VOWELS

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VOWELS

            Generally sounds can be divided into ‘vowels’ and ‘consonants’. Traditionally, a, e, i, o, u are cited as vowels and the others as consonants. This statement is based on spelling rather than on the fundamental nature of sounds. In English phonology, there are twenty vowel sounds and twenty four consonants. Thus there are forty four speech sounds in English.
Vowels:
            Vowels are speech sounds, the production of which does not involve any audible friction. The air-stream from the lungs has a free escape. Vowels are made with open approximation, that is, with free flow of air with no obstruction anywhere in the air-passage.
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            A vowel is an indispensable part of any word. There cannot be any wo4rd without a vowel sound. For producing different vowels, one can use the tongue, lips or the lower jaw in different ways.
            There are 20 vowels in English language, twelve of them are ‘pure vowels’ and eight of them are ‘vowel Glides’ or ‘Diphthongs’.
Classification of Vowels:
The following classification helps to group vowels:
Front
Central
Back
i:
ə:
u:
i
ə
u
e
ʌ
ͻ:
ӕ

ͻ


a:

Vowels are classified according to
(i)                 The part of the tongue raised (as front, central and back vowels),
(ii)               The height to which the tongue is raised (as close, open, half-close and half-open)
(iii)             The shape of the lips (as rounded and unrounded or spread).
The first classification of vowels are front, central, and back, depending on the part of the tongue raised.
Front vowels are those among the articulation of which the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. There should be sufficient gap for the air to escape without any friction. i.e: i: , i, e and ӕ are the front vowels in English.
/i:/ as in bee, see, tea.
/i/ as in bid, sit, pit.
/e/ as in bed, set, get.
/ӕ/ as in bad, sat, mat.
Back vowels are those during the production of which the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate. There should be sufficient gap for the air to escape without friction. /a:/, /ͻ/, /ͻ:/, /ʊ/ and /ʊ:/, are back vowels in English.
/a:/ as in cart, bard, mart.
/ͻ/ as in cot, pot, want.
/ͻ:/ as in caught, horse, water.
/ʊ/ as in book, foot, good.
/ʊ:/ as in boot, fool, tool.
Central vowels are those sounds during the articulation of which the centre of the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth where the hard palate or soft palate meet. /ə/, /ə:/, and /ʌ/ are the central vowels in English.
/ə/ as in better, about, again.
/ə:/ as in bird, earth, learn.
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The second classification of vowels in English according to the height to which the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth.
Close vowels are those during the production of which the tongue is raised very close to the roof of the mouth without touching it. /i/, /i:/, /ʊ/, /ʊ:/ are called close vowels.
Open vowels are those during the production of which the tongue is held apart from the roof of the mouth. /a:/, /ӕ:/, /ͻ/, /ͻ:/ are open vowels.
Half-close and half-open vowels are those during the production of which the tongue is raised between the intermediary positions of close and open. /e/, /ə/, are half-close vowels; and /ə/, /ʌ/ are half-open vowels.
The third classification of vowels according to the shape of the lips during articulation are rounded and unrounded vowels. Vowels produced with the rounding of the lips are called rounded and those which are produced with unrounded lips are called unrounded vowels.
There is yet another classification of English vowels as the criterion of the duration of the sound as long or short vowels.
Long vowels: /i:/, /a:/, /ͻ:/. /ʊ:/, /ə:/
Short vowels: /i/, /ͻ/, /ʊ/, /ə/, /ӕ/, /e/.
Description of vowels using three-term labels:
a)      /i:/ During the articulation of this vowel, the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate to a position almost near close. The tongue is tense and the lips are spread. It can be described as a front close unrounded vowel.
This vowel can occur initially, medially and finally in words as in ‘eat’, beat, bee respectively.
b)      /i/ During the articulation of this vowel, the rear part of the front of the tongue (ie) a part of the tongue that is nearer to the centre than to the front is raised in the direction of the hard palate, just above the half-close position. The lips are loosely spread. The vowel /i/ can be described as front unrounded vowel between close and half-close.
This vowel can occur initially, medially and finally in words as in ‘it’, ‘bit’ and ‘city’.
There are three types of vowels. They are Monophthongs (Pure Vowels) and Diphthongs (Glides).
Monophthongs:
In the production of a pure vowel, the organs of speech remain in a given position for an appreciable period of time and show only one direction of movement. The quality of the vowel thus produced remains stable and constant.
e.g. /i:/ in sent
      /u:/ in food
Such vowels are called pure vowels or monophthongs.
Diphthongs:
            In diphthongs, there is a combination of two vowels and a transition from on vowel towards another. In the production of diphthongs, the organs of speech start from the position of one vowel and move towards the other. Then diphthongs in English are the following.
            /ei/ as in day
            /au:/ as in foe
            /ai/ as in time
            Diphthongs are termed Rising diphthongs or Crescendo, if the second element is more prominent than the first. On the other hand, if the first element is louder or more prominent, the diphthongs are called Falling diphthongs or Decrescendo. All the eight diphthongs of English are normally, Falling Diphthongs. But two of them, /ia/ and /ua/ become Rising Diphthongs in weak syllables or when the two vowel qualities belongs to two syllables. E.g. idiom, easier, influence, valuer.  
            Diphthongs can also be classified according to the direction of the glide in relation to the vowel.
a)      Diphthongs with a glide towards a central vowel are called Centering Diphthongs.
e.g. /ia/, /ԑa/, /ua/ as in dear, air, poor.
            b) Closing Diphthongs are those n which the glide is towards a close vowel.
            e.g. /ei/, /ai/, /ci/, /au/, as in bay, buy, boy, house, law.
Diphthongs may also be described as follows:
C) Diphthongs with a front glide are called Fronting Diphthongs.
e.g. /ei/, /ai/, /ci/ as in maid, bide, boy.
d) Diphthongs with a back glide are called Retracting Diphthongs.
e.g. /au/ as in cow, foe.
             

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