Semester Outline. Introduction to English Phonology and Phonetics. English Vowels: Outline. Phonetic Classification of Vowels

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1 Introduction to English Phonology and Phonetics Dr. Nadja Nesselhauf Semester Outline 1. Phonetics and phonology: basics (& introducing transcription) 2. English consonants 3. English vowels 4. Beyond the phoneme (connected speech, suprasegmentals etc.) 5. Accents of English English Vowels: Outline 1. Classification of vowels 2. English monophthongs 3. English diphthongs Phonetic Classification of Vowels Phonetic criteria for the classification of vowels: - tongue shape (tongue height = closeness/openness + part of tongue which is highest = frontness/backness) - lip shape (rounded vs. unrounded or spread vs. neutral vs. round) - constancy of tongue/(lip)-shape (diphthongs vs. monophthongs) - position of velum (oral vs. nasal vowels) - duration (long vs. short) 1

2 Classification of Vowels: Extreme Vowels Classification of Vowels: Extreme Vowels [i]: extremely front and close [u]: extremely back and close Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 59 Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 59 Classification of Vowels: Extreme Vowels Classification of Vowels: Extreme Vowels [a]: extremely front and open extremely back and open Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 60 Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 60 2

3 Classification of Vowels: Vowel Diagram Classification of Vowels: Cardinal Vowels (D. Jones) si gut thé Rose même Sonne la pas Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 61 Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 61 Classification of Vowels: Cardinal Vowels (D. Jones) Vowels in the IPA chart Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 61 Daniel Jones pronouncing the cardinal vowels: 3

4 Alternative Vowel Chart (Primary Cardinal Vowels) Vowels - a Continuum George Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion (Preface: there are touches of [Henry] Sweet in the play ): HIGGINS: Tired of listening to sounds? PICKERING: Yes. It s a fearful strain. I rather fancied myself because I can pronounce 24 distinct vowel sounds; but your hundred and thirty beat me. I can t hear a bit of difference between most of them. HIGGINS: Oh, that comes with practice. You hear no difference at first; but you keep on listening, and presently you find they re all as different as A from B. Classification of English Vowels Criteria for the classification of English vowels: - constancy of tongue-shape (diphthongs vs. monophthongs or steady-state vowels ) - tongue shape 1) tongue height = closeness/openness 2) part of tongue which is highest = frontness/backness Classification of Vowels: Monophthongs vs. Diphthongs monophthongs = steady state vowels diphthongs = (vowel) glides (e.g. /`H/) Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 64 4

5 Classification of Vowels: Monophthongs vs. Diphthongs Classification of English Monophthongs (RP) /`H/ in cross-section diagram: Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 64 Source: Sauer 1990, 16 Classification of English Vowels: Duration vowel length / duration is not a distinctive feature for English vowels quantity (duration) and quality, however, are correlated the duration of vowels is also affected by their phonetic environment (allophonic variation) Duration of English Vowels: Allophonic quantity rules for English vowels: Allophonic shortening:!v: / FC (stressed vowels are allophonically shortened before fortis consonants) e.g. feet, leaf Allophonic lengthening:!v: / LC (stressed vowels are allophonically lengthened before lenis consonants) e.g. feed, leave 5

6 Classification of English Vowels (RP) Distributional classification of English vowels: vowels than can occur in word-final stressed open syllables (diphthongs + t9, N9, 29/ free vowels vs. Source: Sauer 1990, 16 vowels that in word-final stressed syllables can occur only before consonants (all the rest) checked vowels (GA) Source: Sauer 1990, 16 /h9/ front, close Question: How do the phonemes /i:/ differ phonetically in English (RP) and in German (compare for example nie and knee)? 6

7 /H/ front-central half close centralized before /l/ raised before velars GA & mod. RP happy-tensing RP /d/ front vowel half close half open GA /d/ front vowel half open /z/ front vowel half open open attention! German accent: not too close! 7

