Ch 4- Vowels

Monophthongs

"one sound". sounds that have one primary articulatory position in the vocal tract.

Diphthongs

"two sounds" Two vowels that comprise one phoneme sound.

Categorized in relation to the position of the body of tongue in mouth during production. Ex. height and advancement of tongue

How are vowels categorized?

high mid front tense (unrounded) vowel. Referred to as high mid vowel.

Lower Case e

high mid back tense rounded vowel.

Lower Case o

high back tense rounded vowel. Usually has the j phoneme before it in some words such as "few" "fju"

Lower Case- u

high front lax (unrounded) vowel. Can be part of the end of a word that has unstressed that ends in -y and words with -ing in them. Also becomes this when have /r/ after the i, or ɪ sound.

Small Capital I

tongue height, tongue advancement, lip rounding, and tense/lax.

What are the characteristics of Vowels?

I, ə, ʌ, ɛ, æ, ɚ, ʊ

What are the lax vowels?

i, u, a, æ

What are the point vowels of the quadrilateral?

i, e, u, o a, ɔ, ɝ

What are the tense vowels?

æ ɪ i e ɑ ə ʌ ɛ

What are the unrounded vowel symbols?

vowels and dipthongs. Will appear darker on spectograms.

What have more intensity? Vowels or consonants?

tongue is placed in appropriate position for production of first element, then tongue moves to second element in continuous gliding motion. Tongue rises in mouth when moving from onglide to offglide. Therefore the offglide is produced at higher position in oral cavity that onglide.

What occurs in articulation during diphthongs?

The tongue moves positions and jaw position also changes depending on the sound. As tongue changes position for production of vowels, size and shape of pharynx does too. Airstream passes through oral cavity with virtually no obstruction by tongue or other major articulators.

What occurs in phonation of vowels?

Resonance

deals with the vibratory properties of any vibrating body. Frequency of vibration.

ɑʊ

diphthong like cow.

eɪ

diphthong of e vowel and is high mid front tense (unrounded) vowel. Usually occurs in stressed syllables and at the end of words regardless of stress when vowel is lengthened.

ɔɪ

diphthong sound as in boy or toy

ɑɪ

diphthong. like ice

Time

duration of any particular sound

oʊ

high mid back tense rounded vowel. occurs in stressed syllables and at end of words regardless of stress.

Lower Case i Vowel

high- front tense (unrounded) vowel

Tongue Advancement

how far forward or backward in the mouth the tongue is when making a certain vowel sound.

Tongue Height

how high or low in mouth tongue is when producing a certain vowel

Script a

low back tense unrounded. Also forms ar the r-colored vowel. can be confused with ɔ and vise versa.

Open o ɔ

low mid back tense rounded vowel.

Turned V "Wedge" ʌ

low mid, back central, lax unrounded vowel. Used in stressed syllables.

Right hook Schwa "Schwar" ɚ

mid central lax rounded vowel. occurs only in unstressed syllables

Right hook reversed Epsilon ɝ

mid central rounded tense vowel. occurs only in stressed syllables

Frequency

number of cycles a vibrating body completes in one second. It is perceived in terms of pitch. Are related and as it changes so does pitch.

Vowel Quadrilateral

oral cavity shape figure that gives an approximation of tongue position for the production of vowels.

Vowels

phonemes that are produced without any appreciable constriction or blockage of air flow in vocal tract.

Intensity

refers to amplitude of energy associatd with particular sound. The greater the energy, the greater this is. It is perceived in terms of loudness. As it increases of a sound, so does its loudness.

Formants

resonant frequencies of vocal tract. Each vowel has specific frequency due to the tongue positioning in the vocal tract.

Timbre

synonym often used for sound quality

Onglide

the first element in a diphthong when pronouncing the first phoneme

Low tongue

the jaw is dropped so the tongue is below the position that it would occupy in a non-speech activity (breathing)

Quality

the perceptual character of a sound based on its acoustic resonance patterns

offglide

the second element in a diphthong when pronouncing second sound.

Center Tongue

the tongue is close to the "rest" position during articulation. This is half way between the hard palate and the velum.

Front tongue

the tongue is forward in the mouth during articulation. But don't be fooled by this term. Front does not mean all the way to bilabial. Front for vowels means in the palatal area.

Back tongue

the tongue is pulled back during articulation to the velar area

high tongue

tongue is raised towards hard palate

mid tongue

tongues is slightly raised towards the hard palate

rhotic dipthongs or r-colored vowels

vowel has r quality or r coloring associated with it. ex. hear and ear.

Point vowels

vowels that represent an extreme corner of vowel quadrilateral.

Tense Vowels

vowels which are longer in duration and require more muscular effort.

Lax Vowels

vowels which are shorter in duration and require less muscular effort.

two vowels, /I/ (front vowel) or /ʊ/ (back vowel)

what do offglides consist of?

tongue

what is the primary articulator of vowels?

nasalization

when a vowel takes on a nasal quality due to phonemic environment of a word. Usually occurs when preceding or following a nasal consonant. Ex. "Rim"

Rounded/ Unrounded Vowel sounds

whether a vowel has lip rounding when producing it or not. Ex. "moon" and "mean"

most vowels produced in back of mouth are rounded

Are vowels produced in back of the mouth, rounded or unrounded?

unrounded

Are vowels produced in front of mouth rounded or unrounded?

low front lax (unrounded) vowel. Referred to as "ash". used before ŋ in words like "rank".

Ash æ

low mid front lax (unrounded) vowel. called epsilon. Usually occur before /r/.

Epsilon ɛ

mid central lax unrounded vowel. Commonly known as schwa.

Schwa ə

Spectrum

The frequency array, or energy pattern, associated with particular phoneme. Vowel have low frequency spectra or low spectral pitch.

high (lower than u) back rounded lax.

Upsilon ʊ

Can be in beginning and in middle of word but never at the end! ex. "had" "aloud"

What syllabic position can lax vowels be?

Can be in middle and at the end of syllable creating an open syllable. ex. "Hi" "feet"

What syllabic position can tense vowels be?

ʊ u o ɔ ɚ ɝ

What vowels are rounded?

i, e, eɪ, ɪ, ɛ, æ

Which are front vowels?

Spectogram

a graphic representation of the three major parameters that describe the acoustic characteristics of any sound, including speech sounds. Parameter include time, frequency, intensity