2014-02-18
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Phonation. Voicing describes whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. Most languages only have voiced vowels, but several Native American languages contrast voiced and devoiced vowels. The combination of phonetic cues (i.e. phonation, tone, stress) is known as register or register complex.
Rhotic vowels or R-colored vowels. Rhotic vowels are the "R-colored vowels" of English and a few other languages.
Tenseness/checked vowels vs. free vowels. Tenseness. Tenseness is used to describe the opposition of tense vowels as in leap, suit vs. lax vowels as in lip, soot. This opposition has traditionally been thought to be a result of greater muscular tension, though phonetic experiments have repeatedly failed to show this. Unlike the other features of vowel quality, tenseness is only applicable to the few languages that have this opposition (mainly Germanic languages, e.g. English. In discourse about the English language, "tense and lax" are often used interchangeably with "long and short", respectively, because the features are concomitant in the common varieties of English. This cannot be applied to all English dialects or other languages. In most Germanic languages, lax vowels can only occur in closed syllables. Therefore, they are also known as checked vowels, whereas the tense vowels are called free vowels since they can occur in any kind of syllable.
The first who tried to describe and classify vowel sounds irrespective of the mother tongue was D. Jones. He devised the system of 8 Cardinal Vowels. This system is an international standard. The basis of the system is physiological. The starting point of the tongue position is for i (the front of the tongue raised as close as possible to the palate).
No. 1 i is equivalent to the French sound of i in si, German sound of ie in Biene.
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The gradual lowering of the tongue to the back lowest position gives another point which is easily felt (No. 5 a).
The tongue position between these points was X-rayed and equidistant points were found. For the front position of the tongue they are
No. 1 i mentioned above,
No. 2 e. French sound of e in thé; Scottish pronunciation of, ay in day.
No. 3 ε. French sound of ê in тêте.
No. 4 a. French sound of a in la.
If we compare these four Cardinal Vowels with the Ukrainian vowel system, we may state that:
No. 1 cardinal i is pronounced with the position of the tongue higher than for the Ukrainian accented і in the word міліграм.
No. 2 cardinal e is pronounced with the position of the tongue narrower than the Ukrainian e in the word тесть.
No. 3 is similar to the Ukrainian е in the word е тап.
For the back position of the tongue four auditory equidistant points were also established (from the lowest to the highest position of the back part of the tongue). They are:
No. 5 a. Nearly what is obtained by taking away the lip-rounding from English sound of о in hot; French vowel a in pas.
No. 6כ. German sound of о in Sonne.
No. 7 о. French sound of o in rose, Scottish o in rose.
No. 8 u. German sound of и in gut.
There are no sounds similar to Nos 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 in Ukrainian.
In spite of the theoretical significance of the Cardinal Vowel System its practical application is limited to the field where no comparison is needed, in purely scientific work. In language teaching this system can be learned only by oral instruction from a teacher who knows how to pronounce the Cardinal Vowels. Those who have access neither to a qualified teacher, nor to recordings cannot expect to learn the values of these or any other cardinal vowels with accuracy.
Acoustically vowels are musical tones (not noises): the word "vowel" is a derivative of "voice". Acoustically vowels differ due to their tembral coloring, each vowel is characterized by its own formants (that is concentrations of energy in certain frequency regions on the spectrogram).
Phoneticians suggest classifying vowels according to the following principles:
Ø Position of the lips
Ø Position of the tongue
Ø Degree of tenseness and the character of the end of a vowel
Ø Length
Ø Stability of articulation
According to the position of the lips vowels are classified into: (a) rounded, (b) unrounded. The Ukrainian rounded vowels are pronounced with more lip protrusion than the English rounded vowels. The English rounded vowels are: /u – u:, כ – כ:/, the Ukrainian rounded and protruded vowels are: /о, у/.
According to the position of the tongue it is the bulk of the tongue which conditions most of all the production of different vowels. It can move forward and backward, it may be raised and lowered in the mouth cavity. Nowadays scientists divide vowels according to the (a) horizontal and (b) vertical movements of the tongue.
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horizontal – When the bulk of the tongue moves backwards, it is usually the back part of the tongue which is raised highest towards the soft palate. Vowels produced with the tongue in this position are called back. They are subdivided into:
fully back: /כ, כ:, u:/, the nuclei of the diphthong /כi/, and the Ukrainian /o, y/
back-advanced: / Λ, υ, a:/and the nuclei of the diphthongs / ∂ υ, υ ∂ /.
When the bulk of the tongue moves forward, it is usually the front part of the tongue which is raised highest towards the hard palate. Vowels produced with this position of the tongue are called front. They are subdivided into:
fully front: /i:, e, æ/, the nuclei of the diphthongs /ei, ε ∂, ai/ and the Ukrainian /i, e/;
front-retracted: / I / and the nucleus of the diphthong /аυ/.
