video 1

Introduction to
Articulatory
Phonetics
(Vowels)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7jQ8FELbIo
 Watch this video 2

Introduction to the
International
Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_SHfoUDj8A
 Task 1

Textbook page 210

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020
 Task 2

Textbook page 210

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020
 Task 3

Textbook page 211

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020
 Task 4

Textbook page 213

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020
 Task 5

Textbook page 213

ALS 426 Introduction to Linguistics : Phonetics / 2020
End of Part 2