English Vowels - Case Study Example

English vowels are often described as short and long. Discuss length in English vowels from a phonetic and phonological point of view, commenting on the usefulness of the short/long distinction Abstract Vowels are the sounds in English language that are produced without the involvement of lips, tongue or any other part of mouth. This paper is a discussion about the length of English vowels from the point of view of phonetics and phonology. First of all, an introduction has been given as to what phonetic and phonology actually are. The characterization of English into monophthongs and diphthongs has been taken into account. After this, several factors which can impact the length of English vowels will be discussed. The report ends in a concluding paragraph and relevant references have been cited using APA referencing style. Introduction Phonetics versus Phonology Both the fields of phonetics and phonology are interested within the way in which humans produce speech. However, the interest of these two fields, within the context of the way in which humans produce speech, is approached from two different perspectives. Phonetics is concerned with the production of sounds called phonemes from a physiological or anatomical perspective (Clark, Yallop & Fletcher, 2007, p. 1), or more simply, it is “the study of human speech sounds” (SIL International, 2004). This perspective may look at anatomical considerations such as the placement of tongue as well as the use of the larynx to produce the sounds found within speech. The study of phonetics is divided into three branches: Articulatory phonetics (which deals the production of sound by vocal apparatus); Acoustic phonetics (which deals with the production of sound waves by the vocal apparatus during speech); and, Auditory phonetics (which deals with how the sound is accepted by the ears and other auditory apparatus). In contrast, phonology examines the way in which the sounds of speech are organized and, therefore, a phonological perspective frequently looks at the way in which patterns of sounds occur within the context of a particular language (Clark, Yallop & Fletcher, 2007, p. 2). More simply, phonology is “the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages” (SIL International, 2004). What is Glide? Prior to introducing the concepts of monophthongs and diphthongs, it will be important to discuss the concept of a glide. Glide is a phonetic concept which refers to the transition between two sounds (Crystal, 2003, p. 324). It involves the sounds produced with almost no obstruction from the airstream followed by a vowel. For example, ‘w’ in ‘we’, ‘y’ in ‘you’, ‘h’ in hook and ‘r’ in ‘rod’ simply glides into the preceding vowel. Glides can be classified into two concepts: On-glide Off-glide Off-glide refers to the transition made by the vocal organs as they exit one sound and move toward a second sound (Crystal, 2003, p. 324), and may be represented as a “superscript after the vowel” (Clark, Yallop & Fletcher, 2007, p. 34). For example, the vowel in ‘boat’ shows an off-glide. In contrast, on-glide refers to the transition that can be made during the articulation of a vowel either as the result of having just left a preceding sound or as the result of articulating the vowel from a "rest position" of the vocal organs (Crystal 2003) and can be represented as a “superscript before the vowel” Clark, Yallop & Fletcher, 2007, p. 34). For, example, the vowel in ‘bee’ or ‘beet’ shows on-glide. Monophthongs and Diphthongs This paper has now established a sufficient background to begin the primary discussion concerning the length of English vowels. The first step is to introduce the concepts of monophthongs and diphthongs. The next paragraph will introduce the concept of a monophthong and the paragraph after that will discuss the concept of a diphthong. Monophthongs In essence, a monophthong is a vowel whose sound or articulation is nearly the same at the start of the vowel as it is at the end of the vowel (Dretzke, 2008, p. 35). That is, there is an absence of on-gliding or off-gliding within the phonetics of monophthongs where the quality or sound of the vowel does not alter throughout the length of the syllable. For example, ‘e’ is ‘red’, ‘g’ in ‘got’, ‘p’ in ‘spit’ and ‘u’ in ‘curd’ is a monophthong. Monophthongs correspond to what are referred to as: Front Vowels (which consist of /i:, I, e, and ae/). Examples are: /i:/ as in ‘meet’, ‘read’ and ‘peech’, also called long close front monophthong. /I/ as in ‘sip’, also called short half-close front monophthong. /e/ as in ‘red’, ‘bury’ and ‘stead’, also called short half-open front monophthong. /ae/ as in ‘bad’, ‘sad’, ‘Cadbury’ and ‘sand’, also called short open front monophthong. Central Vowels (which are comprised of /Λ, ə, and ɜ/). Examples are: / Λ/ as in ‘flood’ and ‘blood’, also called short open central monophthong. / ə/ as in ‘human’ and ‘harbour’, also called short half-open central monophthong. / ɜ/ as in ‘curd’ and ‘flirt’, also called long half-open central monophthong. Back Vowels (which consist of /a:, ɒ, x, μ, u:/) (Dretzke, 2008, p. 35). Examples are: /a:/ as in ‘car’, ‘seargent’ and ‘past’, also called long open back monophthong. / ɒ / as in ‘rod’, want’ and ‘roast’, also called short open back monophthong. /x/ as in ‘awful’ and ‘tall’, also called long half-open back monophthong. / μ/ as in “Worcestershire’, ‘look’ and ‘book’, also called short half-close back monophthong. /u:/ as in ‘loose’, ‘woo’ and ‘shoe’, also called Long close