{"id":90,"date":"2019-06-07T10:52:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T10:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=90"},"modified":"2019-06-12T06:39:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T06:39:55","slug":"classification-and-description-of-speech-sounds-english-vowels","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/chapter\/classification-and-description-of-speech-sounds-english-vowels\/","title":{"rendered":"Classification and Description of Speech Sounds: English Vowels"},"content":{"raw":"<div><span style=\"float: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/B1STZQesZXM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"epgp books\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Learning Outcome:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">This chapter Classification and Description of Speech Sounds: English Vowels will tell you about the key components of linguistics and classification of speech sounds, especially vowels. In a nutshell it will make you comfortable with key concepts of pronunciation of English words.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Vowel Sounds<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0How to Pronounce Vowel Sounds<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Tips to improve pronunciation<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Verbal communication involves turning our non- linguistic experiences (thoughts, feelings, ideas, wishes, wants, and so on) into language and then communicating the subsequent linguistic units (words) through some suitable medium. Other people are then capable to decode the words and, thereby, convert the sense of what we were intending to communicate. There are three main modes that we transfer linguistically encoded messages:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Speaking<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Writing<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Signing<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">It is evident that all typically developing people learn to speak: speech acquisition is a natural process. However, not all people learn to read and write. Literacy skills have to be taught: they are not the product of a natural process. In this sense, speech is prior to writing as a transmission system. In fact, speech is the primary medium through which people communicate using language.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>VOWELS:<\/strong> We know that tightening the airstream to several degrees produces consonants, as it flows through the oral tract. Vowels are distinguished from consonants in numerous ways. Vowels are twisted with a smooth, unhindered airflow through the oral tract. A provisional rule of thumb is that vowels consist of the sounds represented by the letters a, e, o, u, y and sometimes I.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Gimson defines vowels (2) as a \u201ccategory of sounds \u2026 normally made with a voiced egressive air-stream, without any closure or narrowing such as would result in the noise component characteristic of many consonantal sounds\u201d (Introduction 35).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">He gave a list of several correlates in speech sound classification (Speech pp. 153-155). What follows is a compiled overview of properties a sound should have, according to Fant, to be classified as a vowel. The first condition is that a vowel must have sound energy visible in sound spectrum, and that the source of the acoustic energy originates from the vocal folds vibration. A vowel should also have \u201cvowelike correlate\u201d in speech production, which means an unobstructed pass of airstream. Waveform analysis of a \u201cvowelike sound\u201d implies that \u201cat last F1 and F2 [are] detectable\u201d, while F3 should be visible if F1\/F2 are not at their lower ends (156). To classify a vowel as a diphthong, the speech sound must satisfy the \u201cglide\u201d correlate, which in the production context means \u201cmoderate speed within a segment\u201d, seen as a \u201crelatively slow [spectrum change] rate but faster than for mere combination of two vowels\u201d.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Gimson refers to vowels in the introductory chapters as \u201cthe vowel type\u201d of sounds, \u201cdescribed in mainly auditory terms\u201d (Introduction, 35). When discussing the vowel versus the consonant distinction he notes: \u201cIt will be found that the phonemes of a language usually fall into two classes, those which a typically central (or nuclear) in the syllable and those which are non-central (or marginal). The term \u2018vowel\u2019 can then be applied to those phonemes having the former function and \u2018consonant\u2019 to those having the latter.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Distinctive shapes of the oral cavity create differences in vowel quality. In fact production of vowel sounds arises without impediment or thinning in vocal tract. \u2018A sound due to an audible friction without obstruction &amp; narrowing of a degree in the pharynx and the mouth is known as Vowel Sound.\u2019 Sounds produced due to articulators like nose, upper lip, lower lip, pharynx, tongue and other vowel sounds can be differentiated due to length of different\u00a0 vowel sounds for example hit &amp; heat. Hit is pronounced with short vowel sound and heat is pronounced with long vowel sound.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>CHARACTERISTIC VOWEL QUALITIES<\/strong>: According to Delahunty, Gerald P Characteristic vowel qualities are determined by<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">(a) the height of the tongue in the mouth;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>(b) the part of the tongue raised (front, middle, or back);<\/li>\r\n \t<li>(c) the configuration of the lips; and<\/li>\r\n \t<li>(d) the tension of the muscles of the oral tract. An articulatory description of a vowel must include all of these features.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowels may be further divided into pure vowels, each consisting of a single voiced sound, such as \/\/ of the word took, and diphthongs, created by chaining two pure vowels together, such as the \/a\/ heard in the word time.<\/div>\r\n<div><\/div>\r\n<div>Whatever variety of English is spoken, vowels may be differentiated by differences in five main parameters:<\/div>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Openness of the mouth<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Tongue elevation<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Position of tongue elevation<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Lip shape<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Length of vocalization<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The first four of these alter the relative size and shape of the oral cavity. The final parameter (length of vocalization) influences the duration of production.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>OPENNESS OF THE MOUTH<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Vowels\u00a0 differ\u00a0 from\u00a0 one\u00a0 another\u00a0 according\u00a0 to\u00a0 the\u00a0 extent\u00a0 to\u00a0 \u00a0which\u00a0 \u00a0the\u00a0 \u00a0jaws\u00a0 \u00a0are\u00a0 either open or close (not \u2018closed\u2019, as a complete closure would prevent the free flow of air out of the mouth). When, you speak the vowel sound \/\u0251\/, as in the word palm, the jaws are wide apart and you have embraced a comparatively open mouth posture. This is, therefore, an open vowel. Now contrast this with the vowel \/i\/, as in the word fleece. This time, you should notice that the mouth is nearly closed, i.e. the vowel \/i\/ is a close vowel. You can both see\u00a0 and feel the relative openness or closeness of the mouth by alternating the production of these vowels in quick succession (\/i\/ \u2013 \/\u0251\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/\u0251\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/\u0251\/).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">To facilitate the description of vowels, a finer grading system is used to define the extent to which the mouth is either close or open. The categories are:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Close: the mouth is nearly closed, as we have seen with the vowel \/i\/<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Close mid: this position is intermediate between a middle position (in which the mouth is open almost exactly halfway) and the close position.<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Open: the mouth is wide open, as with the vowel \/\u0251\/<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Open-mid: this position is intermediate between a middle position (in which the mouth is open almost exactly halfway) and the open position.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>TONGUE ELEVATION<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">When articulating vowels, there is a correlation between tongue elevation and openness of the mouth. Close vowels (with the mouth relatively closed) are articulated with a relatively high tongue elevation. In contrast, open vowels are typically articulated with a relatively low tongue position. As you will probably have guessed, close-mid and open-mid vowels are generally articulated with the tongue elevation in a mid-position, intermediate between high and low.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Pronounce the words eat and at. Now pronounce just the vowels of these two words. Notice that as you go from the vowel of eat to the vowel of at, your mouth opens. Alternate the words, and then just the two vowels.