The term front is not quite correct, because the front vowels are produced by the action of the mouth resonator, which is in the back part of the mouth cavity and the raised front of the tongue.
There is some controversy in the subdivision (and terming) of vowels into front and front-retracted, back and back-advanced (e.g., whether /i:/ & / I / are different phonemes (sounds different not only in quantity but mainly in quality) or they are variants of one and the same phoneme; the same about /u:/ & /υ/).
Terminological controversy about vowels is only of academic interest because in speech the "cardinal" points mentioned in the diagrams of vowels are slightly altered. The guiding principle in teaching English vowel sounds should be accurate articulatory description accompanied by diagrams and drills.
In the production of mixed, or central, vowels the tongue is raised towards the junction between the hard and the soft palate, e.g., the Ukrainian vowel /a/, Russian /ы/. They are produced neither in the front, nor in the back part of the mouth cavity.
Some British phoneticians consider / ∂, з:/ "central". D. Jones says that the central part of the tongue is raised highest and it is culminating at the junction between "front" and "back". He regards / ∂, ∂:/ as variants of one phoneme. However, Н. Sweet defines / ∂, ∂:/ as "mixed".
Ukrainian & Russian phoneticians also define the vowels / ∂, ∂:/ as "mixed", because the tongue position in their production is different from that of the Ukrainian central /а/ or Russian central /ы/.
ü vertical – According to the vertical movements of the tongue vowels are subdivided into:
high: /i:, I, u, u:/ and /i, у, и/;
mid, half open /e, ∂:, о(u), ε(∂), ∂ / and /e, о/;
low, open: / Λ, כ:, æ, a(i, u), a:, כ, כ(i)/ and /a/.
Each of the subclasses is subdivided into vowels of narrow variation and vowels of broad variation:
| high | narrow variation: | /i:, u:/ and /i, и, у/; |
| broad variation: | /I, u/; | |
| mid | narrow variation: | /e, ∂:, o(u)/; |
| broad variation: | /ε(∂), ∂/; | |
| Low | narrow variation: | /Λ, כ:/; |
| broad variation: | /a:, כ, æ, a(I, u)/ and /a/. |
The Ukrainian /e, о/ are placed on the border of the mid-open vowels of broad and narrow variation.
According to the degree of tenseness traditionally long vowels are defined as tense and short as lax. The term "tense" was introduced by H. Sweet, who stated that the tongue is tense when vowels of narrow variety are articulated. This statement is a confusion of two problems: acoustic and articulatory ones, because "tenseness" is an acoustic notion and should be treated in terms of acoustic data. However, this phenomenon is connected with the articulation of vowels in unaccented syllables (unstressed vocalism). The decrease of tenseness results in the reduction of vowels, that is in an unstressed position they may lose their qualitative characteristics.
When the muscles of the lips, tongue, cheeks and the back walls of the pharynx are tense, the vowels produced can be characterized as " tense ". When these organs are relatively relaxed, lax vowels are produced. There are different opinions in referring English vowels to the first or to the second group. Some consider only the long /i:/ and /u:/ to be tense. Some define all long English vowels as tense as well as /æ/.
This problem can be solved accurately only with the help of precise electronic instruments. The Ukrainian vowels are not differentiated according to their tenseness but one and the same vowel is tense in a stressed syllable compared with its tenseness in an unstressed one.
Some phoneticians suggest subdividing vowels according to the character of the end into "checked" and "free". This principle of vowel classifications is not singled out by British and American phoneticians.
When the intensity of the vowel does not diminish towards its end, such vowel is called "checked". When the intensity of the vowel decreases, the vowel is called "free". This problem is closely connected with articulatory transitions in syllable division and should be treated in terms of acoustic properties of vowels on the syllable level.
According to the length vowels are subdivided into: (historically) long and (historically) short.
Vowel length depends on a number of linguistic factors:
(1) position of the vowel in a word,
(2) word accent,
(3) the number of syllables in a word,
(4) the character of the syllabic structure,
(5) sonority.
(1) Positional dependence of length can be illustrated by the following example:
be – bead – bit
we – weed – wit
fee – feed – feet
In the terminal position a vowel is the longest, it shortens before a voiced consonant, it is the shortest before a voiceless consonant.
(2) A vowel is longer in an accented syllable, than in an unaccented one:
forecast n /'fo:ka:st/ – прогноз
to forecast v /fo:'ka:st/ – прогнозувати (погоду)
In the second example /כ:/ is shorter than in the first, though it may be pronounced with /כ:/ equally long.
(3) If we compare a one-syllable word and the word consisting of more than one syllable, we may observe that similar vowels are shorter in a polysyllabic word. Thus in the word verse / ∂:/ is longer than in university.
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(4) In words with V, CV, CCV type of syllable (open) the vowel length is greater than in words with VC, CVC, CCVC (closed) type of syllable. For example, / ∂:/ is longer in err (V type), than in earn (CVC type), /ju:/ is longer in dew (CV type), than in duly (CVCV type).
