Vowel sounds

Revision
Sounds in our mouth
Phonemes for english vowels 12 in English

1. /i:/ (sea, seen, cheese, leave, receive, believe)

This vowel is very similar to the Spanish “i” but in English is more spread.
2. /ɪ/ (sit, lip, tip, with, rich)
This vowel is between the Spanish “i” and “e”. More open and the lips are not spread.
3. /e/ (set, bed, head, let, sent)
Very similar to the spanish “e”.
4. /æ/ (sat, cat, map, land, hand)
More open than the “e”.
5. /ʌ/ (cut, come, none, nothing, tongue)
More closed than the spanish “a”.
6. /a:/ (bath, pass, car, park, march)
Long vowel, very open vowel, more than the Spanish “a”.
7. /ɒ/ (dog, top, lot, gone, what, wash, watch)
Short “o”, very open. Almost open than the long “a”.
8. /ɔ:/ (saw, jaw, door, more, horse)
Longer than the /ɒ/. Closure of the mouth.
9. /ʊ/ (put, could, would, book, good)
More open than the spanish “u”. More similar than the open “u”.
10. /u:/ (soon, moon, fool, do)
Very similar to the spanish “u”.
11. /ɜ:/ (girl, bird, turn, heard, word, work)
The lips are neutrally open.
12. /ә/ (famous, suspicious, mother, driver)
If the syllable is unstressed, the word will have schwa.
How to describe a vowel sound
Vowel sounds are pronounced with an open vocal tract so that
there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis.
This contrasts with consonants because there is a constriction or
closure at some point along the vocal tract.

A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but

non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel.
Articulatory features
The articulatory features that distinguish
different vowel sounds are said to
determine the vowel's quality.
Daniel Jones developed the cardinal
vowel system to describe vowels
depending on the
height (vertical dimension),
backness (horizontal dimension)
and roundedness (lip position).
Height
The height is the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth or the
aperture of the jaw. In closed vowels, the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, whereas in open
vowels, the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies
seven different vowel heights:
- Close vowel (high vowel)
- Near-close vowel
- Close-mid vowel
- Mid vowel
- Open-mid vowel
- Near-open vowel
- Open vowel (low vowel)
Backness
The backness is the the position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel
relative to the back of the mouth. In front vowels, the tongue is positioned forward in
the mouth, whereas in back vowels, the tongue is positioned towards the back of the
mouth. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies five different degrees of vowel
backness:
- Front vowel
- Near front vowel
- Central vowel
- Near back vowel
- Back vowel
Lip position
The roundedness refers to whether the lips are rounded or not. In most languages, roundedness is a
reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels, and is not distinctive. Usually, the higher back vowel is the more
intense rounded.

i) Rounded, where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips
pushed forwards. This is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no. 8 [u].

ii) Spread, with the corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a smile. This is
most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no. 1 [i].

iii) Neutral, where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English
people make when they are hesitating (written er5) has neutral lip position.
Nasalization and phonation (not in English)
But these are not the only ones features, there are however still more possible features of
vowel quality, such as the velum position (nasalization), type of vocal fold vibration
(phonation), and tongue root position.

Nasalization refers to whether some of the air escapes through the nose. In nasal
vowels, the velum is lowered, and some air travels through the nasal cavity as well as the
mouth. An oral vowel is a vowel in which all air escapes through the mouth.
Phonation describes whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a
vowel. Most languages only have voiced vowels, but several Native American languages
contrast voiced and devoiced vowels. Vowels are devoiced in whispered speech.
Tongue root retraction

And the last one, Tongue Root Retraction. The contrast

between advanced and retracted tongue root resembles the
tense/lax contrast acoustically, but they are articulated differently.
Advance tongue root vowels involve noticeable tension in the
vocal tract.
Cardinal vowels
Cardinal vowels are a standard reference system, and people being trained in phonetics at an advanced
level have to learn to make them accurately and recognise them correctly. They represent the range of
vowels that the human vocal apparatus can make and they are the vowels that are most familiar to the
speakers of most European languages.
They are normally useful to explain where vowel
sounds are in the mouth chart. E.g. in the sound / e/
This is a front vowel between cardinal vowel no. 2 [e] and no. 3 [e].

Notation: They are normally represented within

square brackets [ ]
Stop, think and have a go!
Try describing a vowel sound as thoroughly as possible using
the information you have so far.
Short vowels
i (example words: ‘bit’, ‘pin’, ‘fish’) The diagram shows that, though this vowel is in the close
front area, compared with cardinal vowel no. 1 [i] it is more open, and nearer in to the centre.
The lips are slightly spread.
e (example words: ‘bet’, ‘men’, ‘yes’) This is a front vowel between cardinal vowel no. 2 [e] and no. 3 [e]. The lips are
slightly spread,
ae (example words: ‘bat’, ‘man’, ‘gas’) This vowel is front, but not quite as open as cardinal vowel no. 4 [a]. The lips are
slightly spread.
a (example words: ‘cut’, ‘come’, ‘rush’) This is a central vowel, and the diagram shows that it is more open than the open-
mid tongue height. The Up position is neutral.
d (example words: ‘pot’, ‘gone’, ‘cross’) This vowel is not quite frilly back, and between open-mid and open in tongue
height. The Ups are slightly rounded,
u (example words:‘put’,‘puli’,‘push’)The nearest cardinal vowel is no.8 [u], but it can be seen that u is more open and
nearer to central. The lips are rounded.
Long Vowels

