Definition

Characteristics
Description
Classification of English
vowels
Dipthongs & tripthongs

 Vowel

sounds differ from consonant

sounds in that they are produced not by
blocking air in its passage from the lungs
but by passing air through different
shapes of the mouth and different
positions of the tongue and lips
unobstructed by narrow passages (except
at the glottis). [Finegan, 1994: 39]

 Vowels

are differentiated from

consonants by the relatively wide opening

in the mouth as air passes from the lungs
out of the body. This means that there is
relatively little obstruction of the
airstream in comparison to consonants.
[Avery & Ehrlich, 1995: 28]

The quality of vowels is determined by the

particular configuration of the vocal tract.
Different parts of the tongue may be raised
or lowered. The lips may be spread or
pursed. The passage through which the air
travels, however, is never so narrow as to
obstruct the free flow of the airstream.
[Fromkin & Rodman, 1993: 199]

 Vowels

are:

1.Voiced,

i.e. they are produced

with the vibration of the vocal
cords

2.Sonorant:

Acoustically, vowels
are louder than consonants.

 Vowel

can be described in terms

of articulatory & auditory
parameters:
Tongue positions
Shapes of lips
Mouth aperture

 Tongue

part (advancement): front [I],

[1] / central [9], [6 ] /back [3 ], [O ]
Tongue height (jaw opening): high [I],
[U] /mid [9], [O ] /low [], [4]
Shapes of lips (lip rounding): rounded
[O ], [U] / unrounded [I], [] .
Length (duration): long [I], [U] /short [e],
[]
Tenseness (effort with tongue & jaw):
-tense:
[I], [:] / - lax:
[e], []

Different vowel sounds result from different positions of the

tongue and lips. In describing vowels, it is necessary to
discuss four characteristics:

Tongue Height whether the tongue is high or low in the

mouth.

Frontness/Backness whether the front or the back of the

tongue is involved.

Tenseness/Laxness whether the muscles are tense or lax.

Lip Rounding whether the lips are rounded. [Avery &

Ehrlich, 1995: 28]

1.

Principles of quality
Tongue position:
-horizontal (tongue part): front/
central/ back vowels.
-vertical (tongue height): high/
mid/ low vowels.
Lip position:
-rounded/unrounded vowels/the
remaining ones

The height of the tongue allows us to distinguish

high, low, or mid vowels: the vowels in beat, bit, boot
and book are all considered to high vowels because
they are made with the tongue raised above its rest
position; the vowels in bat, bar, and botch are all
considered to be low vowels because they are made
with the tongue below its rest position; the vowel in
bet, but and bought are all considered to be mid
vowels because they are made with the tongue
neither high nor low in the mouth.

The vowels in but and birth, which are

made with neither the front nor the
back part of the tongue, are referred to
as. When these vowels are produced,
the central vowels tongue is neither
high nor low in the mouth; therefore
they are called mid central vowels.

 The

vowels in beat, bought, boot and

birth, which are produced with extra
muscle tension, are tense. The vowels
in bit, bet, botch, book and but, which
are produced without this tension, are
lax. Tense vowels are produced with
much effort than lax vowels..

 The

back vowels in boot, book, bought,

and botch are all pronounced with the

lips rounded, i.e. with the corners of the
lips brought towards each other and the
lips often pushed forwards, resulting in
some protrusion. The low back vowel in
bar is the only English back vowel that
occurs without lip rounding..

All non-back vowels are also unrounded. The front

vowels in beat, bit, bet, and bat are all
pronounced with the lips more or less spread, i.e.
with the corners of the lips moved away from each
other as for a smile.

All English front vowels are more or less spread.

The central vowels in but and birth are all
pronounced with the neutral lips, i.e. with the lips
neither rounded nor spread. All English central
vowels are neutral

 Long

vowels in English are also

produced with greater tension of
the tongue muscles than their
short counterparts and therefore
also referred to as tense vowels.
Short vowels are relatively short
because vowels can have different
lengths in different contexts.

 the

pronunciation of long vowels is held longer

than that of short vowels.
Long vowels are commonly represented with a
colon after them in phonetic transcriptions
[Finegan, 1994: 41]: bit /b1t/ vs. beat
/bi:t/, pull /p3l/ vs. pool /pu:l/,
perhaps /p9h`p/, verb /v+b/.

RP has a large number of diphthongs, sounds which

consists of a movement or glide from one vowel to
another. A vowel which remains constant and do not
glide is called a pure vowel. Perhaps the most
important thing to remember about all the
diphthongs is that the first part is much longer
and stronger than the second part . The
centring diphthongs glide towards the 6 (schwa)
vowel . The closing diphthongs have the
characteristic that they all end with a glide toward a
closer vowel. [Roach, 1991: 20-21]

The three English centring diphthongs are:

/ia/: beard, Ian, fierce, etc.
/e9/: air, heir, scarce, etc.
/@/: February, moored, tour, etc.
The three English closing diphthongs ending /1/ in are:
/e1/: face, paid, day, etc.
/a/: blind, try, high, etc.
/%/: point, voice, toy, etc.
The two English closing diphthongs ending // in are:
/~/: so, low, shoulder, etc.
/!/: house, ground, brown, etc.