back monophthong. Diphthongs In contrast to monophthongs, diphthongs are vowel sounds which do contain glides, most commonly, off-glides. Here, two vowels get connected gliding into one another. Diphthongs can be further classified as being closed or central (Dretzke, 2008, p. 35). The glide of closed diphthongs transition from a more open position to a closer position corresponding with the second component associated with a close vowel. Major diphthongs are ‘ai’ as in ‘bait’, ‘aw’ as in ‘hawt’, ‘ie’ as in ‘bite’, ‘ow’ as in ‘cow’, and ‘oy’ as in ‘boy’. An excellent example of a closed diphthong is the vowel sound ie/i/ (bite) where the second vowel closes the first. Central diphthongs often involve /ə/ and these are the vowels that start with a peripheral vowel and ends at a more central vowel sound. Examples of such vowel sounds which make use of /ə/ include /Iə, eə, uə/ (Dretzke, 2008, p. 35). Length of an English Vowel Vowels tend to be short or long. It primarily depends on how long you pull the sound. Vowel length is actually the time required to complete the vowel sound, usually measured in centi-seconds. In other words, an important variable which determines the length of an English vowel is the degree to which stress is placed on the syllable containing a given vowel. In general, vowels appearing within syllables which are stressed to a greater degree have a longer duration than those vowels contained within syllables that are stressed to a lesser degree (Mees and Mees, 1984, p. 202). That is, usually, the vowels present in stressed syllables possess a longer duration than those vowels present within syllables which are not stressed. Another important consideration as to the length of English vowels is their placement relative to other vowels and consonants. That is, phonological considerations can interact with phonetic actualizations. This is a question of phonology because it addresses the location of vowels and, thus, the organizational patterns found within the English language. (Hannahs, 2005) The next few paragraphs will address phonological issues related to the length of English vowels. Phonological Considerations in Vowel Length The first two phonological considerations concern the appearance of vowels relative to consonants. Prior to proceeding with a discussion of how the presence of consonants influence the duration of a vowel, it must be stated that vowels do possess their own intrinsic length (Beckman, 1986, p. 141). This intrinsic length is connected with the height of a vowel. The height of a vowel is defined as the distance between the tongue and the roof of the mouth when the sound of the vowel is produced, and is described as high, mid, or low (Vowels, n.d.). If two vowels are placed within similar phonological situations, then the low vowels will have a longer duration than the high vowels (Beckman, 1986, p. 141). The reason for this is that low vowels require "articulatory movements from and to the surrounding consonantal constriction” then do high vowels (Beckman, 1986, p. 141). Presence of Consonants and Vowel Length This paper will now return to the discussion of how the presence of consonants may affect the length of a vowel. However, not only is the relative position important to the length of vowels within the English language, but the nature of the consonants is also important in determining the length of the associated English vowel. These consonants can be voiced or voiceless obstruent or sonorant Voiced versus voiceless consonants. The first type of consonant which this paper will turn its attention to is a voiced consonant versus a voiceless consonant. Recall that the term voiceless refers to the possibility that the vocal cords vibrate very little when making a sound (Nasr, 1997, p. 13). In contrast, when the vocal cords vibrate significantly during speech the sound is referred to as being voiced (Nasr, 1997, p. 13). The presence of a voiced consonant appearing following a vowel increases the length of the vowel which precedes the voiced consonant (Yavas, 2006, p. 79). Major voiced consonants include /b,d,g,v,z/ and major voiceless consonants are /p,t,k,f,s/. The example provided by Yavas (2006, p.79) is that the vowel sound /ae/ appearing within the word ‘bag’ is longer than the same vowel (i.e., /ae/) appearing within the word ‘back’. The same is with the use of vowel sound /a:/ in ‘past’ (voiced) and ‘park’ (voiveless); /i:/ in ‘feed’ (voiced) and ‘keep’ (voiceless); and, /i:/ in ‘leave’ (voived) and ‘leaf’ (voiceless). Sonorant versus obstruent consonant. Another important consideration which impacts the length of English vowels is that of a sonorant consonant versus that of an obstruent consonant (Collins & Mees, 2008). A sonorant consonant is defined as a consonant in which the phonetic content is primarily the result of acoustic waves that are created as the result of its voicing and the sound is produced with little or no obstruction or audible friction (Giegerich, 1992, p. 20). In contrast, an obstruent consonant is one that contains an obstruction of the air which creates the phonetic content irrespective of voicing (Giegerich, 1992, p. 20). “When a vowel follows an obstruent, the fundamental frequency in the first few tens of milliseconds of the vowel is known to be influenced by the voicing characteristics of the consonant” (Hanson, 2008). There is some kind of hissing sound produced with obstruent consonants. However, we are concerned here with only with the possible recurrence of sonorant consonants and obstruent