Vowel Sounds
Definition of Vowel Sounds
Revision:
What are Phonetics and Phonology?
Phonetics: how to make,
transmit and perceive speech
sounds.
Phonology: the sound system
and rules of sounds in a
language the position in a
word
Vocal vibration
No constriction of the
airflow (the air flows
freely)
Occurs at the center
of syllable
Vowel Classification
What the following video and answer the
following questions.
/>&t=30s
1. How many types of vowel sounds are there in
English?
2. How many criteria for describing vowel sounds
are there? What are they?
Vowel Classification
How many types of vowel sounds are there in
English?
2 types: monophthongs, diphthongs
How many criteria for describing vowel sounds are
there? What are they?
3.
Height, backness, roundness
front
central
back
high
mid
low
Vowel Classification
Tongue height
How high and low the tongue is
Tongue shape/
backness
How far front or back the tongue is
Lip shape/
roundness
Are lips rounded?
Tongue height
How high and low the tongue is
Tongue shape/
backness
How far front or back the tongue is
Lip shape/
roundness
Are lips rounded?
Monophthongs (British English)
Length of vowels depends on …
Vowel + voiceless consonant
shorter vowel
hit, heat
1. context
Vowel + voiced consonant
longer vowel
hid, heed
Vowel in an unstressed syllable
shorter vowel
record (n)
2. stress
Vowel in a stressed syllable
longer vowel
record (v)
To produce a correct short vowel, it is
not enough to simply cut the long vowel
short. Long vowels differ from short
ones not only in quantity (length) but
also in quality (they sound different).
You can see this difference in the vowel
quadrilateral.
Pronunciation Practice
Access the following link
/>unciation/introduction
or
/>5mSnMGAUeSZY4Jf7D
Sounds
/i:/
/ɪ/
/e/
/æ/
/ʌ/
/ə/
Examples
beat, heel, leave
bit, hill, live
bet, pen, dead
bat, pan, dad
but, some, rush
about, printer, tomorrow
Sounds
/ɜ:/
/ʊ/
/u:/
/ɒ/
/ɔː/
/ɑ:/
Examples
fir, curse, learn
pull, could, foot
pool, cooed, food
pot, shot, spot
port, short, sport
part, half, father
Diphthongs
Element 1
e
/eɪ/
Element 2
closer
closing
ɪ
more central
centering
Diphthongs
Pronunciation Practice
Access the following link
/>unciation/introduction
or
/>5mSnMGAUeSZY4Jf7D
Sounds
/ɪə/
/eə/
/ʊə/
/eɪ/
/aɪ/
/ɔɪ/
/əʊ/
/aʊ/
Examples
hear, peer, queer, near, beer
hair, pair, stare, where, bear
poor, lure, moor, moored
stay, taste, faint, name
stay, height, tight, climb, fine
coy, host, coin, spoil, joy
code, host, no, row, boast
cow, house, now, loud, row