8 Task: Read the following pairs of words to your neighbour and ask her/him to tell you whether there is a clear distinction in your vowel sounds: bet bat pen pan kettle cattle head had bed bad pet pat bend band celery - salary /U/ central vowel half open open spelled <u> and <o> RP /@9/ central-back vowel open GA /@9/ back vowel open /@9/ far more frequent in GA than RP 8

9 RP only: /P/ back vowel open rounded lips /P/ in RP is usually in GA /N9/ back vowel half open half close rounded lips more frequent in RP GA: mainly before /r/ /T/ back-central vowel half close rounded lips mirror image of /H/ /t9/ back vowel close rounded lips mirror image of /h9/ 9

10 /29/ central vowel half close half open unrounded (spread) lips! Task: Read the following pairs of words to your neighbour and ask her/him to tell you whether there is a clear distinction in your vowel sounds, in particular whether you spread your lips for the English vowel. If you speak BrE, have your neighbour check additionally whether there really is NO /r/ in your pronunciation. E: bird G: blöd E: heard G: Hörtest E: fern G: Fön E: curse G: köstlich /?/ (schwa) central vowel half close half open occurs only in unstressed syllables most frequent of all phonemes spelled with most vowel letters Sound frequency Frequency of vowel phonemes in conversational RP (cf. Crystal 1995, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 239): Total: vowels: 39.2% Most frequent vowels: /?/ 10.7% /H/ 8.3% /d/ 2.9% Least frequent vowels: /H?/ 0.2% /NH/ 0.14% /T?/ 0.06% 10

11 Transcription Practice Please transcribe the following words: ton front wonder onion sponge : RP GA Correspondences RP /U/ GA /U/ GA /29/ / r cut hurry, worry stomach above company shovel oven worry body lot comment : RP GA Correspondences RP /U/ GA /U/ GA /29/ / r cut hurry, worry : RP GA Correspondences RP /U/ GA /U/ GA /29/ / r cut hurry, worry RP /@9/ GA /@9/ father GA /z/ / e,s,r,m,l (+C) staff, bath... RP /@9/ GA /@9/ father GA /z/ / e,s,r,m,l (+C) staff, bath... RP /N9/ GA /@9/ laundry GA /N9/ <o,ou,oo> / r court <a> /w r war 11

12 : RP GA Correspondences RP /U/ RP GA /U/ GA /29/ / r GA /@9/ cut hurry, worry father GA /z/ / e,s,r,m,l(+c) staff, bath... : GA RP Correspondences GA /@9/ RP /@9/ RP /P/ father lot RP /N9/ GA /@9/ laundry GA /N9/ <o,ou,oo> / r court <a> /w r war GA /N9/ RP /N9/ RP /N9/ laundry court RP /P/ GA /@9/ lot GA /U/ RP /U/ cut English Diphthongs English Diphthongs diphthongs are dynamic, they glide from a start point to an end point diphthongs are classified by their second element (the direction of movement) RP and GA have five closing diphthongs (in which the second element is closer than the first) RP additionally has three centring diphthongs (the second element is schwa) 12

13 English Diphthongs: Closing English Diphthongs: Closing RP GA /`H/ price /`H/ /dh/ face /dh/ fronting /NH/ choice /NH/ /`T/ /?T/ house goat /`T/ /nt/ backing RP GA Source: Sauer 1990, 16; Sauer 2001, 17 English Diphthongs: Closing /?T/ (RP) and /nt/ (GA) (boat, toast): - absent in German (beginners tend to replace it with German /n9/) - allophonic variation in RP: first element further back before /l/; compare coat coal /dh/ (face, eight, ): - absent in German (beginners tend to replace it with German /d:/) - also tendency towards monophthongization in GA; but not reflected in transcription - N.B. Las Vegas BUT Los Angeles /dh/ /z/ English Diphthongs: Closing /`H/ (eye, mine) and /`T/ (clown, house): - contrast to German: in E. more time spent on first part; ends at a lower point /`H/ additionally starts further back (compare eye and Ei; mine and mein) /`T/ starts further front (compare clown and Clown, house and Haus) - N.B.: the shape of the a-symbol is different than for long /@9/ /NH/ (boy, employ): - more time spent on first part 13