consonants that appear in combination with vowels. To be specific, we are concerned with the placement of vowels before sonorant consonants and obstruent consonants. The length of English vowels is longer if these vowels immediately precede sonorant consonants than they would be if they had immediately preceded obstruent consonants (Yavas, 2006, p. 79). The example provided by Yavas (2006, p.79) is that the vowel /o/ is longer in word ‘goal’ (sonorant) than the same vowel which appears within the word ‘goad’ (obstruent). Another example is the use of vowel sound ‘ai’ which is longer in ‘bail’ (sonorant) as compared to ‘bait’ (obstruent). Syllables The final phonological possibility, which this paper will consider within the context of the length of English vowels, is that of syllables. There are two ways in which syllables may impact the length of vowels. The first concerns the number of syllables within the word containing the vowel. The second concerns whether the syllable is open or closed. Number of Syllables. As was mentioned within the preceding paragraph, the first way in which the syllables of a given word may impact the length of the vowels appearing within the word is through the number of syllables appearing within the given word (Ladefoged, 2005, p. 221. The example provided by Ladefoged (2005, p. 221) makes use of the words wit, witty, and wittily. Ladefoged (2005, p. 221) points out that the single vowel within the word "wit" is longer than the first vowel within the word "witty". Furthermore, Ladefoged (221) goes on to observe that the first vowel within the word "witty" is longer than the first vowel within the word "wittily". Other examples include vowel ‘a’ in ‘Pat’ (one syllable) which is longer than that in ‘Patrick’ (two syllables); and, vowel ‘i’ in ‘mist’ is longer than in ‘mistify’. Open and closed syllables. To define the concepts of open syllables and closed syllables, it is important to consider their structure. The structure of a syllable contains three components. The central vowel or diphthong sound within the syllable is referred to as the nucleus, and the consonants which follow the nucleus of a syllable are referred to as the coda (Yavas, 2006, p. 20). Syllables not containing a coda are referred to as open syllables; whereas, syllables which contain a coda are referred to as closed syllables (Yavas, 2006, p. 20). Closed syllables have vowels that are followed by consonants (for example, cat, rod, hit); and, open syllables have vowels that are followed by nothing (for example, ba-by, Pa-me-la, o-ven). Vowels within open syllables are longer than syllables appearing within closed syllables (Yavas, 2006, p. 79). The example given by Yavas (2006, p. 79) is that the vowel /e/ within the word ‘bay’ is longer than the corresponding vowel /e/ appearing within the word ‘bait’. Another example is the vowel sound /i:/ in pea (open consonant) which is longer as compared to in ‘peal’ (closed consonant). Conclusion This paper has discussed several factors which may influence the length of English vowels. These factors include considerations such as the possible presence of voiced verses voiceless consonants, the possible presence of sonorant versus obstruent consonants, the amount of stress which is placed upon a syllable containing a vowel, and whether the syllable containing the vowel of interest is open or closed. Of course, all of these considerations simply modify the intrinsic length of an English vowel which was discussed much earlier within this paper. Furthermore, while we have discussed these factors on an individual basis, it is important to keep in mind the fact that it is possible that two or more of these considerations may occur simultaneously within the context of a given word. Finally, it should be kept in mind that the comments made within this paper are likely to require modification within the context of some of the variations associated with the English language (e.g., the form of the English language spoken within Australia and Canada as well as the variety of forms of English spoken in the various regions of England and the United States). References Collins, BS. & Mees, IM. (2008). Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge. Beckman, ME. (1986). Stress and Nonstress Accent. USA: Walter de Gruyter. Print. Clark, JE., Yallop, C. & Fletcher, J. (2007). An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Print. Crystal, D. (2003). A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Print. Dretzke, B. (2008). Modern British and American English pronunciation. USA: UTB. Print. Geigerich, HJ. (1992). English Phonology: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Print. Hannahs, SJ. (2005). Introducing Phonetics and Phonology. London, Palgrave: McMillan. Hanson, HM. (2008). Effects of obstruent consonants on fundamental frequency at vowel onset in English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125(1), pp. 425-441. Ladefoged, P. (2005). Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Print. Mees, BC. & Mees, L. (1984). The Sounds of English and Dutch. Boston, MA: Brill Archive. Print. Nasr, RT. (1997). Applied English phonology: for ESL/EFL teachers. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Print. SIL International. (2004). What is Phonetics? Retrieved August 25, 2010 from http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsPhonetics.htm Vowels. (n.d.). Web. 26 June 2010 . Yavas, MS. (2006). Applied English Phonology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Print. Read More