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Once you\u2019ve become accustomed to the different degrees of openness of these two vowels, pronounce ate between eat and at. The degree of open- ness of its vowel falls between those of eat and at, so there is a continuous increase in mouth openness as you go from one vowel to another. These degrees distinguish high, mid, and low vowels. We will use the following symbols for this sequence of vowels:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0Eat [i] High<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00a0ate [e] Mid<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The tongue can take up a variability of positions in the mouth. On the vertical axis it is usually explained as taking up one of three locations. Suppose the tongue takes a high position and it is the vowel sound \/i\/ as in the word fleece (which we know is also a close vowel). Try saying \/i\/ aloud again whilst looking in a mirror. This time, instead of concentrating on the position of the jaws, see and feel that the front portion of the tongue is raised relatively high in the mouth. Now contrast this with the vowel \/\u00e6\/ as in the word trap. In it the tongue takes up a low point in the mouth. An example of a vowel in which the tongue is placed about halfway between high and low is the sound \/\u025b\/ as in the word press. This is, therefore, described as a mid-vowel.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>POSITION OF TONGUE ELEVATION<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Elevation of tongue is closely related with position of tongue elevation. Whereas the elevation of the tongue describes the position of the tongue on the vertical axis (high, mid, low), the \u2018position of tongue elevation\u2019 refers to where this elevation takes place on the horizontal axis. Again, three positions are recognized:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Front<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Central<\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Back<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Front Vowel: Referring once more to the vowel \/i\/, we have noted that it is both a close vowel and a high vowel. In it the elevation of the tongue is at the front of the mouth. It is, therefore, also described as a front vowel. This is because the highest point of the tongue is towards the front of the mouth, below the front portion of the hard palate.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-94\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"729\" height=\"218\" \/>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Front vowels are produced with the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate. There are four front vowels and they are largely the same for speakers of both American and British English.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The font vowels are distributed in the vowel space almost equidistantly along the vertical tongue height axis (from high to low). They are all made with unrounded lips.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel \/i\/ (as in the word heed) is the vowel made with the highest tongue elevation \u2013 it is the close vowel. Since it is made with tongue elevation at the front of the mouth, and is unrounded, it can be lab\u2019eled simply as the HIGH FRONT UNROUNDED vowel.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">According to author Graham Williamson, \u2018 It is a long vowel and so it may also be transcribed as \/i\u02d0\/.The second vowel \/\u026a\/ (as in the word hid) is made with the tongue lowered slightly in the mouth, but not quite to the mid position: it is nearer the mid-high position. It is, therefore, a mid-high vowel. In addition, the vowel is made slightly further towards the central part of the mouth. Having said this, it is fairly close to the front and, as such, it can be referred to as a fairly-front vowel. This lowered and centralized unrounded vowel can, therefore, be described as the mid-high, fairly-front unrounded vowel. Or, given that the dimensions in the idealized vowel space are not intended to be represented with great precision, we can simplify the description and label it as the MID-HIGH FRONT\u00a0 UNROUNDED vowel. It is a\u00a0 short\u00a0 vowel.\u00a0 The\u00a0 third\u00a0 vowel\u00a0 is \/\u025b\/ (as\u00a0 in head).\u00a0 This\u00a0 is the MID-LOW FRONT UNROUNDED vowel. It is also a short vowel.\u2019<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The fourth type of vowel is \/\u00e6\/ (as in bad). Though it is not quite fully open, still being articulated in an intermediary position between low and mid-low, it does have the lowest tongue elevation of all the front vowels. Subsequently, we can indicate to it as LOW FRONT UNROUNDED vowel. Like \/\u026a\/ and \/\u025b\/, the low front unrounded vowel is also short.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>\u00a0Central Vowel<\/strong>: Now contrast this again with the vowel \/\u0251\/, as in the word palm. This time, as you say the vowel aloud, you should sense that the tongue elevation is towards the back of the mouth. This is, therefore, a back vowel sound, i.e. the highest point of tongue elevation is towards the back of the mouth, below the soft palate. The central position is harder to both see and feel but an example of this is the vowel \/\u025c\/ as in the Southern British English pronunciation of the word curse. Central vowels are, logically, articulated with the highest point of the tongue intermediate between\u00a0 the\u00a0 front\u00a0 of the\u00a0 mouth\u00a0 (below the front portion of the hard palate) and the back of the mouth (below the soft palate).<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-95\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"216\" \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">All central vowels are produced in an intermediate position between front and back vowels, with the body of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth in the area where the hard and soft palates fuse.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong> British central vowels<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Figure 9 illustrates the central vowels typically used by speakers of Standard Southern British English (SSBE).<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-96\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"287\" \/>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">We see from Figure 9 that speakers of SSBE have two vowels produced with the tongue elevated to the mid position. One is short and unrounded and the other is long and rounded.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel \/\u025c\/ (as in urban) is the long rounded vowel. Being long it may on occasion be transcribed as \/\u025c\u02d0\/. It is the MID CENTRAL ROUNDED vowel. This vowel only occurs in stressed syllables. A stressed syllable is a syllable in a multisyllabic word that is given more emphasis than the other syllables when spoken. The speaker raising the pitch of the sounds that constitute the syllable often achieves the extra prominence. Primary stress is usually signified with a superscript mark (\u02c8) before the affected syllable. In contrast, some syllables in multisyllabic words receive no stress at all. They are spoken with no extra prominence: no extra respiratory energy is used to give them prominence. These are unstressed syllables. For example, in the word photograph the second syllable \u2018-to\u2019 is unstressed.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Again I will like to quote Graham Williamson. According to him, \u2018The vowel \/\u0259\/ (as in annoy) is the counterpart vowel to \/\u025c\/, being unrounded and short. It is, therefore, the MID CENTRAL UNROUNDED vowel. It is often known by its German name schwa or, simply, as the neutral vowel. This is because, in contrast with \/\u025c\/, the neutral vowel most commonly occurs in unstressed syllables, either in syllable-initial position (e.g. around) or syllable-final position (e.g. soda).A third central vowel is available to speakers of SSBE, \/\u028c\/ (as in hut). It is formed with unrounded lips and it is short. It is the LOW CENTRAL UNROUNDED vowel.\u2019<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>American central vowels<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Speakers of General American English (GA) use two of the central vowels that are also used by SSBE speakers: the MID CENTRAL UNROUNDED neutral vowel \/\u0259\/ (as in ahoy) and the LOW CENTRAL UNROUNDED vowel \/\u028c\/ (as in bud) (see Figure ).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Unlike SSBE, however, GA does not make use of the mid central rounded vowel \/\u025c\/ in quite the same fashion. In General American, this mid central rounded vowel is said to be r- colored. In American English it is typical for vowels preceding an \/r\/ to be affected by the immediately following consonant such that the tongue is curled back slightly during production of the vowel. This is known as retroflexion. So, in GA, the mid central rounded vowel in the word bird is r-colored, owing to the effect of the immediately following \/r\/ consonant. The vowel may be transcribed with a small \u2018r\u2019 symbol attached \/\u025d\/ or with a following \u2018r\u2019 \/\u025cr\/ (see Figure 10).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Back Vowel:<\/strong> The back vowels, like the front ones, descend from high, through mid, to low, in a continuous sequence. You can observe this by pronouncing the words coot, coat, and cot, and then just their vowels. As you produce this series of vowels you\u2019ll find your mouth opening (monitor your lower jaw) as you go from coot to coat to cot. We use the following symbols for these back vowels: (2) coot [u] High coat [o] Mid cot [A] Low<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>LIP SHAPE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDuring the production of English vowels, just two lip shapes are usually adopted:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Rounded<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Unrounded<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The difference can be illustrated by alternating between saying the vowel sounds \/u\/, as in the word Loose and \/i\/, as in the word fleece. Look at yourself once more in a mirror as you alternate between saying these vowels in rapid succession (\/u\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/u\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/u\/ \u2013 \/i\/). You will see that the lips are rounded and pushed forwards for the production of \/u\/ but that they are spread (unrounded) for the vowel \/i\/.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As you compared [i] and [u] you probably noticed that your lips changed shape as you shifted from the front vowel to the back one. Your lips were rounded as you produced [u]. They were unrounded (spread or neutral) as you produced [i]. As you moved through the series of back vowels you may also have noticed that lip rounding decreased as you moved from high to low. In fact the lips are unrounded during the pronunciation of [A]. In English, the only rounded vowels are back, though many languages, such as French and German, have rounded front vowels.