The five long vowels are different from the six short vowels described in Chapter 2, not only
in length but also in quality, i.e. differences in tongue shape and position, and lip position.
i: (example words:‘beat’,‘mean’,‘peace’)This vowel is nearer to cardinal vowel no. 1 [i] (i.e. it is closer and more front) than is the short
vowel o f‘bid’, ‘pin’, ‘fish’ described in Chapter 2. Although the tongue shape is not much different from cardinal vowel no. 1, the lips are
only slightly spread and this results in a rather different vowel quality.

3: (example words: ‘bird’, ‘fern’, ‘purse’) This is a mid-central vowel which is used in most English accents as a hesitation sound
(written ‘er’). The lip position is neutral,

a: (example words: ‘card’, ‘half’, ‘pass’) This is an open vowel in the region of cardi­nal vowel no. 5 [a], but not as back as this. The lip
position is neutral,

o: (example words: ‘board’, ‘torn’, ‘horse’) The tongue height for this vowel is between cardinal vowel no. 6 [o] and no. 7 [o], and closer
to the latter. This vowel is almost fully back and has quite strong lip-rounding,

u: (example words:‘food’,‘soon’,‘loose’)The nearest cardinal vowel to this is no. 8 [u], but BBC u: is much less back and less close,
while the lips are only moderately rounded.
The schwa / /
● Shortest sound in English
● Arguments for its similarity with the cup sound
● The most frequently occurring vowel in English, which is
always associated with weak syllables.Watch out: Not all weak
syllables contain/ /
● In quality it is mid (i.e. halfway between close and open) and
central (i.e. halfway between front and back). It is generally
described as lax - that is, not articulated with much energy.
● Some theories argue it is an allophonic variation of other
vowel sounds.
The schwa spelling patterns
1. Spelt with ‘a’; strong pronunciation would have ae ‘attend’ atend ‘character’ kaerakta
‘barracks’ baeraks
2. Spelt with ‘ar’; strong pronunciation would have a: ‘particular’ patikjul ‘ molar’ maul_
‘monarchy’ mOn_ki

3. Adjectival endings spelt ‘ate’;strong pronunciation would have /ei/ ‘intimate’ intim_t ‘accurate’
aekjar_t, ‘desolate’ desal_t (although there are exceptions to this: ‘private’ is usually praivit)

4. Spelt with‘o’;strong pronunciation would have or ‘tomorrow’ /t_morau/ ‘potato’

/p_teitau/ ‘carrot’ /kaer_t/

5. Spelt with ‘or’; strong pronunciation would have a: ‘forget’ /f_get/ ‘ambassador’ /aembaesad_/
‘opportunity’ /op_tjunati/
Schwa spelling patterns
6. Speltwith‘e’;strong pronunciation would have e ‘settlement’ setlmant ‘violet’ vaialat ‘postmen’
paustman

7. Speltwith‘er’;strong
pronunciation would have /3:/ ‘pe/haps’ pahaeps ‘stronger*
strogga ‘superman’ su:pamaen

8. Speltwith‘u’;strong pronunciation would have a ‘autumn’ o:tam ‘support’ sapa:t

‘halibut’ haelibat

9. Speltwith‘ough’(there
are many pronunciations for the letter-sequence‘ough’)
‘thorough’ 0Ara ‘borough’ bAra

10. Spelt with ‘ou’; strong pronunciation might have a u ‘gracious’ greijas ‘callous’ kaelas
Most common spelling patterns
Diphthongs
A glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure
vowel.

The total number of diphthongs is eight (though / / is increasingly rare).

In terms of length, diphthongs are similar to the long vowels described above. 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; for example, most of the diphthong ai (as in the words ‘eye’, ‘I’) consists of the a
vowel, and only in about the last quarter of the diphthong does the glide to i become noticeable. As the
glide to i happens, the loudness of the sound decreases. As a result, the i part is shorter and quieter.
Foreign learners should, therefore, always remember that the last part of English diphthongs must not be
made too strongly.
CLassification
Triphthongs
They can be rather difficult to pronounce, and very difficult to recognise. A
triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced
rapidly and without interruption. For example, a careful pronunciation of the word
‘hour’ begins with a vowel quality similar to a:, goes on to a glide towards the back
close rounded area (for which we use the symbol u), then ends with a mid-central
vowel (schwa). We use the symbol to represent the pronunciation on “hour”,
but this is not always an accurate representation of the pronunciation.
The triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs
described in the last section, with / / added on the end. Thus we get:

Sample words: