Introduction to VOWELS

Review from last time

What is an example of a word initial bilabial plosive?

fat top

or or

cat? stop?

What is the technical term for the initial sound in the word then?

how about in the word thin

What is the difference between a stop (or plosive) and a fricative? Rule of thumb Cs VPM, MVP
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Review: Sounds need to have a

Source

The larynx/vocal cords/glottis

Source/filter idea

Energy source

Lungs Most sounds produced with WEPA

air To propagate vibrations Vocal Tract: throat, mouth, sinus cavities, etc. Like a flexible tube. Resonating chamber to amplify sound.
The airstream can be constricted (i.e., impeded or obstructed) Partially as in the sounds that begin the words fie vie sigh and shy /f,v,s,/ or completely obstructed as in the sounds that begin the word pie tie kite bye die guy /p,t,k,b,d,g/. Well talk more of these things shortly.
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Medium

Filter

Differences from Consonants

Unlike Consonants (Cs) Vs are much more difficult to describe in terms of their place of articulation.

(i.e. where exactly are they made in the mouth). Vs form a continuum of sounds rather than being neatly divisible pin-pointable units. The degree of impedance is very minimal making it difficult to determine the articulators Cs near the V may also affect the tongue position

This is true for several reasons:

(e.g. are the Vs in thee & think the same?) do they sound the same? where is your tongue? Do you perceive these as the same vowel or two different ones? Do they sound the same to you? Pay attention to where your tongue is when you say the vowel. Are they different?
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Review/Preview

Vowels vs. Consonants: Whats the difference?

Try [i] [] slowly. Whats happening in your Consonants are identified by: mouth? location of obstruction (place) gets lower. Jaw drops and tongue also nature of obstruction (manner) What happens when you say [i] [u] several times? Tongue moves back and forth across top of mouth state of vocal cords (voice) and back at IPA chart Look lips are rounded for [u]. Try the same for [e] [o] Vowels are identified by: tongue position vertical position of articulation (high, mid, low)

Relative

horizontal position of articulation (front, central, back)

Relative

also the state of the lips (rounding)

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velum (nasalized)
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Defining Vowels

Consonants (specifically fricatives and stops) involve placing the articulators very close together so that the airstream is greatly or completely impeded. Vowel sounds the articulators do not come as close together. Rather, the airstream is only shaped, it is not impeded. There is a hierarchy of impedance of the airstream we can talk about.

Sounds that completely block the airstream, like p, t, k have the highest impedance. They are called stops. The next class of sounds are those that greatly impede the airstream, like f, s, known as fricatives Then: sounds where the airstream is blocked in the oral cavity but can nonetheless escape through the nose. Sounds like m and n. These are called nasals. Then come l like sounds (aka liquids). Vowels exhibit the least amount of impedance of the airstream. LING3330

1.

Sonorant

Vs have 3 important characteristics

All speech sounds are either sonorants or nonsonorants

Sonorants involve no closure or stricture (restricting) of the airstream but instead, relatively unimpeded airflow in the vocal tract. Non-sonorants involve stricture of the airstream and relatively impeded airflow.

What types of sounds are non-sonorants?

Stops & Fricatives, wh/ together are known as obstruents b/c they obstruct the airflow.
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Formal Characteristics of Vs
2.

Oral

Some sonorants are oral, nasal (those with air only through the nose), or nasalized (those with air in both the oral and nasal cavities) Airflow must also happen through the oral cavity for a sonorant to be classified as a vowel Otherwise its a consonant like __________________

[n m ] etc.

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Formal Characteristics of Vs
3.

Central

Some oral sonorants are NOT vowels For an oral sonorant to be a vowel, the airflow must go over the central part of the tongue. If the airflow goes over the sides of the tongue thin it is a consonant. Which consonant do you think it would most likely be?

probably an [l]

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IPA Vowel Space

It represents a sort of 3D space: degree of opening of the vocal tract

top to bottom;

fronter vs. backer position of the tongue

left to right;

spread vs. rounded lips

indicated by adjacent pairs of symbols

adapted from http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/English.html
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Idealized Cardinal Vowels

Around 1917 a leading phonetician of the British School, Daniel Jones addressed the difficult problem of being as precise as possible in labeling Vs by articulation.

Theoretical vowel qualities. Instead of production, he focused on perception and thus developed the Cardinal Vowel System (based on the cardinal points of a compass). Thus V qualities heard by a trained phonetician could be recorded in terms of how close it sounded to a cardinal V quality.
Ball & Rahilly 1999
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Vowel Systems

Vowel systems Probably the most common is the 5V system (Spanish) There are 5-V systems in all parts of the world Can include over 10 (French), 14 or 15 (Am Eng) or even up to 20 (BBC Eng) or as few as 3 (Some Indigenous Australian Lgs). General American English
http://www.ladefogeds.com/vowels/chapter3/amengvowels.html http://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/phonetics/vowel map/index.html

Review adapted from Ashby & Maidment 2005

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V dispersion Principle

We generally view the vowel quadrilateral (or trapezoid) as a Perceptual space in which Vs are located. The vast majority of vowels systems conform to the so-called Vowel Dispersion Principle.