(5) Vowels of low sonority are longer, than vowels of greater sonority. It is so, because the speaker unconsciously makes more effort to produce greater auditory effect while pronouncing vowels of lower sonority, thus making them longer. For example, / I / is longer than /כ/, /i:/ is longer than /a:/, etc.
Besides, vowel length depends on the tempo of speech: the higher the rate of speech the shorter the vowels.
Length is a non-phonemic feature in English but it may serve to differentiate the meaning of a word. This can be proved by minimal pairs, e.g.
beat – bit /bi:t – bit/
deed – did /di:d – did/
The English long vowels are /i:, u:, כ:, а:, ∂:/.
The English short vowels are / I, e, æ, כ, Λ, ∂ /.
The stability of articulation is the principle of vowel classification which is not singled out by British and American phoneticians. In fact, it is the principle of the stability of the shape, volume and the size of the mouth resonator.
We can speak only of relative stability of the organs of speech, because pronunciation of a sound is a process, and its stability should be treated conventionally.
According to this principle vowels are subdivided into:
(a) monophthongs, or simple vowels,
(b) diphthongoids,
(c) diphthongs, or complex vowels.
(a) English monophthongs are pronounced with the more or less stable lip, tongue and the mouth walls position. They are: / I, e, æ, a:, כ, כ:, υ, Λ, ∂:, ∂ /.
(b) A diphthongoid is a vowel, which ends in a different element, yet producing neither impression nor effect of a diphthong. There are two diphthongoids in English: /i:, u:/.
(c) Diphthongs are defined differently by different authors. One definition is based on the ability of a vowel to form a syllable. Since in the diphthong only one element serves as a syllabic nucleus, a diphthong is a single sound.
Another definition of a diphthong as a single sound is based on the instability of the second element. The third group of scientists define a diphthong from the accentual point of view: since only one element is accented and the other is unaccented, a diphthong is a single sound.
· “unisyllabic gliding sound in the articulation of which the organs of speech start from one position and then glide to the other position.”
· “phonemically diphthongs are sounds that cannot be divided morphologically”. E.g. the Ukrainian /ай/ in can be separated: ча-ю.
The first element of a diphthong is the nucleus, the second is the glide. A diphthong can be falling – when the nucleus is stronger than the glide, and rising – when the glide is stronger than the nucleus. When both elements are equal such diphthongs are called level.
English diphthongs are falling with the glide toward:
i – /ei, ai, oi/,
u – /au, ou/,
∂ – /i ∂, ε ∂, υ ∂ /
Diphthongs /ei, ou, כi, au, ai/ are called closing, diphthongs /ε ∂, i ∂, ээ, υ ∂ / are called centring, according to the articulatory character of the second element.
Articulation bases of English and Ukrainian vowels are different.
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(1) The lips. In the production of Ukrainian vowels the lips are considerably protruded and rounded /o,y/. In the articulation of the similar English /כ, כ:/, /υ, u:/ such protrusion does not take place. In the neutral position, that is, when a person does not speak, the lips of the Ukrainian people are more lax and their corners lowered. Englishmen have the so called "flat-type" position of the lips, their lips are tenser than the lips of the Ukrainians, and the corners of the lips are raised, which resembles a smile.
(2) The bulk of the tongue in the production of the Ukrainian vowels occupies mostly the front part of the mouth cavity, in the articulation of the English vowel sounds the bulk of the tongue is more often in the back part of the mouth cavity. Besides, in the articulation of the English vowels the bulk of the tongue occupies more positions than in the Ukrainian vowel production. E.g., when the bulk of the tongue moves in the horizontal direction, in English there is a front-retracted and back-advanced position of the bulk of the tongue for the / I / and /υ/ production. Horizontal movements of the tongue condition the articulation of the / ∂, ∂:/ vowels, which are of mixed type. There are no vowels of such articulatory position in the Ukrainian vowel system.
Each of the three vertical positions of the tongue (high, mid, low) in English is subdivided into narrow and broad variety. Thus, six groups of English vowel sounds are formed in the system of English vowels.
Such broad variety of the bulk of the tongue positions is not observed in the production of the Ukrainian vowel sounds. These articulatory peculiarities in the pronunciation of English vowels constitute the basis for the formation of diphthongs when the position of the tongue changes within the articulation of one and the same vowel. It also helps to articulate a great number of vowel sounds of different height.
(3)The principle of the degree of tenseness and the character of the end in vowel classification is inseparably connected with the next principle.
(4) The length of the vowels. Long vowels in English are considered to be tense. There are no long vowels which can be opposed phonemically to short vowels in the Ukrainian language. Length in the Ukrainian vowel system is an irrelevant feature.
(5) The stability of articulation. There are monophthongs and diphthongoids in the Ukrainian vowel system, but there are no diphthongs, which exist in the English vowel system and are characterized by phonetic instability and phonemic unity.