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>INTERMEDIATE VOWELS<\/strong><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nFirst, pronounce the words meat, mitt, mate, met, and mat. Then pronounce just their vowels:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-97\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-20.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"330\" height=\"22\" \/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe vowels we\u2019ve just added, [I] and [E], are intermediate in height between [i] and [e], and\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-98\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-21.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"22\" \/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Vowels in multi-syllabic words Pronounce the words above, soda, sofa, comma, arena, patina, photograph, paying particular attention to the vowel represented by the bold letters. Then pronounce this vowel in isolation. This vowel is called schwa and written [@]. Schwa is made at approximately the same place as [V], that is, farther forward than the back vowels and farther back than the front ones. Hence, it is central. In addition, [@] is mid, lax, and unrounded. It is heard primarily in unstressed syllables, as in the words above. It is the vowel we produce if we vocalize as we prepare to speak\u2014uh. The tongue is said to be in its neutral position as we pronounce this vowel.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>LENGTH OF VOCALIZATION<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Without exception, vowels are produced with the vocal folds vibrating. They are, therefore, all voiced. In addition, vowels may be sustained for relatively longer and shorter intervals of time. They are categorized as: long and short. Again, saying the vowel sound \/u\/, as in the word goose. This can be heard to be a relatively long vowel if you now contrast this by saying the vowel \/\u00e6\/ as in trap.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">A further example of a long vowel is \/i\/, as in peat. This can be contrasted with the short vowel \/\u026a\/, as in pit. Again, try speaking aloud these two words, alternating between them,<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">i.e. peat \u2013 pit \u2013 peat \u2013 pit, and so on. This should help you distinguish the relative difference in the length of vocalization of \/i\/ and \/\u026a\/. Sometimes, for example when it is important to\u00a0 make clear that a particular vowel is a long vowel, a colon-like mark (\u02d0) is placed after the symbol for the vowel, e.g. \/i\u02d0\/, \/u\u02d0\/, \/\u0251\u02d0\/.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">There are other parameters that could be invoked in order to provide a complete description of vowel sounds, e.g. whether or not the tongue is flat during vowel production or whether it is curled upwards and backwards (known as retroflex). For most purposes, however, the five parameters described above do.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>DIPHTHONGS<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel sounds in the words boy, by, and how involves a change in the shape of the mouth as the vowel is being produced. The vowel of toy begins with approximately the mid back vowel [O] and finishes with ap- proximately the high front lax vowel [I] (or the palatal glide [j]). The vowel of by begins with approximately the low back vowel [a] (a low back vowel slightly more\u00a0 \u00a0f\u00a0 approximately [I] (or [j]). The vowel of cow begins with approximately [a] and finishes with approximately the high lax rounded vowel [U] (or the labio-velar glide [w]). We represent these diphthongs as [OI], [aI], and [aU], respectively (though many linguists use [Oj], [aj],\u00a0 \u00a0and [aw]).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">A second set of English diphthongs is not as clearly notable as the first, chiefly because we tend to observe them as simple vowels. However, in a precise (narrow) phonetic transcription they must be characterized as diphthongs. The tense front vowel [e] is diphthongized. The vowel of boat is actually pronounced [oU]. So, the front tense vowel is diphthongized by the addition of a front vowel and the back tense vowel is diphthongized by the addition of a back vowel. We can express this pattern as a rule: Mid and high tense vowels are diphthongized by the addition of a high lax vowel that matches the original vowel in front or back.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Diphthongization of these vowels is a feature of English rather than a universal feature of natural language. Spanish and German language, do not diphthongize their corresponding vowels. The tendency to diphthongize these vowels is one characteristic of the \u201cforeign accent\u201d that betrays English speakers when they begin to learn these languages.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The first of these is the vowel \/\u026a\u0259\/ as it appears in British pronunciations of the word near. From the IPA symbol used to represent this vowel, it can be seen that the vowel begins with an articulation of the mid-high front unrounded vowel \/\u026a\/ followed by a smooth transition towards the vowel \/\u0259\/.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The second diphthong begins with the mid-low front unrounded vowel \/\u025b\/ before moving towards \/\u0259\/. The diphthong created by this rapid and smooth movement is, therefore, transcribed as \/\u025b\u0259\/. This is the vowel sound that occurs in the word square.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The third, and final, diphthong in this group begins with the mid-high back rounded vowel \/\u028a\/. The resultant diphthong is transcribed as \/\u028a\u0259\/. It occurs in British pronunciations of cure.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Standard Lexical Sets introduced by the linguist John C. Wells in 1982<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">It is useful to consider the pronunciation of vowel sounds in English through the idea of Standard Lexical Sets, introduced by the linguist\u00a0 John C. Wells in 1982. Wells defined\u00a0 \u00a0 one lexical set on the basis of the pronunciation of words in the reference accent Received Pronunciation (RP) for the English spoken in England. English has five vowels in its alphabet: a, e, i ,o u. However, there are many more ways of pronouncing the vowels than the five sounds given by a,e,i,o,u. \/a\/ can be pronounced as a \u2018short\u2019 sound as in the word &lt;bad&gt;, or pronunciations common in the North of England, such as &lt;grass&gt; and &lt;bath&gt;. It can also represent a \u2018long\u2019 sound, as in the word &lt;laugh&gt;, or &lt;bath&gt;, and &lt;grass&gt;. The sound represented by \/o\/ can also be spelt in different ways, such as in the word &lt;off&gt; or in &lt;cough&gt;.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>STANDARD VOWEL CHART<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Anatomically, there is more space towards the roof of the mouth than the floor. If the tongue is raised higher than the top axis this narrows the gap between the tongue and palate to such an extent that the outgoing airflow becomes turbulent and friction is created, i.e. a fricative consonant is produced. Similarly, if the tongue is lowered (or backed) below the position of the \/\u0251\u02d0\/ vowel, friction is also created. The sloping left edge of the quadrilateral corresponds to the palatal area of the oral cavity and the straight right edge corresponds to\u00a0 \u00a0the velar area. Consequently, the left edge represents front vowels and the right edge represents back vowels. Finally, the vowel quadrilateral is typically divided into six areas by a sloping central axis that cuts through the close,\u00a0 close mid, open-mid and open axes. As\u00a0 \u00a0 we will see, these divisions provide a useful means of describing vowels.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">We do not need to be explicit about openness of the mouth because, as we have seen, it correlates with tongue elevation. It would, therefore, be redundant on any chart. Since a so- called vowel chart is concerned with plotting the relative positions of where vowels are made in the mouth, it is also not necessary to explicitly indicate the length of vocalization. The chart uses the quadrilateral to represent, in stylized form, the shape of the mouth based on a vertical axis of height of tongue elevation and a horizontal axis of the position of the tongue elevation.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>MONOPHTHONGS\/PURE VOWELS\/SIMPLE VOWELS:<\/strong> When a speaker assumes only a single configuration of the mouth when producing a vowel, i.e. there is no movement of the tongue, lips or jaws, the speaker produces what is known as a simple vowel. In sum, once the appropriate position for the tongue, jaws and lips has been set, this configuration does not alter whilst the sound is being produced. Owing to this single configuration, simple vowels are often referred to as monophthongs. They are also sometimes known as pure vowels. However, we will use the term \u2018simple vowel\u2019 to describe this subset of vowels.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">There are 12 simple vowels found in General American (GA) and Standard Southern British English (SSBE) in relation to each position of tongue elevation:<\/p>\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-99\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"738\" height=\"217\" \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Complex Vowels <\/strong>:Simple vowels do not change the configuration of the oral cavity whilst the vowel is being produced. There are, however, some vowels that do entail changes to the configuration of the oral cavity during their production. These are known as complex vowels. An example is \/\u0254\u026a\/ as in boy. Try saying this aloud whilst looking in a mirror. You should notice that your mouth shape changes as you produce the vowel, demonstrating the dynamic reconfigurations that typify complex\u00a0vowels.