The idea that vowels tend to be evenly distributed in the perceptual space and or at least that they are widely distributed w/i the limitations of a particular system For instance a system with [i e u] is quite unlikely
Ashby & Maidment 2005
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1. Vowel Height

Height

one variable in which Vs are typically measured This means the height of the tongues highest point in the oral cavity For instance as you go down the chart from
i to e to to to a

your tongues highest point will get lower

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2. Vowel Frontness & Backness

A second variable for measuring vowels is their amount of variation from tongues front most position to its back most position

so as you move from

i to to (unrounded back vowel)

your tongues position should shift backwards in your mouth

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Ladefoged

Probable Articulation points for Vs

Approximate articulator positioning for vowel space

Ladefoged 2007 fig 1.12

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Another Example

Front Vs Back

Picket 1999
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And yet, one more example

compare V space in mouth with V space in trapezoid

Ladefoged 2005 Vs & Cs

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Lets watch some vowels in action

Movement of the tongue Movement of the Larynx Movement of the Jaw/Mandible

(note to see the videos after ppt is posted online go to: http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vow els/chapter11/chapter11.html

Ladefoged 2005
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3. Vowel Lip Rounding

The 3rd dimension of vowel quality is the amount of rounding of the lips. Notice that both front and back vowels as well as high and low vowels can be rounded However, it is generally more common for low and back vowels to be rounded
Catford 2001
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Review

Vowels are measured in what 3 dimensions?

height Refers to the relationship between the highest point of the tongue and the roof of the oral cavity front/back (also considered location) Refers to the part of the tongue wh/ is highest in the production of the vowel. [i] is toward the hard palate, while [u] is toward the soft palate. (a [] would be at the junction of the two. round (or Lip Position) Refers to the amount of rounding of the lips and can be applied to all heights and locations

Review adapted from Ashby & Maidment 2005

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Quick intro/review to/of Airstream

Vs &Cs P104-105 egressive pulmonic,

where the air is pushed out of the lungs by the ribs and diaphragm; all human languages employ such sounds (such as vowels), and many, such as English, use them exclusively. where the air column is pushed upward by the glottis. Such consonants are called ejectives.
where the air column is rarefied as the glottis moves downward. Such consonants are called implosives. where the air in the mouth is rarefied by a downward movement of the tongue. These are the clicks.
adapted from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airstream_mechanism
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egressive glottalic,

ingressive glottalic,

ingressive lingual, AKA ingressive velaric,

V dispersion Principle

The vast majority of vowels systems conform to the so-called Vowel Dispersion Principle.

For instance a system with [i e u] is quite unlikely However there do seem to be systems known as Defective vowel systems in existence.
One where either there is no open vowel and/or for mid and high regions there is at least one vowel that is not matched by a vowel on the opposite side of the space. Approximately14% of languages may have systems that count as defective.

Ashby & Maidment 2005

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Long and Short Vowels

In some systems there are also contrast in vowel length.

The quality of the vowels is acoustically equal length is not

Choctaw is a modern example where this is true. Old English is another example.

Over time the English Long vowels shifted up with high vs changing into into diphthongs. For instance: time of Chaucer Shakespeare

moon house

[mo:n] o: u: [mu:] [hu:s] u: ou [hous]

example from Ashby & Maidment 2005 p. 81

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Lip Rounding

Long and Short Vowels

Length is generally a phonological term Duration is generally a phonetic term

consider the terms wooed and wood

However, it is usually the case that length is not systematically indicated in transcription.

one reason is the belief that there are some Vs that are inherently longer or shorter by definition.
Ball and Rahilly 99 p107

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Long and Short Vowels

Length of a vowel depends on a number of things

its own natural length

[i] in heed vs. [] in hid long short

whether the V is stressed or not

PERsonal vs. perSONify long short

wit vs. witty long short

number of syllables in the word

the syllable coda

stray vs. strayed vs. straight long, med, short also sigh, side, sight long, med, short

Ladefoged 05 p73

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Long and Short Vowels

Another example

Maori (New Zealand)

[a] vs. [a:]

[taha] side [a:] calabash [hoko] 20 times [ki] at [hoko:] to buy

[o] / [o:]

[i] / [i:]

[ki:] to say

Ashby & Maidment 2005 p. 75

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Oral and Nasalized

In other cases there is a contrasts between oral & nasal vowels

An oral V is produced with the soft palate (or velum) in a raised position, so there is no airflow through the nasal passage A Nasalized V is produced with a lowered velum allowing airflow through both cavities simultaneously.

indicated as [a] nas & [] +nas Adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to the rest of the vocal tract as in [fo] faux & [f] (they) do

French is known for this

Choctaw also makes a distinction in meaning between nasal and non nasal vowels
Ashby & Maidment 2005 (cf Ladefoged ACiP p226)
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Mono- vs Di- phthong

In some languages (e.g. English) the vowel quality can change within a single syllable Sometimes Diphthongs are called vowelglides

examples
tie toy town

Ashby & Maidment 2005 p. 82

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Tense /Lax

The notion of a tense/lax distinction is controversial Tenseness is generally described as

an overall tightening of vocal tract musculature combining with definite or forceful articulatory action.

There are phonetic differences between the two groups. To some extent the difference b/t them, in English, are due to historic processes

i.e. tense Vs occur in words with final silent e

e.g. mate, kite, cute etc.

lax Vs occur in mat, kit, cut. Other distinctions can be made based on syllable formation closed (for more see Lad. Table 4.2)

Clark, Yallop, & Fletcher 2007 & Ladafoged 2006 ACiP

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Rhotacized

As weve discussed many varieties of American English use rhotacized Vs. Those with r-coloring like

sir, bird, cur, etc.

Rhotacization is an auditory quality which like height and backness is best defined in acoustic terms.
(well discuss this in more detail when we talk about laterals and approximants see. Ladafoged p 225 for more details)
Ladafoged 2006 ACiP p224
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Questions?

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