The System of English Vowel Phonemes The Outline

The System of English Vowel Phonemes The Outline 1) The definition of the vowel phoneme. 2) The articulatory classification of English monophthongs. 3) The phonemic status of English diphthongs. 4) The phonemic status of English triphthongs. 5) Cardinal vowels. 6) Modern pronunciation. l l l l

The Definition of the Vowel Phoneme D. Jones B. de Courtenay l acoustic considerations articulatory considerations l vowels are more sonorous muscular tension is spread than consonants over all speech organs l l Vowel is a voiced sound in forming which the air passes freely in a continuous stream through the mouth with no obstruction which would cause any audible friction. The muscular tension is spread over all speech organs. The air stream causes the vocal cords to vibrate.

Principles of classification of English monophthongs l l l 1) stability of articulation 2) movements of the tongue 3) duration of the sound and degree of tenseness 4) position of the lips 5) character of the vowel end D. Jones, H. Sweet, N. S. Trubetzkoy, Torsyev, Trakhterov, Zinder, Bulanin, Vassilyev

Differences in the articulatory classifications of English monophthongs The number of classes distinguished l The terms used to designate classes l Which vowels are assigned to which class l

Table 1. The classification of the English monophthongs made by D. Jones h/p v/p front central back J I H u half close E: half open e q L open x A R O close

Table 2. The classification of the English monophthongs made by Russian Linguists h/p v/p front Fully front n clo se Front retracte d mixe d b Fully back № 9 u № 2 I № 8 V № 3 e № 11 E b F № 12 q n op en Back advanced № 1 J n mi d back b № 10 A № 4 x n – narrow variation b – broad variation tongue № 7 o № 5 Q № 6 O h p – horizontal position v p – vertical position of the

The phonemic status of English diphthongs Criteria l 1) articulatory indivisibility Yes l l 2) morphemic indivisibility Yes l 3) syllabic indivisibility Yes l pay/ing poor/est hair/y

Other evidences in favour of monophonemic status of English diphthongs l l l l l 1) In languages without diphthongs the elements of free sound combinations are easily separated from each other: eg. чай - ча-йу; мой - мо-йу 2) The low degree of combinability of the elements of a diphthong-like sound complex: eg. But any Russian sound may be combined with |й| 3) The duration test: the length of an English diphthong = the length of a historically long monophthong: eg. like-lark joy-jaw 4) The oppositions of monophthongs vs diphthongs: eg. at-out, mass-mouse, manner-minor, pan-pine, diphthong vs diphthong: eg. bay-buy, bay-boy, bay-beer, bay-bear

The phonemic status of English triphthongs l l Criteria 1) articulatory indivisibility No 2) morphemic indivisibility Yes/ No eg. hire - Yes high/er - No 3) syllabic indivisibility Yes/ No l Leontyeva’s point of view – triphthongs are disyllabic: eg. fla. V-q, sa. I-qns l 4) l [q] is combined not only with diphthongs [a. I] [a. V] but with other diphthongs [ei] [OI] [OV] eg. player, employer, lower

l CARDINAL VOWELS l Daniel Jones

l Phoneticians describe vowels using reference qualities or “cardinal” vowels which map out the auditory vowel space. l There are eight primary cardinals. l These are conventionally plotted on a quadrilateral corresponding to the positioning of the tongue body in the mouth.

These eight vowels, or vowels very like them, occur commonly in the world’s languages. l We can therefore describe them in a technical sense as relatively unmarked or natural vowels, with two qualifications. l 1. The cardinals are very peripheral (especially the four corner vowels). l 2. The most common number of vowel qualities in the world’s languages is five (as in Latin) l

The use of the cardinal vowels is nicely described by John Coleman of Oxford University’s Phonetics Lab: l The idea is that in identifying the quality of each vowel in a particular language, one will compare it to the cardinal vowels, note its relationship to them, and then use the symbol of the nearest cardinal vowel as a basis from which to transcribe it. l

Test yourself l http: //englishspeechservices. com/blog/? p=4256

Received Pronunciation (R. P. ) l The old prestige accent of British English ( described in the mid 20 th century) had a large and considerably unnatural vowel system requiring: l 1) most of the primary cardinals, l 2) two secondary cardinals ɒ and ʌ, l 3) the non-cardinals æ, ɪ and ʊ, l 4) the neutral vowel or schwa.

R. P. vowel inventory drawbacks 1. Large. l 2. Disorganized, phonologically speaking as vowels were not evenly spread around the phonetic vowel space. l Quite a few of the qualities occurred in only one lexical set. l Further R. P. was marked by a predominance of centring diphthongs (a hangover from historic r-vocalization), which are unusual in the world’s languages. l

l By contrast, the vowel system of contemporary Standard British can be described with a high degree of accuracy using just the eight primary cardinal vowels, plus the two central vowels ɵ and ə:

Geoff Lindsey

A comparison of Standard British vowels with those of R. P l an Anticlockwise Vowel Shift l This had three distinct components: l a) lowering of the front vowels, l b) raising of the mid back vowels, l c) fronting of the high back vowels.

Reasons R. P. had crowding towards both the upper front corner (FLEECE, KIT, DRESS and TRAP all being non-low) and the lower back corner (PALM, LOT, THOUGHT and STRUT all being non-high). l These two areas of crowding required the use of, respectively, the two non-cardinals ɪ and æ, and the two secondary cardinals ɒ and ʌ, all four of which tend to be problematic foreign learners. l

the PALM vowel l has been remarkably stable. l The de-crowding of the upper front vowel space has not pushed it away from its own corner, nor has the de-crowding of the lower back space pulled it upwards. l Cardinal 5 [ɑ] remains an accurate description of the vowel of PALM and START.

l http: //www. paulmeier. com/ipa/diphthong s. html l http: //englishspeechservices. com/blog/? p=4256 l http: //englishspeechservices. com/blog/? p=1795