English Vowels: Articulatory Phonetics

Chapter Overview

• The chapter covers articulatory phonetics with a focus on English vowels.
• It examines the articulatory qualities shared by all vowels and the contrastive qualities that differentiate them.
• These contrastive qualities are height, backness, tenseness, and roundedness.

Class Structure

• The chapter starts with a pre-test to familiarize students with the organs of speech involved in vowel production.
• Students will take a perception test of minimal pairs to improve their ability to distinguish the qualities of vowels.
• Pictures and animation videos are used to illustrate the articulatory qualities of consonants.
• There are end-of-chapter exercises.

Articulatory Qualities Shared by All Vowels

• English is a pulmonic language, meaning speech sounds are produced by exhaling air from the lungs.
• Consonants have four articulatory qualities: place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing, and nasality.
• All vowels in English share three major articulatory qualities: a source of air, vocal fold vibration, and an open velum.
• Vowels are produced by manipulating air exhaled from the lungs.
• Air flows through the larynx, causing the vocal folds to vibrate.
• The soft palate or velum is raised to block air from entering the nose.

Four Contrastive Articulatory Qualities

• Vowels are distinguished by movements of the tongue and lips.
• These movements create four articulatory qualities: backness, height, roundedness, and tenseness.

Backness

• Refers to the part of the tongue used to produce vowel sounds (front, central, or back).
• Front vowels use the front part of the tongue e.g., /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ/ as in "heed, hid, hate, head, had".
• Central vowels use the central part of the tongue e.g., / ʌ, ɜ, (ɜ˞), ə, (ə˞)/ as in “but, bird, button, butter”.
• Back vowels use the back of the tongue e.g., /u, ʊ, əʊ (oʊ), ɔ, ɒ, (ɑ)/ as in “who’d, hood, hold, hawed, hod”.
• For diphthongs, the tongue moves e.g., the tongue moves from front to back for the /aʊ/ in "count"
• For diphthongs, the tongue moves e.g., from back to front for the /ɔɪ/ in "coy."
• For /aɪ/ in “kite,” the front tongue is used throughout.

Height

• Relates to how high the tongue is raised.
• High vowels: Tongue is raised higher than other vowels, e.g., /i, ɪ, u, ʊ/ as in “heed, hid, who’d, hood”.
• Mid vowels: Tongue is raised lower than high vowels but higher than low vowels, e.g., /eɪ, ɛ, ɜ, (ɜ˞), ə, (ə˞), əʊ (oʊ), ɔ/ as in “hate, head, heard, button, butter, hole, hawed”.
• Low vowels: Tongue is at the lowest level among all vowels, e.g., /æ, ʌ, ɒ (ɑ)/ as in “had, hut, hod”.
• Diphthongs involve tongue movement from low to high (e.g., /aɪ, aʊ/ of "kite, count") or from mid to high (e.g., /ɔɪ/ of "coy").

Tenseness

• Whether the tongue muscle is tense or relaxed when producing a vowel.
• Tense vowels are produced with greater tongue muscle tension than their lax counterparts.
• Tense Vowels: /i, eɪ, u, oʊ, əʊ (oʊ), ɔ, ɒ (ɑ)/ as in “heed, hate, who’d, hold, hawed, hod”.
• Diphthongs /aɪ, aʊ, ɔɪ/ are considered tense vowels.
• Lax vowels are produced with a relaxed tongue and are often shorter than tense vowels.
• Lax Vowels: /ɪ, ɛ, æ, ʌ, ɜ, (ɜ˞), ə, (ə˞), ʊ/ as in “hid, head, had, hut, heard, button, butter, hood”.

Roundedness

• Refers to the degree of lip rounding while producing a vowel.
• Rounded vowels involve a higher degree of lip rounding e.g., /u, ʊ, oʊ, ɔ, ɒ /.
• This group includes “who’d, hood, hold, hawed, hod (British English)”.
• Unrounded vowels are produced with spreading lips e.g., /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ, ʌ, ɜ (ɜ˞), ə, (ə˞)/.
• This group includes the front and central vowels, as well as the American back vowel /ɑ/.
• Lip position changes for diphthongs: spreading to rounded in /aʊ/, rounded to unrounded in /ɔɪ/, lips remain spread in /aɪ/.
• Vowels are described by backness, height, tenseness, and roundedness.