Page 77 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 5: Classification of Speech Sounds: Vowels, Consonants-General Introduction

Let us look at some examples: Notes
(i) Make a vowel like the i: in the English word ‘see’ and look in a mirror; if you tilt your
head back slightly you will be able to see that the tongue is held up close to the roof of
the mouth. Now make an æ vowel (as in the word ‘cat’) and notice how the distance
between the surface of the tongue and the roof of the mouth is now much greater. The
difference between i: and æ is a difference of tongue height, and we would describe i: as
a relatively close vowel and æ as a relatively open vowel. Tongue height can be changed
by moving the tongue up or down, or moving the lower jaw up or down. Usually we
use some combination of the two sorts of movement.
(ii) In making the two vowels described above, it is the front part of the tongue that is
raised. We cold therefore describe i: and æ as comparatively front vowels. By changing
the shape of the tongue we can produce vowels in which a different part of the tongue
is the highest point. A vowel in which the back of the tongue is the highest point is
called a back vowel. If you make the vowel in the word ‘calm’, which we write
phonetically as a:, you can see that the back of the tongue is raised. Compare this with
æ in front of a mirror; æ is a front vowel and a: is a back vowel. The vowel in ‘too’ (u:)
is also a comparatively back vowel, but compared with a: it is close.
• Show now we have seen how four vowels differ from each other; we can show this in a
simple diagram.
Front Back
Close i: u:
Open æ a:
However, this diagram is rather inaccurate. Phoneticians need a very accurate way of
classifying vowels, and have developed a set of vowels which are arranged in a close-open,
front-back diagram similar to the one above but which are not the vowels of any particular
language. These cardinal vowels are a standard reference system, and people being trained
in phonetics at an advanced level have to learn to make them accurately and recognise them
correctly. If you learn the cardinal vowels, you are not learning to make English sounds, but
you are learning about the range of vowels that the human vocal apparatus can make, and
also learning a useful way of describing, classifying and comparing vowels.
The exact shape is not really important - a square would do quite well but we will use the
traditional shape. The vowels so-called primary cardinal vowels; these are the vowels that
are most familiar to the speakers of most European languages, and there are other cardinal
vowels are printed within square brackets [] to distinguish them clearly from English vowel
sounds.

5.6 Key-Words

1. Affricate : If the stop is not held for any appreciable time and released
slowly, we get an affricate rather than a plosive, e.g./t ∫ / in
chair and /dz/ in jail.
2. Nasal : In a nasal contoid, the breath stream is interrupted at some
point in the oral cavity or at the lips, while being allowed to
enter the nose and create resonance there. Thus a nasal is
produced by a stricture of complete oral closure. The soft
palate is lowered and the air passes through the nose. All
nasal sounds are voiced. Examples /m,n,v/ in English.

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