English vowels.

The 1^st who tried to describe and to classify vowel sounds irrespective of the mother tongue was D. Jones. He devised the system of 8 Cardinal Vowels. This system is an international standard. The basis of the system is physiological. The starting point of the tongue position is for “I” (the front of the tongue raised as close as possible to the palate):

1. “i” is equivalent to the French sound of “i” in “si”, German sound of “ie”;

2. “e” is equivalent to the French sound “e” in “thé”, Scottish pronunciation of “ay” in “day”;

3. “є” is equivalent to the French sound of “é”;

4. “a” is equivalent to the French sound of “a” in “la”.

For the back position of the tongue 4 articulatory equi – distant points were also established (from the lowest to the highest position of the back part of the tongue). They are:

5. “a” – nearly what is obtained by taking away the lip – rounding from the Eng. sound [o] in “hot”, French vowel “a” in “pas”;

6. “o” is equivalent to the German sound of “o” in “Sonne”;

7. “o” is equivalent to the French sound of “o” in “rose”, Scottish “o” in “rose”;

8. “u” is equivalent to the German sound of “u” in “gut”.

The tongue position of the 8 Cardinal Vowels can be represented diagrammatically:

Acoustically vowels are musical tones (not noises): the word “vowel” is a derivative of “voice”. But vowels are not necessarily connected with voice. Pr. L.R. Zinder states that if the organs of speech are adjusted for the articulation of some vowels, it can be pronounced without voice, breathing the air out of the mouth cavity, then a “voiceless vowel” is produced. Such “voiceless vowels” exist in all lges as “shwa” in a terminal position after voiceless (esp. occlusive) consonants. When people pronounce vowels in whisper, they also articulate “voiceless vowels”. Acoustically, vowels differ due to their tambral colouring, each vowel is ch – zed by its own formants, i.e. by concentration of energy in certain frequency regions on the spectrogram.

Russian phoneticians suggest to classify vowels acc. to the following principles:

1. position of the lips;

2. position of the tongue;

3. degree of tension and the ch – er of the vowel end;

4. length;

5. stability of articulation.

Acc. to the position of the lips vowels are classified into rounded (Eng. [o, o:, u, u:]; Rus. [о, у]) and unrounded. The Russian rounded vowels are pronounced with more lip protrusion than the Eng. vowels.

Acc. to the position of the tongue it is the bulk of the tongue, which conditions most of all the production of different vowels. It can move forward and backward, it may be raised and lowered in the mouth cavity.

A.M. Bell was one of the 1^st to classify vowels on the basis of fixed position produced by the horizontal and vertical movements of the tongue. He divided vowels into:

↓ ↓

front, central, back high, mid, low

Another, more ancient class – n, suggested by Ch. F. Hellweg, has at the basis vowels [I, a, u], which compose a triangle. It serves as the frame for placing all the other vowels of the analyzed system. Hellweg does not insist on the definiteness of the 3 points under consideration. And indeed, acc. to the movements of the tongue vowels can’t be classified with accuracy. Thus Shcherba is right when he leaves amply spaces in a triangle for vowels that may be articulated in speech. He doesn’t separate vowels acc. to the tongue position with definite lines, considering such subdivision conventional.

Russian phoneticians divide vowels acc. to the a) horizontal and b) vertical movements of the tongue:

a) when the bulk of the tongue moves backwards, it is usually the back of the tongue, which is raised highest towards the soft palate. Vowels produced with the tongue in this position are called back. They are subdivided into: fully back ([o, o:, u], the nuclei of the diphthongs [oi, o∂] and the Russian [о, у]) and back advanced ([Λ, u, a:] and the nuclei of the diphthongs [ou, u∂]). When the bulk of the tongue moves forwards. It is the front part of the tongue, which is raised towards the hard palate. Vowels produced with this position of the tongue are called front. They are subdivided into: fully front ([I:, e, æ], the nuclei of the diphthongs [ei, e∂, ai] and the Russian [и, э]) and front retracted ([I] and the nucleus of the diphthong [au]).

There is some controversy in subdivision and terming of vowels into front and front - retracted, back and back – advanced. Russian phoneticians consider [I:, I] different phonemes, sounds different not only in quantity but mainly in quality. D. Jones considers [I:, I] to be variants of one and the same phoneme. Similar controversy exists in the interpretation of the back vowels. G.P. Torsuyev defines [a:] as fully back. A.L. Trakhterev, V.A. Vassilyev, D. Jones term this vowel back – advanced. D. Jones says: “In the [a:] production the part of the tongue, which is raised highest, is a point in advance of the centre of the back.” Vassilyev defines the nucleus of the diphthong [ou] as back – advanced but notes that there is a tendency to pronounce [ou] as fully back. A.C. Gimson considers the nucleus of [ou] to be a variety of the neutral vowel [∂]. There is also some controversy in the [Λ] class – n. Torsuyev places it among back – advanced mid vowels of broad variety. D. Jones’s point of view for [Λ] is on the line between half – open and open vowels.

In the production of mixed or central vowels the tongue is raised towards the junction between the hard and the soft palate. They are produced neither in the front nor in the back part of the back part of the mouth cavity [з:, ∂; Rus. – а, ы]. British phoneticians consider [з:, ∂] “central”. D.Jones says that the central part of the tongue is raised highest and it is culminating at the junction between “front” and “back”. He regards [з:, ∂] as variants of one phoneme. But Russian phoneticians define the vowels [з:, ∂] as “mixed”, because the tongue position in their production is different from that of the Russian [а, ы]. H. Sweet also defines [з:, ∂] as “mixed”. [ы] is defined by Torsuyev as central, Trakhterev places it among back – advanced. In Shcherba’s class – n the vowels of the [ы] – type and the Eng. [з:, ∂] are classified as mixed.

b) acc. to the vertical movement of the tongue vowels are classified into:

high (close) mid (half – open) low (open)

[i:, i, u, u:] [и, у, ы] [e, з:, з(u), ε(∂), ∂] [э, о] [Λ, o:, æ, a(I, u), a:, o, o(i)] [a]

Each of the subclass is subdivided into vowels of broad and narrow variation:

1. close a) narrow [i:, u:], [и, ы, у];

b) broad [i, u, i∂, u∂]

2. mid a) narrow: [e, з:, ∂, ei, ou]

b) broad [Λ]

3. open a) narrow [e∂, o:, oi];

   2. broad [æ, ai, au, o, a:]; [a].

The Russian vowels [э, о] are placed on the border of the mid – open vowels of broad and narrow variation.

Acc. to the degree of tension traditionally long vowels are defined as tense and short vowels as lax. The term “tense” was introduced by H. Sweet, who stated that the tongue is tense when vowels of narrow variety are articulated. This statement is a confusion of 2 problems acoustic and articulatory because “tenseness” is an acoustic notion and should be treated in terms of acoustic data. However, this phenomenon is connected with the articulation of vowels in unaccented syllables. The decrease of tenseness results in the production of vowels, i.e. in an unstressed position they may lose their qualitative ch – tic. When the nucleus of the lips, tongue, cheeks and the back wall of the pharynx are tense, the vowels produced can be ch – zed as “tense”. When these organs are relatively relaxed, “lax” vowels are produced. There are different opinions in referring to the Eng. vowels to the 1^st or to the 2^nd group. D. Jones considers only [I:] and [u:] to be tense. Torsuyev defines all ling Eng. vowels as tense as well as [æ], all short vowels are considered by him as lax. The Russian vowels are not differentiated acc. to the tenseness but one and the same vowel is tense in a stressed syllable compared with its tenseness in an unaccented position.

Some phoneticians suggest to classify vowels acc. to the character of the vowel end into: checked and free. When the intensity of the vowel doesn’t diminish towards the end the vowel is checked. When the intensity of the vowel decreases it is free. This problem is closely connected with articulatory transitions in syllable division and should be treated in terms of acoustic properties of vowels on the syllable level. But this principle of vowel class – n is not singled out by British and American phoneticians.