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-100\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"729\" height=\"211\" \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Complex vowels that involve two broad configurations of the mouth during their production (a starting configuration and an ending configuration) are known as diphthongs. These can be thought of as being created through the combination of two simple vowels.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>\u00a0Back Vowels<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The largest group of simple vowels is the back vowels. These are shaped with the back of the tongue raised towards the soft palate (velum). There are six back vowels, compared to the four front vowels and two central vowels.<\/p>\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-101\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"736\" height=\"216\" \/>\r\n<div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Four of the back vowels are made with rounded lips and just one with unrounded lips. We see, therefore, that back vowels are generally produced with rounded lips (in contrast with front vowels, that are all produced with unrounded lips). Further, two of the back vowels are produced with a high elevation of the tongue, one with a mid-elevation, and two with a low elevation.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The first of the high vowels is \/u\/ (as in food). It is made with rounded lips and it is known as the HIGH BACK ROUNDED vowel. It is a long vowel and so may be transcribed as \/u\u02d0\/.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The second high vowel is \/\u028a\/ as in good. It is similarly made with rounded lips. However, it is also articulated with a somewhat lowered tongue elevation, close to the mid-high position. In addition, it is articulated slightly further towards the central position of the mouth than the \/u\/\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">vowel. It is, however, fairly near to the back and so it is a fairly back vowel. This lowered\u00a0 and centralized high back vowel may, consequently, be referred to as the mid-high, fairly- back rounded vowel. This is a short vowel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel made with mid tongue elevation is \/\u0254\/ (as in hawed). Being unrounded, it may be labeled as the MID BACK ROUNDED vowel. Speakers of General American English (GA) may produce the \/\u0254\/ vowel with a slightly more lowered and slightly more centralized tongue position than the vowel as used by speakers of Standard Southern British English (SSBE). Nevertheless, they are sufficiently similar to both be described as a mid-back rounded vowel. They are long vowel sounds and so may be transcribed as \/\u0254\u02d0\/.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe final two back vowels are both made with a relatively low tongue elevation.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel with the lowest tongue elevation is \/\u0251\/ (as in American and British pronunciations of the word palm). This is a fully open vowel sound and it is produced with unrounded lips. It is, therefore, the LOW BACK UNROUNDED vowel. It is a long vowel and, as such, may also be transcribed as \/\u0251\u02d0\/.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The final vowel is produced with slightly higher tongue elevation and slightly retracted tongue position. It is the sound \/\u0252\/, as in SSBE pronunciations of the words cot, pot and lot. Being very nearly articulated in the same position as \/\u0251\/, it\u00a0 is\u00a0 also\u00a0 described\u00a0 as\u00a0 a\u00a0 low back vowel. However, it differs from \/\u0251\/ in that it is short and\u00a0 articulated\u00a0 with\u00a0 rounded lips. We can, therefore, describe it as the LOW BACK ROUNDED vowel. This vowel does not appear in General American English. GA typically uses \/\u0251\/ where SSBE uses \/\u0252\/. So, whereas SSBE distinguishes between the vowels\u00a0 in palm \/p\u0251m\/\u00a0 and lot \/l\u0252t\/,\u00a0 GA\u00a0 does not \u2013 realizing both palm \/p\u0251m\/ and lot \/l\u0251t\/ with the same \/\u0251\/ vowel.<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>SUMMARY<\/strong>: Phonetics has been defined as the science of speech sounds. It is a branch of linguistics and deals with the sounds produced by human beings in their speech behaviour. Speech Sounds are divided into two main groups: (1) consonants, and (2) vowels. In order to describe the vowels, we usually draw three points in the horizontal-axes: front, central and back, referring to the part of the tongue which is the highest. So we have<\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>i) front vowels<\/strong>,\r\n\r\n<strong>ii) <\/strong><strong>back vowels, <\/strong>and\r\n\r\n<strong>iii) <\/strong><strong>central<\/strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">All English vowels are voiced. To depict the vowel sound we must indicate whether it is open or close, half-close or half-open, front or back or central, long or short, whether the tongue is tense or relax while the vowel is being pronounced, and whether lips are spread, neutral, open rounded, or close rounded.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">From the point of view of their quality, vowel sounds are of two types: monophthong and diphthong. Monophthongs are pure vowels and diphthongs are gliding vowels. \u2018A vowel that does not change in quality\u2019 may be called a monophthong; and a vowel sound with a continually changing quality may be called a diphthong.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">To quote Ladefoged, P. and Johnson<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">\u2018\u2019In summary, the targets for vowel gestures can be described in terms of three factors: (1) the height of the body of the tongue; (2) the front\u2013back position of the tongue; and (3) the degree of lip rounding. --- It is very difficult to become aware of the position of the tongue in vowels, but you can probably get some impression of tongue height by observing the position of your jaw while saying just the vowels in the four words heed, hid, head, had. You should also be able to feel the difference.\u2019\u2019)<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">To conclude in the words of \u2013Peter MacCarthy (English Pronunciation) \u2018\u2019A pure vowel is one for which the organs of speech remain in a given position for an appreciable period of time. A diphthong is a vowel sound consisting of a deliberate, i.e. intentional glide, the organs of speech starting in the position of one vowel and immediately moving in the direction of another vowel. A diphthong, moreover, consists of a single syllabic\u2013\u2013that is, the vowel-glide most be performed with a single impulse of the breath; if there is more than one impulse of breath, the ear perceives two separate syllables\u2026\u2019\u2019<\/p>\r\n\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>you can view video on Classification and Description of Speech Sounds: English Vowels<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/B1STZQesZXM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img class=\"alignnone wp-image-120\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"36\" height=\"36\" \/><\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<strong>References<\/strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li class=\"p1 ft2\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Aoyama, K., Flege, J. E., Guion, S. G.,\u00a0Akahane-Yamada,\u00a0R., and Yamada, T. (2004). Perceived phonetic dissimilarity and L2 speech learning: the case of Japanese \/r\/ and English \/l\/ and \/r\/.\u00a0<span class=\"ft1\">Journal of Phonetics\u00a0<\/span>32:\u00a0233\u201350.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p2 ft4\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Avery, P. and Ehrlich, S. (1992).\u00a0<span class=\"ft3\">Teaching American English Pronunciation.\u00a0<\/span>Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p3 ft6\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Ball, M. and Lowry, O. (2001).\u00a0<span class=\"ft5\">Methods in Clinical Phonetics<\/span>. London: Whurr.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p4 ft2\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Celce-Murcia,\u00a0Marianne, D.M. Brinton, and J.M. Goodwin. 1996.\u00a0<span class=\"ft1\">Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.\u00a0<\/span>Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p5 ft4\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Crane, B.L., E. Yeager, and R.L. Whitman. 1993.\u00a0<span class=\"ft3\">Phonetics<\/span>. In L.M. Cleary and M.D. Linn (eds.).\u00a0<span class=\"ft3\">Linguistics for Teachers<\/span>. pp.\u00a0397-410.\u00a0New York: McGraw Hill.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p6 ft8\" style=\"text-align: justify\">McMahon, April. 2001.<span class=\"ft7\">An Introduction to English Phonology.\u00a0<\/span>Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.<\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p5 ft7\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span class=\"ft8\">Pennington, Martha C. 1996.\u00a0<\/span>Phonology in English Language Teaching<span class=\"ft8\">.\u00a0<\/span>Phonetics and Phonology\u00a0<span class=\"ft8\">London, UK: Longman.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li class=\"p7 ft6\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Yava\u015f, Mehmet. 2006.\u00a0<span class=\"ft5\">Applied English Phonology<\/span>. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<div><span style=\"float: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/B1STZQesZXM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"epgp books\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Learning Outcome:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">This chapter Classification and Description of Speech Sounds: English Vowels will tell you about the key components of linguistics and classification of speech sounds, especially vowels. In a nutshell it will make you comfortable with key concepts of pronunciation of English words.