Phonetics

Lesson Three

Http://www.Bbc.Co.Uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/ - Go to this site and train vowels!!!

English vowels

There are six vowel letters in the English alphabet: a, e, i, o, u, y. Vowel letters, alone or in combinations, represent from 15 to 22 vowel sounds, depending on the way of counting. All vowel sounds together are called the vowel system.

Vowels are speech sounds produced without obstructing the flow of air from the lungs, so that the breath stream passes freely through the mouth. Vowels are always voiced (i.e., the vocal cords vibrate). Syllables are formed by vowels. The English vowel phonemes fall into: MONOPHTHONGS, DIPHTHONGS and TRIPHTHONGS.

MONOPHTHONGS:

Lips loosely spread. Tongue lax with less tension than / i: /		Pit
Lips loosely spread and slighly wider apart than / ɪ /		Pet
Lips neutrally open and slightly wider apart than / e /		Pat
Open lip-rounding, wide open jaws, back of tongue low.		Pot
Lips neutrally open. Open jaws. Centralized quality.		Luck
Lips loose, but closely rounded. Tongue not as tense as in / u: /		Good
Lips in neutral position. Centralized. Tongue slightly higher than in /ʌ/		Ago
Lips spread. Tongue tense (front raised) with sides touching upper molars.		Meat
Lips neutrally open and jaws far apart. Centre to back of tongue fully open.		Car
Medium lip rounding. Tongue drawn back making no contact with upper molars.		Door
Lips neutrally spread. Tongue slightly higher than /ə/ (no firm contact with upper molars)		Girl
Lips closely rounded. Back of tongue high. Tense compared with /ʊ/		Too
Note: schwa [ʃwɑː] лингв.нейтральный гласный [ə]

[ʌ]- caret

DIPHTHONGS

A diphthong is a complex sound consisting of two vowel elements pronounced so as to form a single syllable. The first element of an English diphthong is called the nucleus (ядро). The second element is called the glide (cкольжение,призвук). A diphthong forms one syllable.

Three diphthongs with a glide towards

Two diphthongs with a glide towards

Three diphthongs with a glide towards

= [ε ə]

TRIPHTHONGS

A triphthong is a complex vowel sound that consists of three components. A triphthong is indivisible and forms only one syllable. A triphthong is always stressed on its first main component. Two triphthongs are usually listed in British English: [aiə] hire, fire, require; [auə] our, hour, flour.

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE LENGTH OF THE VOWEL

Depending on the duration of the sound, i.e. according to their length, vowels are described as long or short.

Long vowels

Short vowels

The length of one and the same vowel may change noticeably in different positions in the word. For example, vowels in stressed syllables sound longer than the same vowels in unstressed syllables. Vowels before voiced consonants sound longer than the same vowels before voiceless consonants.

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF TENSENESS

Tense vowels. Lax vowels.

According to the degree of tenseness vowels are divided into tense (напряжённый) and lax (ненапряжённый). In the production of tense vowels the organs of speech are tense. All the English long vowels are tense. Lax vowels are produced with lesser tenseness of the speech organs. All the English short vowels are lax.

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE LIP POSITION

Rounded vowels. Unrounded vowels.

According to the lip position vowels may be rounded (лабиализованный, огубленный) and unrounded. (нелабиализованный, неогубленный).

Rounded vowels are produced with the lips more or less rounded and slightly protruded (вытянутый вперёд). The English rounded vowels are:

and the nuclei of .

Unrounded vowels are produced with the lips spread or neutral. The English unrounded vowels are:

and the nuclei of the diphthongs [ε ə]

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE TONGUE POSITION

FRONT VOWELS

Гласные переднего ряда

Front vowels are produced with the bulk of the tongue (тело языка) in the front part of the mouse. The front part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate, forming a large empty space in the back part of the mouth.

The English front vowels are:

and the nucleus of [ε ə]

FRONT- RETRACTED VOWELS

Гласные передне-отодвинутого назад ряда

Front-retracted vowels are produced with the bulk of the tongue in the front part of the mouth, but somewhat retracted. The front part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. There is one front-retracted monophthong in English:

The nuclei of the diphthongs are also front- retracted.

CENTRAL VOWELS

Гласные среднего ряда

Central vowels are produced with the central part of the tongue raised towards the juncture (стык, соединение) between the hard and soft palate.

