VOWELS

VOWELS

DEFINITION:

A letter of the alphabet (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) that represents a speech sound created by the relatively free passage of breath through the larynx and oral cavity

ARTICULATORY 

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 in terms of the common features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundedness (lip position). These three parameters are indicated in the schematic IPA vowel diagram on the right. There are however still more possible features of vowel quality, such as the velum position (nasality), type of vocal fold vibration (phonation), and tongue root position.

INTONATION

intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words.  It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation patterns in some languages, such as Swedish and Swiss German, can lead to conspicuous fluctuations in pitch, giving speech a sing-song quality.

Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language and even in tonal languages, but the realisation and function are seemingly different. It is used in non-tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh-questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc. Intonation can also be used for discourse analysis where new information is realised by means of intonation. It can also be used for emphatic/contrastive purposes.

All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation — for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch for distinguishing words in addition to providing intonation.

Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:

Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time [↗]

Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time [↘]

Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗]

Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘]

Sounds	Letters	Examples	Notes
[i:]	e, ee ea ie, ei	be, eve, see, meet, sleep, meal, read, leave, sea, team, field, believe, receive	been [i]; bread, deaf [e]; great, break [ei]; friend [e]
[i]	i y	it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, system, busy, pity, sunny	machine, ski, liter, pizza [i:]
[e]	e ea	let, tell, press, send, end, bread, dead, weather, leather	meter [i:] sea, mean [i:]
[ei]	a ai, ay ei, ey ea	late, make, race, able, stable, aim, wait, play, say, day, eight, weight, they, hey, break, great, steak	said, says [e]; height, eye [ai]
[æ]	a	cat, apple, land, travel, mad; AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half
[a:]	ar a	army, car, party, garden, park, father, calm, palm, drama; BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half	war, warm [o:]
[ai]	i, ie y, uy	ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die, my, style, apply, buy, guy
[au]	ou ow	out, about, house, mouse, now, brown, cow, owl, powder	group, soup [u:] know, own [ou]
[o]	o	not, rock, model, bottle, copy
[o:]	or o aw, au ought al, wa-	more, order, cord, port, long, gone, cost, coffee, law, saw, pause, because, bought, thought, caught, hall, always, water, war, want	work, word [ər]
[oi]	oi, oy	oil, voice, noise, boy, toy
[ou]	o oa, ow	go, note, open, old, most, road, boat, low, own, bowl	do, move [u:] how, owl [au]
[yu:]	u ew eu ue, ui	use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune, few, dew, mew, new, euphemism, feud, neutral, hue, cue, due, sue, suit
[u:]	u o, oo ew ue, ui ou	rude, Lucy, June, do, move, room, tool, crew, chew, flew, jewel, blue, true, fruit, juice, group, through, route; AmE: duty, new, sue, student	guide, quite [ai]; build [i]
[u]	oo u ou	look, book, foot, good, put, push, pull, full, sugar, would, could, should
neutral sound [ə]	u, o ou a, e o, i	gun, cut, son, money, love, tough, enough, rough, about, brutal, taken, violent, memory, reason, family
[ər]	er, ur, ir or, ar ear	serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir, work, word, doctor, dollar, heard, earn, earnest, earth	heart, hearth [a:]

CONNECTES SPEECH

WEAK FORMS

When we talk about weak forms in the phonetics of English this regards a series of words which have one pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak) when not stressed within a phrase, e.g.     

                        

a car -   /ˈeɪ ˈkɑ:/         

Ibought a car -  /aɪ ˈbɔ:t ə ˈkɑ:/

Weak forms are usually distinguished by a change in vowel quality from a border position on the vowel quadrilateral to a central position. The vowel in a weak form is usually the schwa (ə). Weak forms are pronounced more quickly and at lower volume in comparison to the stressed syllables. They are also not central to changes in intonation.

ASSIMILATION OF PLACE OF ARTICULATION

The most common form involves the movement of place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and /n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound. For instance, in the phrase ten cars, the /n/ will usually be articulated in a velar position, /ˈteŋ ˈkɑ:z/ so that the organs of speech are ready to produce the following velar sound /k/. Similarly, in ten boys the /n/ will be produced in a bilabial position, /ˈtem ˈbɔɪz/ to prepare for the articulation of the bilabial /b/.

This phenomenon is easy to find also in Italian: think of the different pronunciations of the ‘n’ in Gian Paolo, Gian Franco and Gian Carlo.

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BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)
Phoneme	Realised as	Example
/n/	/ŋ/	bank /bæŋk/
/d/	/g/	good girl /gʊg ˈgɜ:l/
/t/	/k/	that kid /ðæk ˈkɪd/

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BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)
Phoneme	Realised as	Example
/n/	/m/	ten men /tem 'men/
/d/	/b/	bad boys /bæb ˈbɔɪz/
/t/	/p/	hot mushrooms /ˈhɒp ˈmʌʃru:mz/

SENTENCE STRESS

SENTENCE STRESS

 Sentence stress means the various emphasis on the syllables in the words of a sentence. (noun)

An example of sentence stress is choosing a different word in a line of a poem to give more emphasis or contrast.

RULES  FOR SENTENCE STRESS

The basic rules of sentence stress are:

• Content words are stressed
• Structure words are unstressed
• The time between stressed words is always the same

CONTENT WORDS - STRESSED

 Words carrying the meaning

• Main verbs: Sell, Give, Employ
• Nouns:  Car. Music, Mary
• Adjectives: Red, Big, Interesting
• Adverbs: Quickly, Loudly, Never
• Negative auxiliaries: Don't, Aren't, Can't

STRUCTUREWORDS - UNSTRESSED

 Words for correct grammar

• Pronouns: he, we, they
• Prepositions: on, at, in, to
• Articles: a, an, the
• Conjunctions: and, but, because
• Auxiliary verbs: do, be have, can, must

EXAMPLES  

1. John wants to be an actor, so he wants to live in Hollywood.
2. Mary made an appointment with the dentist on Monday
3. After the movie, they went to a bar to have beer

WORD STRESS

 

What is Word Stress?

In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong, important) and all the other syllables very quietly.

EXAMPLES

photograph, photographer and photographic   

 (Do they sound the same when spoken?)

 

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)

2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

EXERCISE

Read the sentences and in each underlined word tell the stressed syllable

1 Can you pass me a plastic knife?
2 I want to take a photography class.
3 China is the place where I was born.
4 Please turn off the television before you go out.
5 I can't decide which book to borrow.
6 Do you understand this lesson?
7 Sparky is a very happy puppy.
8 It is critical that you finish your essay.
9 My Grandfather wears an old-fashioned coat.
10 There is a lot of traffic on the highway today.