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Vowel Sounds<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How to Pronounce Vowel Sounds<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Tips to improve pronunciation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Verbal communication involves turning our non- linguistic experiences (thoughts, feelings, ideas, wishes, wants, and so on) into language and then communicating the subsequent linguistic units (words) through some suitable medium. Other people are then capable to decode the words and, thereby, convert the sense of what we were intending to communicate. There are three main modes that we transfer linguistically encoded messages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Speaking<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Writing<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Signing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">It is evident that all typically developing people learn to speak: speech acquisition is a natural process. However, not all people learn to read and write. Literacy skills have to be taught: they are not the product of a natural process. In this sense, speech is prior to writing as a transmission system. In fact, speech is the primary medium through which people communicate using language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>VOWELS:<\/strong> We know that tightening the airstream to several degrees produces consonants, as it flows through the oral tract. Vowels are distinguished from consonants in numerous ways. Vowels are twisted with a smooth, unhindered airflow through the oral tract. A provisional rule of thumb is that vowels consist of the sounds represented by the letters a, e, o, u, y and sometimes I.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Gimson defines vowels (2) as a \u201ccategory of sounds \u2026 normally made with a voiced egressive air-stream, without any closure or narrowing such as would result in the noise component characteristic of many consonantal sounds\u201d (Introduction 35).<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">He gave a list of several correlates in speech sound classification (Speech pp. 153-155). What follows is a compiled overview of properties a sound should have, according to Fant, to be classified as a vowel. The first condition is that a vowel must have sound energy visible in sound spectrum, and that the source of the acoustic energy originates from the vocal folds vibration. A vowel should also have \u201cvowelike correlate\u201d in speech production, which means an unobstructed pass of airstream. Waveform analysis of a \u201cvowelike sound\u201d implies that \u201cat last F1 and F2 [are] detectable\u201d, while F3 should be visible if F1\/F2 are not at their lower ends (156). To classify a vowel as a diphthong, the speech sound must satisfy the \u201cglide\u201d correlate, which in the production context means \u201cmoderate speed within a segment\u201d, seen as a \u201crelatively slow [spectrum change] rate but faster than for mere combination of two vowels\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Gimson refers to vowels in the introductory chapters as \u201cthe vowel type\u201d of sounds, \u201cdescribed in mainly auditory terms\u201d (Introduction, 35). When discussing the vowel versus the consonant distinction he notes: \u201cIt will be found that the phonemes of a language usually fall into two classes, those which a typically central (or nuclear) in the syllable and those which are non-central (or marginal). The term \u2018vowel\u2019 can then be applied to those phonemes having the former function and \u2018consonant\u2019 to those having the latter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Distinctive shapes of the oral cavity create differences in vowel quality. In fact production of vowel sounds arises without impediment or thinning in vocal tract. \u2018A sound due to an audible friction without obstruction &amp; narrowing of a degree in the pharynx and the mouth is known as Vowel Sound.\u2019 Sounds produced due to articulators like nose, upper lip, lower lip, pharynx, tongue and other vowel sounds can be differentiated due to length of different\u00a0 vowel sounds for example hit &amp; heat. Hit is pronounced with short vowel sound and heat is pronounced with long vowel sound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>CHARACTERISTIC VOWEL QUALITIES<\/strong>: According to Delahunty, Gerald P Characteristic vowel qualities are determined by<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">(a) the height of the tongue in the mouth;<\/li>\n<li>(b) the part of the tongue raised (front, middle, or back);<\/li>\n<li>(c) the configuration of the lips; and<\/li>\n<li>(d) the tension of the muscles of the oral tract. An articulatory description of a vowel must include all of these features.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowels may be further divided into pure vowels, each consisting of a single voiced sound, such as \/\/ of the word took, and diphthongs, created by chaining two pure vowels together, such as the \/a\/ heard in the word time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Whatever variety of English is spoken, vowels may be differentiated by differences in five main parameters:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Openness of the mouth<\/li>\n<li>Tongue elevation<\/li>\n<li>Position of tongue elevation<\/li>\n<li>Lip shape<\/li>\n<li>Length of vocalization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The first four of these alter the relative size and shape of the oral cavity. The final parameter (length of vocalization) influences the duration of production.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>OPENNESS OF THE MOUTH<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Vowels\u00a0 differ\u00a0 from\u00a0 one\u00a0 another\u00a0 according\u00a0 to\u00a0 the\u00a0 extent\u00a0 to\u00a0 \u00a0which\u00a0 \u00a0the\u00a0 \u00a0jaws\u00a0 \u00a0are\u00a0 either open or close (not \u2018closed\u2019, as a complete closure would prevent the free flow of air out of the mouth). When, you speak the vowel sound \/\u0251\/, as in the word palm, the jaws are wide apart and you have embraced a comparatively open mouth posture. This is, therefore, an open vowel. Now contrast this with the vowel \/i\/, as in the word fleece. This time, you should notice that the mouth is nearly closed, i.e. the vowel \/i\/ is a close vowel. You can both see\u00a0 and feel the relative openness or closeness of the mouth by alternating the production of these vowels in quick succession (\/i\/ \u2013 \/\u0251\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/\u0251\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/\u0251\/).<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">To facilitate the description of vowels, a finer grading system is used to define the extent to which the mouth is either close or open. The categories are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Close: the mouth is nearly closed, as we have seen with the vowel \/i\/<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Close mid: this position is intermediate between a middle position (in which the mouth is open almost exactly halfway) and the close position.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Open: the mouth is wide open, as with the vowel \/\u0251\/<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">Open-mid: this position is intermediate between a middle position (in which the mouth is open almost exactly halfway) and the open position.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>TONGUE ELEVATION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">When articulating vowels, there is a correlation between tongue elevation and openness of the mouth. Close vowels (with the mouth relatively closed) are articulated with a relatively high tongue elevation. In contrast, open vowels are typically articulated with a relatively low tongue position. As you will probably have guessed, close-mid and open-mid vowels are generally articulated with the tongue elevation in a mid-position, intermediate between high and low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Pronounce the words eat and at. Now pronounce just the vowels of these two words. Notice that as you go from the vowel of eat to the vowel of at, your mouth opens. Alternate the words, and then just the two vowels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Once you\u2019ve become accustomed to the different degrees of openness of these two vowels, pronounce ate between eat and at. The degree of open- ness of its vowel falls between those of eat and at, so there is a continuous increase in mouth openness as you go from one vowel to another. These degrees distinguish high, mid, and low vowels. We will use the following symbols for this sequence of vowels:<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Eat [i] High<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0ate [e] Mid<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The tongue can take up a variability of positions in the mouth. On the vertical axis it is usually explained as taking up one of three locations. Suppose the tongue takes a high position and it is the vowel sound \/i\/ as in the word fleece (which we know is also a close vowel). Try saying \/i\/ aloud again whilst looking in a mirror. This time, instead of concentrating on the position of the jaws, see and feel that the front portion of the tongue is raised relatively high in the mouth. Now contrast this with the vowel \/\u00e6\/ as in the word trap. In it the tongue takes up a low point in the mouth. An example of a vowel in which the tongue is placed about halfway between high and low is the sound \/\u025b\/ as in the word press. This is, therefore, described as a mid-vowel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>POSITION OF TONGUE ELEVATION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Elevation of tongue is closely related with position of tongue elevation. Whereas the elevation of the tongue describes the position of the tongue on the vertical axis (high, mid, low), the \u2018position of tongue elevation\u2019 refers to where this elevation takes place on the horizontal axis. Again, three positions are recognized:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Front<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Central<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Back<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u00a0Front Vowel: Referring once more to the vowel \/i\/, we have noted that it is both a close vowel and a high vowel. In it the elevation of the tongue is at the front of the mouth. It is, therefore, also described as a front vowel. This is because the highest point of the tongue is towards the front of the mouth, below the front portion of the hard palate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-94\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"729\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17.png 729w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17-300x90.