Phonetics Continued

1
Phonetics Continued

• Articulation and Description of English Vowels

2
Properties of Vowels

• Most Sonorant (Audible) Sounds
• Almost always voiced
• Vowel sounds change according to SHAPE of vocal
  tract, no obstructions in vowels

3
How many vowels in English?

• Teacher said 5 and sometimes y
• We say 11 and 3 diphthongs
• 1/2 of languages have 5, some have 3

4
Parameters

• Review Consonant parameters?
• Voicing, Place of articulation, Manner of
  articulation
• Vowel articulation is described using FOUR
  parameters.

5
Four parameters of vowels

• Tongue HEIGHT
• high / mid / low
• Tongue BACKNESS
• front / central / back
• Lip ROUNDING
• round / unround
• TENSENESS
• tense / lax

6
Vowel Trapezium
7
Tongue Height

• Put your hand under you chin and say seat, set,
  sat
• High leak, lick, Luke, Look
• i, ?, u, U
• Mid bait, bet, but, bought, boat
• e, E, , ç, o

8
Tongue Height Cont.

• Low cat, con
• Q, a

9
Tongue Backness

• Front seek, sick, sake, sec, sack
• i, ?, e, E, Q
• Central luck
• Back ooze, look, road, law, dot
• u, U, o, ç, a

10
Lip Rounding

• In English, only the high and mid back vowels are
  produced with lip rounding
• Round vowels u, U, o, ç
• Unround vowels all the other vowels

11
Tenseness

• Tense vowels
• the tongue is at an extreme height or backness
• Lax vowels
• the tongue is not at an extreme position
• Compare Pete and pit

12
Diphthongs

• A diphthong is a complex vowel where the tongue
  begins in one place and moves to another (a two
  part vowel sound)
• The vowel diphthongs
• aj bite
• aw bout
• oj boy