14 Transcription Practice Please transcribe the following words: how (wie) row (Streit) row (Reihe, rudern) bow (sich verbeugen, Bug) bow (Bogen, Schleife) sow (sähen) sew (nähen) owl (Eule) English Diphthongs: Centring (RP) The centring diphthongs in RP are: /H?/ (sheer) /d?/ (share) /T?/ (sure) English Diphthongs: Centring (RP) English Diphthongs: Centring (RP) and GA Equivalents Source: Sauer 1990, 6 RP /d?/ GA /dq/ (/zq/) share, Mary RP /H?/ GA /Hq/ sheer, beard RP /T?/ GA /Tq/ sure, poor 14

15 English Diphthongs: Centring (RP) Transcription Practice - more movement of German centring diphthongs, esp. second element much lower (compare beer Bier; sure Schur; mare - Meer) - tendency towards monophthongization of /d?/ and /T?/ tear (reißen) tear (Träne) beard (Bart) bear (Bär) pear (Birne) care (kümmern um) RP: Monophthongization of Diphthongs Sound frequency Example Diphthong Homophones >Monophthong Frequency of vowel phonemes in conversational RP (cf. Crystal 1995, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 239): sheer, beer share, bear /H?/ /d?/ (/h9/) /D9/ - - Total: vowels: 39.2% Most frequent vowels: /?/ 10.7% /H/ 8.3% /d/ 2.9% Least frequent vowels: /H?/ 0.2% /NH/ 0.14% /T?/ 0.06% sure, poor /T?/ /N9/ sure shore 15

16 RP: Monophthongization of Triphthongs Revision Part III Example fire player employer >Diphthong Triphthong /`H? `H?/ /dh? dh?/ /NH? NH?/ >Monophthong /`9? `9?/ /d9? d9?/ /N9? N9?/ /D9 D9/ - fire far layer lair - - phonetic classification of vowels (tongue shape, lip shape, constancy of tongue shape, position of velum, duration) - cardinal vowels (D. Jones); vowel chart - distinctive features of English vowel phonemes (constancy of tongue shape, tongue shape + why only these): - monophthongs vs. diphthongs - front-central-back sour lower /`T? `T?/ /?T??T?/ /`9? `9?/ (/?9??9?/) /29 29/ our are slower slur - close, half close, half open, open - distributional classification of English vowels (free vs. checked vowels) Revision Part III - classification of 12 (RP) /11 (GA) English monophthongs (on basis of position in vowel chart, i.e. tongue shape) - classification of 8 (RP) / 5 (GA) English diphthongs (closing vs. centring in RP; closing: fronting vs. backing) - differences RP / GA: inventory (GA: no /P/, no centring diphthtongs) differences in quality (/@9, d,?t-nt, dh/) distribution: hurry, dance, lot, laundry - differences English German: esp. absence of /z/ and /29/ Revision Part III 1) Name the distinctive features used to describe English vowels. 2) Draw the English phonemes /T/ and /H/ in a (labelled!) vowel chart. Which distinctive feature(s) do they share, with respect to which distinctive feature(s) do they differ (be specific!)? 3) In what ways is /?/ special compared to other vowel phonemes (consider distribution and frequency)? 16

17 Revision Part III Are the following statements true or false? 1) Of the primary cardinal vowels, more are unrounded than rounded. 2) Degree of roundedness is not a distinctive feature of English vowels. 3) There are 3 nasal vowels in English. 4) Cardinal vowels must be represented in square brackets, not in slashes. 5) Phonetically, 28 different vowel sounds can be distinguished. 6) The quality of the [e] in the IPA chart is different from the quality of the English phoneme /e/. 7) The duration of English vowels is affected by their phonetic environment. 17