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17-65x19.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17-225x67.png 225w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-17-350x105.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Front vowels are produced with the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate. There are four front vowels and they are largely the same for speakers of both American and British English.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The font vowels are distributed in the vowel space almost equidistantly along the vertical tongue height axis (from high to low). They are all made with unrounded lips.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel \/i\/ (as in the word heed) is the vowel made with the highest tongue elevation \u2013 it is the close vowel. Since it is made with tongue elevation at the front of the mouth, and is unrounded, it can be lab\u2019eled simply as the HIGH FRONT UNROUNDED vowel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">According to author Graham Williamson, \u2018 It is a long vowel and so it may also be transcribed as \/i\u02d0\/.The second vowel \/\u026a\/ (as in the word hid) is made with the tongue lowered slightly in the mouth, but not quite to the mid position: it is nearer the mid-high position. It is, therefore, a mid-high vowel. In addition, the vowel is made slightly further towards the central part of the mouth. Having said this, it is fairly close to the front and, as such, it can be referred to as a fairly-front vowel. This lowered and centralized unrounded vowel can, therefore, be described as the mid-high, fairly-front unrounded vowel. Or, given that the dimensions in the idealized vowel space are not intended to be represented with great precision, we can simplify the description and label it as the MID-HIGH FRONT\u00a0 UNROUNDED vowel. It is a\u00a0 short\u00a0 vowel.\u00a0 The\u00a0 third\u00a0 vowel\u00a0 is \/\u025b\/ (as\u00a0 in head).\u00a0 This\u00a0 is the MID-LOW FRONT UNROUNDED vowel. It is also a short vowel.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The fourth type of vowel is \/\u00e6\/ (as in bad). Though it is not quite fully open, still being articulated in an intermediary position between low and mid-low, it does have the lowest tongue elevation of all the front vowels. Subsequently, we can indicate to it as LOW FRONT UNROUNDED vowel. Like \/\u026a\/ and \/\u025b\/, the low front unrounded vowel is also short.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>\u00a0Central Vowel<\/strong>: Now contrast this again with the vowel \/\u0251\/, as in the word palm. This time, as you say the vowel aloud, you should sense that the tongue elevation is towards the back of the mouth. This is, therefore, a back vowel sound, i.e. the highest point of tongue elevation is towards the back of the mouth, below the soft palate. The central position is harder to both see and feel but an example of this is the vowel \/\u025c\/ as in the Southern British English pronunciation of the word curse. Central vowels are, logically, articulated with the highest point of the tongue intermediate between\u00a0 the\u00a0 front\u00a0 of the\u00a0 mouth\u00a0 (below the front portion of the hard palate) and the back of the mouth (below the soft palate).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-95\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"740\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18.png 740w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18-300x88.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18-65x19.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18-225x66.png 225w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-18-350x102.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">All central vowels are produced in an intermediate position between front and back vowels, with the body of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth in the area where the hard and soft palates fuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong> British central vowels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Figure 9 illustrates the central vowels typically used by speakers of Standard Southern British English (SSBE).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-96\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19.png 474w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19-300x182.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19-65x39.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19-225x136.png 225w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-19-350x212.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">We see from Figure 9 that speakers of SSBE have two vowels produced with the tongue elevated to the mid position. One is short and unrounded and the other is long and rounded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel \/\u025c\/ (as in urban) is the long rounded vowel. Being long it may on occasion be transcribed as \/\u025c\u02d0\/. It is the MID CENTRAL ROUNDED vowel. This vowel only occurs in stressed syllables. A stressed syllable is a syllable in a multisyllabic word that is given more emphasis than the other syllables when spoken. The speaker raising the pitch of the sounds that constitute the syllable often achieves the extra prominence. Primary stress is usually signified with a superscript mark (\u02c8) before the affected syllable. In contrast, some syllables in multisyllabic words receive no stress at all. They are spoken with no extra prominence: no extra respiratory energy is used to give them prominence. These are unstressed syllables. For example, in the word photograph the second syllable \u2018-to\u2019 is unstressed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Again I will like to quote Graham Williamson. According to him, \u2018The vowel \/\u0259\/ (as in annoy) is the counterpart vowel to \/\u025c\/, being unrounded and short. It is, therefore, the MID CENTRAL UNROUNDED vowel. It is often known by its German name schwa or, simply, as the neutral vowel. This is because, in contrast with \/\u025c\/, the neutral vowel most commonly occurs in unstressed syllables, either in syllable-initial position (e.g. around) or syllable-final position (e.g. soda).A third central vowel is available to speakers of SSBE, \/\u028c\/ (as in hut). It is formed with unrounded lips and it is short. It is the LOW CENTRAL UNROUNDED vowel.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>American central vowels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Speakers of General American English (GA) use two of the central vowels that are also used by SSBE speakers: the MID CENTRAL UNROUNDED neutral vowel \/\u0259\/ (as in ahoy) and the LOW CENTRAL UNROUNDED vowel \/\u028c\/ (as in bud) (see Figure ).<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Unlike SSBE, however, GA does not make use of the mid central rounded vowel \/\u025c\/ in quite the same fashion. In General American, this mid central rounded vowel is said to be r- colored. In American English it is typical for vowels preceding an \/r\/ to be affected by the immediately following consonant such that the tongue is curled back slightly during production of the vowel. This is known as retroflexion. So, in GA, the mid central rounded vowel in the word bird is r-colored, owing to the effect of the immediately following \/r\/ consonant. The vowel may be transcribed with a small \u2018r\u2019 symbol attached \/\u025d\/ or with a following \u2018r\u2019 \/\u025cr\/ (see Figure 10).<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Back Vowel:<\/strong> The back vowels, like the front ones, descend from high, through mid, to low, in a continuous sequence. You can observe this by pronouncing the words coot, coat, and cot, and then just their vowels. As you produce this series of vowels you\u2019ll find your mouth opening (monitor your lower jaw) as you go from coot to coat to cot. We use the following symbols for these back vowels: (2) coot [u] High coat [o] Mid cot [A] Low<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>LIP SHAPE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>During the production of English vowels, just two lip shapes are usually adopted:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rounded<\/li>\n<li>Unrounded<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The difference can be illustrated by alternating between saying the vowel sounds \/u\/, as in the word Loose and \/i\/, as in the word fleece. Look at yourself once more in a mirror as you alternate between saying these vowels in rapid succession (\/u\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/u\/ \u2013 \/i\/ \u2013 \/u\/ \u2013 \/i\/). You will see that the lips are rounded and pushed forwards for the production of \/u\/ but that they are spread (unrounded) for the vowel \/i\/.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As you compared [i] and [u] you probably noticed that your lips changed shape as you shifted from the front vowel to the back one. Your lips were rounded as you produced [u]. They were unrounded (spread or neutral) as you produced [i]. As you moved through the series of back vowels you may also have noticed that lip rounding decreased as you moved from high to low. In fact the lips are unrounded during the pronunciation of [A]. In English, the only rounded vowels are back, though many languages, such as French and German, have rounded front vowels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>INTERMEDIATE VOWELS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First, pronounce the words meat, mitt, mate, met, and mat. Then pronounce just their vowels:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-97\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-20.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"330\" height=\"22\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-20.png 330w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-20-300x20.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-20-65x4.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-20-225x15.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The vowels we\u2019ve just added, [I] and [E], are intermediate in height between [i] and [e], and<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-98\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-21.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"22\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-21.png 173w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-21-65x8.png 65w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 173px) 100vw, 173px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Vowels in multi-syllabic words Pronounce the words above, soda, sofa, comma, arena, patina, photograph, paying particular attention to the vowel represented by the bold letters. Then pronounce this vowel in isolation. This vowel is called schwa and written [@]. Schwa is made at approximately the same place as [V], that is, farther forward than the back vowels and farther back than the front ones. Hence, it is central. In addition, [@] is mid, lax, and unrounded. It is heard primarily in unstressed syllables, as in the words above. It is the vowel we produce if we vocalize as we prepare to speak\u2014uh. The tongue is said to be in its neutral position as we pronounce this vowel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>LENGTH OF VOCALIZATION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Without exception, vowels are produced with the vocal folds vibrating. They are, therefore, all voiced. In addition, vowels may be sustained for relatively longer and shorter intervals of time. They are categorized as: long and short. Again, saying the vowel sound \/u\/, as in the word goose. This can be heard to be a relatively long vowel if you now contrast this by saying the vowel \/\u00e6\/ as in trap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">A further example of a long vowel is \/i\/, as in peat. This can be contrasted with the short vowel \/\u026a\/, as in pit. Again, try speaking aloud these two words, alternating between them,<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">i.e. peat \u2013 pit \u2013 peat \u2013 pit, and so on. This should help you distinguish the relative difference in the length of vocalization of \/i\/ and \/\u026a\/. Sometimes, for example when it is important to\u00a0 make clear that a particular vowel is a long vowel, a colon-like mark (\u02d0) is placed after the symbol for the vowel, e.g. \/i\u02d0\/, \/u\u02d0\/, \/\u0251\u02d0\/.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">There are other parameters that could be invoked in order to provide a complete description of vowel sounds, e.g. whether or not the tongue is flat during vowel production or whether it is curled upwards and backwards (known as retroflex). For most purposes, however, the five parameters described above do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>DIPHTHONGS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel sounds in the words boy, by, and how involves a change in the shape of the mouth as the vowel is being produced. The vowel of toy begins with approximately the mid back vowel [O] and finishes with ap- proximately the high front lax vowel [I] (or the palatal glide [j]). The vowel of by begins with approximately the low back vowel [a] (a low back vowel slightly more\u00a0 \u00a0f\u00a0 approximately [I] (or [j]). The vowel of cow begins with approximately [a] and finishes with approximately the high lax rounded vowel [U] (or the labio-velar glide [w]). We represent these diphthongs as [OI], [aI], and [aU], respectively (though many linguists use [Oj], [aj],\u00a0 \u00a0and [aw]).<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">A second set of English diphthongs is not as clearly notable as the first, chiefly because we tend to observe them as simple vowels. However, in a precise (narrow) phonetic transcription they must be characterized as diphthongs. The tense front vowel [e] is diphthongized. The vowel of boat is actually pronounced [oU]. So, the front tense vowel is diphthongized by the addition of a front vowel and the back tense vowel is diphthongized by the addition of a back vowel. We can express this pattern as a rule: Mid and high tense vowels are diphthongized by the addition of a high lax vowel that matches the original vowel in front or back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Diphthongization of these vowels is a feature of English rather than a universal feature of natural language. Spanish and German language, do not diphthongize their corresponding vowels. The tendency to diphthongize these vowels is one characteristic of the \u201cforeign accent\u201d that betrays English speakers when they begin to learn these languages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The first of these is the vowel \/\u026a\u0259\/ as it appears in British pronunciations of the word near. From the IPA symbol used to represent this vowel, it can be seen that the vowel begins with an articulation of the mid-high front unrounded vowel \/\u026a\/ followed by a smooth transition towards the vowel \/\u0259\/.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The second diphthong begins with the mid-low front unrounded vowel \/\u025b\/ before moving towards \/\u0259\/. The diphthong created by this rapid and smooth movement is, therefore, transcribed as \/\u025b\u0259\/. This is the vowel sound that occurs in the word square.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">The third, and final, diphthong in this group begins with the mid-high back rounded vowel \/\u028a\/. The resultant diphthong is transcribed as \/\u028a\u0259\/. It occurs in British pronunciations of cure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Standard Lexical Sets introduced by the linguist John C. Wells in 1982<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">It is useful to consider the pronunciation of vowel sounds in English through the idea of Standard Lexical Sets, introduced by the linguist\u00a0 John C. Wells in 1982. Wells defined\u00a0 \u00a0 one lexical set on the basis of the pronunciation of words in the reference accent Received Pronunciation (RP) for the English spoken in England. English has five vowels in its alphabet: a, e, i ,o u. However, there are many more ways of pronouncing the vowels than the five sounds given by a,e,i,o,u. \/a\/ can be pronounced as a \u2018short\u2019 sound as in the word &lt;bad&gt;, or pronunciations common in the North of England, such as &lt;grass&gt; and &lt;bath&gt;. It can also represent a \u2018long\u2019 sound, as in the word &lt;laugh&gt;, or &lt;bath&gt;, and &lt;grass&gt;. The sound represented by \/o\/ can also be spelt in different ways, such as in the word &lt;off&gt; or in &lt;cough&gt;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>STANDARD VOWEL CHART<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Anatomically, there is more space towards the roof of the mouth than the floor. If the tongue is raised higher than the top axis this narrows the gap between the tongue and palate to such an extent that the outgoing airflow becomes turbulent and friction is created, i.e. a fricative consonant is produced. Similarly, if the tongue is lowered (or backed) below the position of the \/\u0251\u02d0\/ vowel, friction is also created. The sloping left edge of the quadrilateral corresponds to the palatal area of the oral cavity and the straight right edge corresponds to\u00a0 \u00a0the velar area. Consequently, the left edge represents front vowels and the right edge represents back vowels. Finally, the vowel quadrilateral is typically divided into six areas by a sloping central axis that cuts through the close,\u00a0 close mid, open-mid and open axes. As\u00a0 \u00a0 we will see, these divisions provide a useful means of describing vowels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">We do not need to be explicit about openness of the mouth because, as we have seen, it correlates with tongue elevation. It would, therefore, be redundant on any chart. Since a so- called vowel chart is concerned with plotting the relative positions of where vowels are made in the mouth, it is also not necessary to explicitly indicate the length of vocalization. The chart uses the quadrilateral to represent, in stylized form, the shape of the mouth based on a vertical axis of height of tongue elevation and a horizontal axis of the position of the tongue elevation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>MONOPHTHONGS\/PURE VOWELS\/SIMPLE VOWELS:<\/strong> When a speaker assumes only a single configuration of the mouth when producing a vowel, i.e. there is no movement of the tongue, lips or jaws, the speaker produces what is known as a simple vowel. In sum, once the appropriate position for the tongue, jaws and lips has been set, this configuration does not alter whilst the sound is being produced. Owing to this single configuration, simple vowels are often referred to as monophthongs. They are also sometimes known as pure vowels. However, we will use the term \u2018simple vowel\u2019 to describe this subset of vowels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">There are 12 simple vowels found in General American (GA) and Standard Southern British English (SSBE) in relation to each position of tongue elevation:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-99\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"738\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22.png 738w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22-300x88.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22-65x19.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22-225x66.png 225w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-22-350x103.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Complex Vowels <\/strong>:Simple vowels do not change the configuration of the oral cavity whilst the vowel is being produced. There are, however, some vowels that do entail changes to the configuration of the oral cavity during their production. These are known as complex vowels. An example is \/\u0254\u026a\/ as in boy. Try saying this aloud whilst looking in a mirror. You should notice that your mouth shape changes as you produce the vowel, demonstrating the dynamic reconfigurations that typify complex\u00a0vowels.