Acc. to the length vowels are subdivided into historically long and historically short. Vowel length depend on a number of linguistic factors:

1. position of a vowel in a word. Positional dependence of length can be illustrated by the e.g. “be – bead – bit; we – weed - wit”. In the terminal position a vowel is the longest, it is shortened before a voiced consonant and it is the shortest before a voiceless consonant;

2. word accent. A vowel is longer in an accented syllable, than in a stressed one (e.g.: forecast [‘fo:ka:st]; to forecast [f∂’ka:st]);

3. the number of syllables in a word. If we compare a one – syllable word and the word consisting of more than one syllable, we may observe that similar vowels are shorter in a polysyllabic word (e.g.: verse [vз:s]; university [ju:ni’vз:siti]);

4. the ch – er of the syllabic structure. V – the initial letter of the word vowels; C – the initial letter of the word consonant; V, CV, CCV – open types of syllables; VC, CVC, CCVC – closed types. In words with V, CV, CCV type the vowel length is greater than in words of VC, CVC, CCVC type (e.g.: [з:] is longer in “err” than in “earn” – CVC type; [ju:] is longer in “dew” than in “duly” – CVCV type);

5. sonority. Vowels of low sonority are longer than vowels of greater sonority. It’s so because the speaker unconsciously makes more effort to produce greater auditory effect while pronouncing vowels of lower sonority, thus making them longer (e.g.: [I] is longer than [o]; [I:] is longer than [a:]).

Besides, vowel length depends on the tempo of speech: the higher the rate of speech the shorter are the vowels.

D. Jones treats quantity independently of the vowel sounds themselves. Thus he treats [I:, I] as positional allophones of one phoneme. G.P. Torsuyev considers [æ] to be a long vowel, but he admits that in certain positions it can be a short phoneme. Eng. phoneticians state that it is a short one, though in some words it may be long.

Length is a non – phonemic feature in Eng. but it may serve to differentiate the meaning of a word. This can be proved by minimal pairs (e.g.: beat [bi:t] – bit [bit]; deed [di:d] – did [did]).

The stability of articulation is the principle, which is not singled out by British and American phoneticians. In fact, it’s the principle of the stability of the shape, volume and the size of the mouth resonator. We speak about relative stability of the organs of speech only, because pronunciation of a sound is a process and its stability should be treated conventionally. Acc. to the stability of articulation vowels are subdivided into:

• monophthongs (simple vowels). Eng. monophthongs are pronounced with more or less stable lip, tongue and the mouth walls position;

• diphthongs (complex vowels) are defined differently by different authors. One of the definitions is based on the ability of a vowel to form a syllable; since in the diphthong only one element serves as a syllabic nucleus, a diphthong is a single sound. Another definition of a diphthong as a single sound is based on the instability of the 2^nd element. The 3^rd group of the scientists define a diphthong from the accentual point of view; since only one element is accented and other is unaccented, a diphthong is a single sound. D. Jones defines diphthongs as an unisyllabic gliding sound in the articulation of which the organs of speech state from position and then glide to the other position. N.S. Trubetskoy states that a diphthong should be a) unisyllabic, i.e. the part of a diphthong can’t belong to two syllables; b) monophonemic with gliding articulation; c) its length should not exceed the length of a single phoneme. L.R. Zinder adds that phonemically diphthongs are sounds that can’t be divided morphologically. L.L. Bulanin calls combinations like Russian [ай, ей, ой] phonetic diphthongs and Eng. indispensable units like [ai, ei] phonemic diphthongs. The 1^st element of a diphthong is the nucleus, the 2^nd element is the glide. A diphthong can be falling – when the nucleus is stronger than the glide, and rising – when the glide is stronger than the nucleus. When both elements are equal such diphthongs are called level. Eng. diphthongs are falling with the glide towards: I – [ei, ai, oi]; u – [au, зu]; ∂ - [i∂, ε∂, o∂, u∂]. diphthongs [ei, зu, oi, au, ai] are called closing, diphthongs [i∂, ε∂, o∂, u∂] are called centring, acc. to the articulatory ch – er of the 2^nd element.

• diphthongs are vowels, which end in a different element [I:, u:]. In allophonic transcription they are [I:j; uw].