CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF VOWEL SOUNDS

                       CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF VOWEL SOUNDS 

       

     Linguistics is a systematic study of language. Phonetics is a branch of linguistics and it is the branch dealing with the medium of speech. It deals with the production, transmission and reception of the sounds of human speech. For the production of speech sounds, we need an air-stream mechanism. There are three main air-stream mechanisms, such as pulmonic, glottalic and velaric air-stream mechanisms. When the air-stream mechanism is used to push out, it is called egressive and when it is used to draw air in, it is called ingressive. Most sounds of most languages in the world are produced with a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. 

        The various organs are responsible for converting the lung air into speech sounds before it escapes into the outer atmosphere. For instance, if we say a prolonged, a prolonged zzz, a prolonged and a prolonged, we see at once two things. We recognize these as speech sounds because these sounds occur in the various words we use in our English speech. The other thing we notice is that each one of these sounds is different from the others. Speech sounds are very broadly divided into two categories, namely, Vowels and Consonants. If we say the English word shoe, we realize that this word is made up of two sounds, one represented by the letters and the other represented by the letters.

     When we produce the sound represented by the letters slowly, we realize that during the production of this sound, the air escapes through the mouth with friction. On the other hand, when we produce the sound represented by the letters, the air escapes through the mouth freely and we do not hear any friction. The sound is represented by the letters in the word shoe is a consonant and the sound represented by the letters in the word shoe is a vowel. All sounds during the production of which we hear friction are consonants, but not all consonants are produced with friction.

         If we say the words, she, shoe, shy, show, ship and shout, we will realize that when we produce the sounds represented by the letters e, oe, y, ow, i and ou in these words, the air escapes through the mouth freely without any friction. All these sounds are therefore vowels but each one of them sounds different from the others. These sounds should therefore be sub-classified. Similarly, if we say the words shoe, see zoo and who, we will hear friction during the production of the sounds represented by the letters sh, s, z and wh. All these sounds are therefore consonants. But once again, we will see that each of them sounds different from the others. The sounds that are called consonants also need to be sub-classified. 

Description of Vowels:

     Vowels may be defined with an open approximation without any obstruction, partial or complete, in the air passage. They are referred to as vocoids in phonetics. They can be described in terms of three variables:

 Height of tongue.

  Part of the tongue is raised or lowered. 

 Lip-rounding.

  So vocoids are normally classified according to these three criteria: tongue height (high, mid, low, or close, half-closed, half-open and open), tongue advancement (front, central, back) and lip-rounding (rounded and unrounded). 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 Front vowels, during the production of which the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate. For example; / i, i: , e: , a / in Hindi, and / i, i: , e , æ / in English as in sit, seat, set, and sat respectively. Back vowels, during the production of which the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate. For example; / o: , u , u: ,/ in Hindi, and / a: , É” , ɔ˕ , u , u: / in English as in cart, cot, caught, book and tool respectively. Central vowels, during the production of which the central part of the tongue ( the part between the front and the back) is raised. On the vertical axis, we usually draw four points: close, half-close, half-open, and open. 

    They are also referred to as high, high mid, mid (middle), low mid, and low by some phoneticians, especially the American phoneticians. On the basis of the vertical axes, we have the following types of vowels. A close vowel is one for which the tongue is as close to the roof of the mouth as possible. For example; / i: / in sea and / u: / in zoo. An open vowel is one which is produced with the tongue as low as possible and the jaws are wide open. For example, / a: / in card and / É” / in hot. We can describe a vowel by using a three-term label, indicating the height, the direction (advancement) of the tongue, and the position of the lips. For example; / a: / in the English word, arm, back, open, unrounded vowel. / É” / in the English word, hot, back, open, rounded vowel. / i: / in the English word, need, front, close, unrounded vowel. / u / in the English word, tooth, back, close, rounded vowel. To describe the vowel sound, we mention 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 lax while the vowel is being pronounced, and whether lips are spread, neutral, open rounded, or close rounded. 

    All English vowels are voiced. So, for every vowel, we must state that it is voiced. Hence, to sum up, the main point of a language is to convey information. Nowadays, language can take various forms. It can be spoken or written. Peter Lade fogged also talked in his book that speech is the common way of using language. Another aspect of speech that is not part of language is the way speech conveys information about the speaker’s attitude to life, the subject under discussion and the person spoken to. The final kind of non-linguistic information conveyed by speech is the identity of the speaker. You can often tell the identity of the person who is speaking without looking at them. But then again, we may be wrong. Whenever we speak, we create a disturbance in the air around us, a sound wave, which is a small but rapid variation in air pressure spreading through the air. Speech sounds such as vowels can differ in pitch, loudness and quality. We can say the vowel a as in father on any pitch within the range of our voice.  