The English central vowels are:

and the nucleus of

BACK VOWELS

Гласные заднего ряда

Back vowels are produced with the bulk of the tongue in the back part of the mouth. The back part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate, forming an empty space in the front part of the mouth.

The English back vowels are:

and the nucleus of the diphthong .

BACK-ADVANCED VOWELS

Гласные заднее-продвинутого вперёд ряда

Back-advanced vowels are produced with the bulk of the tongue in the back part of the mouth cavity, but somewhat advanced. Back part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the front part of the soft palate.

The English back-advanced vowels are: .

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE HEIGHT OF THE RAISED PART OF THE TONGUE

CLOSE/HIGH VOWELS

In the production of close/high vowels one part of the tongue comes close to the roof of the mouth and the air passage is narrowed, but not so much as to form a consonant.

The English close/high vowels are:

.

OPEN/LOW VOWELS

In the production of open/low vowels the raised part of the tongue is very low in the mouth and the air passage is very wide.

The English open/low vowels are:

and the nuclei of

and .

MID-OPEN/MID VOWELS

In the production of mid-open/mid vowels the raised part of the tongue is half-way between its high and low positions.

The English mid-open/mid vowels are: and the nuclei of [ε ə] .

Sounds	Letters	Examples	Notes
[i:]	e, ee ea ie, ei	be, eve, see, meet, sleep, meal, read, leave, sea, team, field, believe, receive	bread, deaf [e]; great, break [ei]; friend [e]
[i]	I Y	it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, system, busy, pity, sunny	machine, ski, liter, pizza [i:]
[e]	E Ea	let, tell, press, send, end, bread, dead, weather, leather	meter [i:] sea, mean [i:]
[ei]	A ai, ay ei, ey ea	late, make, race, able, stable, aim, wait, play, say, day, eight, weight, they, hey, break, great, steak	said, says [e]; height, eye [ai]
[æ]	A	cat, apple, land, travel, mad; AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half
[a:]	Ar a	army, car, party, garden, park, father, calm, palm, drama; BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half	war, warm [ɔ:]
[ai]	i, ie y, uy	ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die, my, style, apply, buy, guy
[au]	Ou ow	out, about, house, mouse, now, brown, cow, owl, powder	group, soup [u:] know, own [ou]
[ɒ ]	o	not, rock, model, bottle, copy
[ɔ:]	or o aw, au ought al, wa-	more, order, cord, port, long, gone, cost, coffee, law, saw, pause, because, bought, thought, caught, hall, always, water, war, want	work, word [ə:] [ɜ:]
[ɔi]	oi, oy	oil, voice, noise, boy, toy
[ou]	o oa, ow	go, note, open, old, most, road, boat, low, own, bowl	do, move [u:] how, owl [au]
[ ju:]	u ew eu ue, ui	use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune, few, dew, mew, new, euphemism, feud, neutral, hue, cue, due, sue, suit
[u:]	u o, oo ew ue, ui ou	rude, Lucy, June, do, move, room, tool, crew, chew, flew, jewel, blue, true, fruit, juice, group, through, route; AmE: duty, new, sue, student	guide, quite [ai]; build [i]
[u]	oo u ou	look, book, foot, good, put, push, pull, full, sugar, would, could, should
neutral sound [ə]	a, e er o, i ar,or	about, sofa,brutal, taken, violent, teacher,letter memory, reason, family dollar, doctor
[ə:] [ɜ:]	er, ur, ir,or ear	serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir, work, word, heard, earn, earnest, earth	heart, hearth [a:]
[ʌ]	u o ou	cut, cup,but colour, dozen,worry tough, rough	put,bull,truth,bush [u] group [u:]

The story of Betty Botter and the butter - short vowels

Betty Botter had some butter, "But," she said, "this butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter, It would make my batter bitter. But a bit of better butter- Better than the bitter butter- That would make my batter better." So she bought a bit of butter, Better than the bitter butter, And she put it in her batter, And it made her batter better. So it was better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter.

The cold old house - long vowels and diphthongs

I once knew a house, A cold, old house, A cold, old house by the sea. If I were a mouse, In a cold, old house, What a cold, old mouse I would be!

I joined the navy - long vowels and diphthongs

I joined the navy, To see the sea. And what did I see? I saw the sea.

The wild rover - long vowels and diphthongs

I've been a wild rover for many a year, And I've spent all my money on whisky and beer, But now I'm returning with gold in great store, Now I never will play the wild rover no more And it's no, nay, never, No nay never, no more, Will I play the wild rover? No, never, no more.