Vowels
Phonemes that are produced without any appreciable constriction or blockage of air flow in the vocal tract
Vowel quadrilateral
Two-dimensional figure (representing tongue height and advancement) that displays the relative position of the tongue during vowel production
Monophthongs
Vowel phoneme consisting of one distinct articulatory element (as opposed to a dipthong, which has two elements)
Diphthongs
Single phoneme consisting of two vowel elements (first: onglide; second: offglide)
Onglide
First element of a dipthong
Offglide
Second element of a dipthong
Tense vowel
description of a vowel produced with an increased muscular effort; a tense can be located in the final position of any open monosyllable
Lax vowel
description of a vowel produced with a reduction in muscular effort; a lax vowel does not appear in the final position of an open monosyllable
Point vowel
One of four extreme corner vowels of the vowel quadrilateral
r-colored vowel*
Speech sound consisting of the two elements: vowel + /r/. (ex. /?r, ?r, ?r, ?r, ?r/); also referred to as a rhotic diphthong
Epsilon*
/ ? / Low-mid, front, unrounded, and lax; rarely occurs in final syllable in English words
Ash*
/ � / the lowest of the five front vowels, one of the point vowels, unrounded and lax
Schwa*
/ ? /most frequently used vowel. produced with the tongue body in the most central portion of the mouth cavity. the entire vocal tract is in its most neutral configuration during the production. unrounded and lax
Carat*
/ ? / found in monosyllabic words (not usually in open syllables) and stressed syllables. it is produced slightly lower and farther back in the oral cavity. unrounded and lax
Schwar*
/ ? / involves additional tongue movement and is formed by constricting the pharynx and increasing the space in the oral cavity in front of the tongue by either (1) raising the tongue tip and curling it posteriorly toward the alveolar ridge or (2) lowerin
Stressed schwar/retroflex*
/ ? / the only central vowel that is considered to be tense, found at the end of one-syllable words; mid, central, rounded, and tense
phonation
Vibration of the vocal folds in the creation of a voiced sound
Because the tongue has muscular attachments to the mandible, changes in jaw position also are linked directly to vowel production
What is the effect of the muscular attachments of the tongue to the mandible?
Position of the tongue (height and advancement), lip rounding (rounded/unrounded or retracted), tense or lax
How are vowels categorized?
to better understand the idea of tongue height and advancement, it is convenient to think of the oral cavity as a quadrilateral
What is the purpose of the vowel quadrilateral?
�When an unstressed syllable ends with the long 'e' sound, the / ? / is used in transcription rather than / i /
�Sounds represented by '-ing-' are transcribed /??/
�Sounds representing 'ear' are transcribed / ?r /
List 3 rules in phonetic transcription regarding / ? /
In many words, the / u / is preceded by the consonant phoneme / j / (like music). Some phonetic texts treat this phoneme sequence / ju / as a dipthong. However, for our purposes, / j / + / u / will be treated as separate monophthongs
Describe the rule for special transcription associated with the /u/ phoneme
Word stress matters with central vowel transcription because two ipa symbols can have the same sound, but a different transcription due to word stress (e.g. schwar and stressed schwar)
Explain the effect of word stress on central vowel transcription
it falls under the first rule for /?/. when an unstressed syllable ends with the long "e" sound, the /?/ is used in transcription rather than /i/. so since "luck" is stressed, the rule applies.
Why isn't the final sound in the word 'lucky' transcribed with /i/?
Retracted: / i, ?, e, ?, �, ?, ?, ? /
Rounded: / u, ?, o, ?, ?, ? /
Which vowels in English are retracted? Which ones are rounded? List out retracted vowels and list out the rounded ones.