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-100\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"729\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23.png 729w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23-300x87.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23-65x19.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23-225x65.png 225w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-23-350x101.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Complex vowels that involve two broad configurations of the mouth during their production (a starting configuration and an ending configuration) are known as diphthongs. These can be thought of as being created through the combination of two simple vowels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\"><strong>\u00a0Back Vowels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The largest group of simple vowels is the back vowels. These are shaped with the back of the tongue raised towards the soft palate (velum). There are six back vowels, compared to the four front vowels and two central vowels.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-101\" src=\"http:\/\/engp13.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"736\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24.png 736w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24-300x88.png 300w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24-65x19.png 65w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24-225x66.png 225w, https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/265\/2019\/06\/Untitled-24-350x103.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Four of the back vowels are made with rounded lips and just one with unrounded lips. We see, therefore, that back vowels are generally produced with rounded lips (in contrast with front vowels, that are all produced with unrounded lips). Further, two of the back vowels are produced with a high elevation of the tongue, one with a mid-elevation, and two with a low elevation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The first of the high vowels is \/u\/ (as in food). It is made with rounded lips and it is known as the HIGH BACK ROUNDED vowel. It is a long vowel and so may be transcribed as \/u\u02d0\/.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The second high vowel is \/\u028a\/ as in good. It is similarly made with rounded lips. However, it is also articulated with a somewhat lowered tongue elevation, close to the mid-high position. In addition, it is articulated slightly further towards the central position of the mouth than the \/u\/\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">vowel. It is, however, fairly near to the back and so it is a fairly back vowel. This lowered\u00a0 and centralized high back vowel may, consequently, be referred to as the mid-high, fairly- back rounded vowel. This is a short vowel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel made with mid tongue elevation is \/\u0254\/ (as in hawed). Being unrounded, it may be labeled as the MID BACK ROUNDED vowel. Speakers of General American English (GA) may produce the \/\u0254\/ vowel with a slightly more lowered and slightly more centralized tongue position than the vowel as used by speakers of Standard Southern British English (SSBE). Nevertheless, they are sufficiently similar to both be described as a mid-back rounded vowel. They are long vowel sounds and so may be transcribed as \/\u0254\u02d0\/.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The final two back vowels are both made with a relatively low tongue elevation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The vowel with the lowest tongue elevation is \/\u0251\/ (as in American and British pronunciations of the word palm). This is a fully open vowel sound and it is produced with unrounded lips. It is, therefore, the LOW BACK UNROUNDED vowel. It is a long vowel and, as such, may also be transcribed as \/\u0251\u02d0\/.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The final vowel is produced with slightly higher tongue elevation and slightly retracted tongue position. It is the sound \/\u0252\/, as in SSBE pronunciations of the words cot, pot and lot. Being very nearly articulated in the same position as \/\u0251\/, it\u00a0 is\u00a0 also\u00a0 described\u00a0 as\u00a0 a\u00a0 low back vowel. However, it differs from \/\u0251\/ in that it is short and\u00a0 articulated\u00a0 with\u00a0 rounded lips. We can, therefore, describe it as the LOW BACK ROUNDED vowel. This vowel does not appear in General American English. GA typically uses \/\u0251\/ where SSBE uses \/\u0252\/. So, whereas SSBE distinguishes between the vowels\u00a0 in palm \/p\u0251m\/\u00a0 and lot \/l\u0252t\/,\u00a0 GA\u00a0 does not \u2013 realizing both palm \/p\u0251m\/ and lot \/l\u0251t\/ with the same \/\u0251\/ vowel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>SUMMARY<\/strong>: Phonetics has been defined as the science of speech sounds. It is a branch of linguistics and deals with the sounds produced by human beings in their speech behaviour. Speech Sounds are divided into two main groups: (1) consonants, and (2) vowels. In order to describe the vowels, we usually draw three points in the horizontal-axes: front, central and back, referring to the part of the tongue which is the highest. So we have<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>i) front vowels<\/strong>,<\/p>\n<p><strong>ii) <\/strong><strong>back vowels, <\/strong>and<\/p>\n<p><strong>iii) <\/strong><strong>central<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">All English vowels are voiced. To depict the vowel sound we must indicate whether it is open or close, half-close or half-open, front or back or central, long or short, whether the tongue is tense or relax while the vowel is being pronounced, and whether lips are spread, neutral, open rounded, or close rounded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">From the point of view of their quality, vowel sounds are of two types: monophthong and diphthong. Monophthongs are pure vowels and diphthongs are gliding vowels. \u2018A vowel that does not change in quality\u2019 may be called a monophthong; and a vowel sound with a continually changing quality may be called a diphthong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">To quote Ladefoged, P. and Johnson<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">\u2018\u2019In summary, the targets for vowel gestures can be described in terms of three factors: (1) the height of the body of the tongue; (2) the front\u2013back position of the tongue; and (3) the degree of lip rounding. &#8212; It is very difficult to become aware of the position of the tongue in vowels, but you can probably get some impression of tongue height by observing the position of your jaw while saying just the vowels in the four words heed, hid, head, had. You should also be able to feel the difference.\u2019\u2019)<\/p>\n<p class=\"no-indent\" style=\"text-align: justify\">To conclude in the words of \u2013Peter MacCarthy (English Pronunciation) \u2018\u2019A pure vowel is one for which the organs of speech remain in a given position for an appreciable period of time. A diphthong is a vowel sound consisting of a deliberate, i.e. intentional glide, the organs of speech starting in the position of one vowel and immediately moving in the direction of another vowel. A diphthong, moreover, consists of a single syllabic\u2013\u2013that is, the vowel-glide most be performed with a single impulse of the breath; if there is more than one impulse of breath, the ear perceives two separate syllables\u2026\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>you can view video on Classification and Description of Speech Sounds: English Vowels<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/B1STZQesZXM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-120\" src=\"http:\/\/epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/download.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"36\" height=\"36\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1 ft2\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Aoyama, K., Flege, J. E., Guion, S. G.,\u00a0Akahane-Yamada,\u00a0R., and Yamada, T. (2004). Perceived phonetic dissimilarity and L2 speech learning: the case of Japanese \/r\/ and English \/l\/ and \/r\/.\u00a0<span class=\"ft1\">Journal of Phonetics\u00a0<\/span>32:\u00a0233\u201350.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p2 ft4\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Avery, P. and Ehrlich, S. (1992).\u00a0<span class=\"ft3\">Teaching American English Pronunciation.\u00a0<\/span>Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p3 ft6\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Ball, M. and Lowry, O. (2001).\u00a0<span class=\"ft5\">Methods in Clinical Phonetics<\/span>. London: Whurr.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p4 ft2\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Celce-Murcia,\u00a0Marianne, D.M. Brinton, and J.M. Goodwin. 1996.\u00a0<span class=\"ft1\">Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.\u00a0<\/span>Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p5 ft4\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Crane, B.L., E. Yeager, and R.L. Whitman. 1993.\u00a0<span class=\"ft3\">Phonetics<\/span>. In L.M. Cleary and M.D. Linn (eds.).\u00a0<span class=\"ft3\">Linguistics for Teachers<\/span>. pp.\u00a0397-410.\u00a0New York: McGraw Hill.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p6 ft8\" style=\"text-align: justify\">McMahon, April. 2001.<span class=\"ft7\">An Introduction to English Phonology.\u00a0<\/span>Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p5 ft7\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span class=\"ft8\">Pennington, Martha C. 1996.\u00a0<\/span>Phonology in English Language Teaching<span class=\"ft8\">.\u00a0<\/span>Phonetics and Phonology\u00a0<span class=\"ft8\">London, UK: Longman.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p7 ft6\" style=\"text-align: justify\">Yava\u015f, Mehmet. 2006.\u00a0<span class=\"ft5\">Applied English Phonology<\/span>. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["dr-neeru-tandon"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[58],"license":[],"class_list":["post-90","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-dr-neeru-tandon"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/90\/revisions\/488"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/90\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}