wk3: vowels

Question 1

What are the 4 parameters for describing vowels?

Answer 1

1. Height
2. Backness
3. Roundness

ONLY USED WHEN 1-3 CANT DISTINGUISH IT
4. Tenseness

Question 2

Describe each parameter. (4)

Answer 2

1. Height
   - how wide you open your mouth to pronounce a vowel affects the position your tongue is in -> variation in how it is said
   - split into high, mid, low BUT no height distinction within each category
   - only can tell whether it’s produced at the front or the back of the mouth (backness)
   - eg: mOOn vs mOAn, mOURn vs mArt
2. Backness
   - how front/back your tongue is when you say a certain vowel
   - split into front, central, back
   - eg: butt vs barn, tape vs barn
3. (Lip) Rounding
   - in eng, all rounded vowels are found at the back of the mouth
   - differentiates the 2 mid-back vowels [ɔ] - rounded “orrr” & [ʌ] - unrounded “uhhh”

ONLY USED WHEN 1-3 CANT DISTINGUISH IT
4. Tenseness
- tensed vowel: higher & less centralised, longer
- only includes these 4 pairs: tensed: [i, u, e, o]
- eg: to differentiate feast vs fist, poll vs pull, mate vs met, boat vs bought

Question 3

Whats the difference between a monophthong, diphthong & diphthongised vowel?

Answer 3

Monopthong:
- tongue remains in relatively same position when pronouncing the vowel
- considered as a single sound like affricates
- eg: bane, bone, sit, cat

Diphthong:
- deliberate, large movement of tongue when pronouncing the vowel
- removing it will change meaning of word -> eg: toil [tɔil] vs tall [tɔl]
- transcribed as vowel-vowel sequences: [aI], [aʊ], [ɔj]
- eg: brown (vowel: aʊ) - auuuu
- “coin” [ɔɪ] – Begins with the vowel sound [ɔ] and glides to [ɪ].
- “loud” [aʊ] – Starts with [a] and glides to [ʊ].

Diphthongised:
- OPTIONAL movement of tongue when pronouncing the vowel
- DOES NOT change meaning of word if its omitted
- “face” [eɪ] (with slight glide)
- “goat” [oʊ] may also exhibit a slight glide towards [ʊ] in certain accents

Question 4

What are the dialectal variations in English vowel systems/which vowel belongs to which variety/ which variety has different kinds of vowels unique to it?

Answer 4

US Eng:
- rhotic: “r” pronounced even when no vowel follows
- has 3 diphthongs: [aI], [aʊ], [ɔI]

UK Eng:
- non-rhotic: ‘r’ not pronounced when no vowel follows
- 2 additional monopthongs: [ɜ] - mid central tense vowel & [ɒ] - low back round vowel
- [əʊ] - “owhhh” instead of [o] -> sg: bought vs uk: bowhht
- has 6 dipthongs: [aI], [aʊ], [ɔI], [iə], [ʊə], [eə]

SG Eng:
- mostly non-rhotic
- 6 mergers: into [i], [u], [ɜ], [ə], [ɔ], [a]
- has 5 diphthongs: [ai] - my, [ɔi] - boy, [au] - now, [iə] - near, [uə] - poor