    We can also say it softly or loudly without altering the pitch. And we can say as many different vowels as we can, without altering either the pitch or the loudness. The pitch of the sound depends on the rate of repetition of the changes in air pressure. The loudness of the sound depends on the size of the variations in air pressure. The third way in which sounds can differ is in quality, sometimes called timbre. The vowel in see differs in quality from the first vowel in father., irrespective of whether it also differs in pitch or loudness. Thus, Peter Lade forged in his book has discussed the principal constraints on the evolution of the sounds of the world’s languages, which are ease of articulation, auditory distinctiveness, and gestural economy. He also discussed the differences between speech and language and has also outlined some of the main acoustic distinctions among sounds; and how one of the acoustic distinctions, that corresponding to pitch, is used in the world’s languages.

 Types of Vowels with Examples in English Phonetics Vowels are phonemes that are produced without any appreciable constriction or blockage of airflow in the vocal tract. Vowel letters consist of a, e, i, o, and u. But there are many kinds of vowels based on their sounds when we spell them. Let’s see the classification on vowels based on the vowel’s representations. 1. Monophthongs are Also known as pure and stable vowels because the monophthong is articulated as one sound just like the original form of the letter. Below are some of the pronunciation symbols of the monophthong vowel letters and the example for each. 

 Hit [i] 

 Lick [I] 

 Beg [e]

  Glad [æ] 

 Two [u]

 2. Diphthongs The diphthong is a sound formed by two vowels that are articulated like a single syllable. Usually, it begins with a vowel, and then moves on to other vowels as we spell out the syllable. We use the digraph symbol to represent a diphthong vowel. These are the list of the examples:  Sight  Mouse

  Toy

  Make

  Fur 

3. Close Vowel occurs when our tongue raises towards the roof of our mouth. Because of that, our mouth will be closed, so it’s called a close vowel. However, the close vowel category can be more specific based on the intensity of more high or more low our tongue is. We can use the vowel chart to make it easier for us to identify the close vowels. Here are the examples: Close : [i] See, [u] Ooze Near close : Lit Close mid : [e] Bait

 4. Open Vowel When we spell the open vowel, our tongue will move down towards the lower jaw that makes our mouth open, so it’s called an open vowel. let’s look at the word that includes an open vowel in it.  Open mid: Head,Small  Near open : [æ] Laugh  Open : [a] Snake 

5. Front Vowel When we placed our tongue in the front section of our mouth as we spelled a word, it makes the vowel called the front vowel. However, it must not create any constriction with its pronunciation that can turn it into a consonant. These are the vowel that includes in the front vowels:  Island [i]  East [e]  Have [a] 6. Central Vowel Central vowel or later known as a mixed vowel (schwa), is a type of vowel that is positioned on your tongue halfway, between the front and back sections of your mouth. The following are the examples of central vowels:  Earth  Teacher  Nut 7. Back Vowel 

    When we placed our tongue in the back section of our mouth as we spelt a word, it makes the back vowel sounds. Examples of back vowels:  Book [u]  Egyptian  Go [o]  Oops [U] Moving onto the classification of vowels based on the labialization. 8. Rounded Vowel, In this case, our mouth will form like a circle when we articulate a syllable with a rounded vowel in it. Examples of rounded vowels:  Note  Look  Rule  Boot 9. Unrounded Vowel When we spell a word with an unrounded vowel, our mouth will be open sideways. Examples of unrounded vowels: Sew, Desk , Ask, Wave. We also have a classification of vowels based on tenseness. 10. Tense Vowel We need to give more effort and use more muscle to articulate this kind of vowel. And also, our tongue slightly goes to a higher position and doing its job for more duration than the lax vowels. Below are the examples of tense vowel:  Palm  Thought  Nurse  Goose  Fleece 11. Lax Vowel This kind of vowel needs consonants to follow it. They do not occur alone at the ends of the word. Lax vowels are also shorter than tense vowels. Below are the example of lax vowels:

  Ink

  Red

  Said

  Sand 

 Brother