Universidad Arturo Michelena

Facultad de Humanidades, Letras y Arte

Escuela de Idiomas Modernos

Asignatura: ORAL I
SEMESTRE 2015-2
Profesora: Mariela Pinto Sequera

Estudiante: _______________________

ENGLISH VOWEL SOUNDS

Introduction to Vowel Sounds

Analyzing vowel sounds is a more difficult task than analyzing consonants. This is because a consonant
usually has an obstruction at some point in the mouth, and we can easily locate and identify the
obstruction. But a vowel sound involves no obstruction in the mouth, although its quality does depend
on the height and position of the tongue. The mouth is really a sort of tube, ending at the lips and with
the tongue for a floor; as the tongue changes position, it changes the shape of the tube through which
the air passes. As the shape of the tube changes, so the resultant vowel quality alters.
Quintana de Laya & Laya (1994)

Vowels are sonorous, syllabic sounds made with the vocal tract more open than it is for consonant and
glide articulations. Different vowel sounds (also called vowel qualities) are produced by varying the
placement of the body of the tongue (remember that for vowels our tongue tip is behind your lower,
front teeth) and shaping the lips. The shape of the vocal tract can be further altered by protruding the
lips to produce rounded vowels, or by lowering the velum to produce a nasal vowel. Finally, vowels
may be tense or lax, depending on the degree of vocal tract constriction during their articulation.
Dobrovolsky & Katamba (n.d.)

Vowels are distinguished from consonants in several ways. Consonants are produced by either
narrowing the oral tract enough to completely close it or to cause turbulence at the narrowest point.
Vowels are produced with a smooth, unobstructed airflow through the oral tract.
Differences in vowel quality are produced by changing the shape of the oral cavity. Characteristic vowel
qualities are produced primarily by varying the height of the tongue in the mouth; second, by whether
the back or the front of the tongue and mouth are involved; third, by the configuration of the lips; and
finally, by the tension of the musculature of the oral tract.
Delahunty & Garvey (2004.)

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Classification of Vowel Sounds - Taken from Quintana de Laya & Laya (1994)

1. Position of the Tongue

a. The height of the tongue (How close is the tongue to the roof of the mouth)
(IPA preferred classification)
CLOSE produced with the tongue very high in the mouth and narrow jaw opening / i - u /
HALF-CLOSE between Close and Half-Open / - - or /
HALF-OPEN between Open and Half-Close / e - - /
OPEN produced with the tongue very low in the mouth and a wide jaw opening / - - /

b. The part of the tongue which is the highest (Tip, Blade, Root - nearest the roof of the mouth)
If you say / i / and then / u / without making a pause, you will feel your tongue moving and
raising on the back.
FRONT the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate / i - - e /
CENTRAL the center of the tongue is slightly raised toward the point of junction between the
hard and soft palates / - - or /
BACK the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the velum / u - - - /

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2. Position of the lips

ROUNDED / - u - /
UNROUNDED / i - - e / (Spread)

/ or - - - / (Neutral)

3. Length
According to their duration, vowels are usually divided into long and short vowels. However, we
may easily perceive that the so-called long and short vowels have several degrees of length,
depending on the environment in which they occur.
In general, both open syllables and those closed by voiced consonants are considerably longer than
syllables of identical vowel quality closed by voiceless consonants.
See

seed

seat

LONG VOWELS / i - u - or - - /

Sue

sued

suit

and / a - e - - a - o or /

SHORT VOWELS / - - e - - - /
4. State of tension of the tongue
Vowels are divided into tense and lax vowels. Some vowels require a greater degree of tension of
the muscles of the vocal tract (especially of the tongue) than others. These vowels are called tense
vowels. Vowels articulated with little muscular tension are called lax vowels. (Leave - live)
TENSE / i - u - or - - /

LAX / - - e - - - /

/ a - e - - a - o or /

5. Stability of Articulation
MONOPHTHONGS: (Single vowels) produced with the tongue in a relatively stable position.
/ i - - u - - e - - - - - - or /
DIPHTHONGS: their production involves a marked articulatory movement from one tongue
position towards another. / a - e - - a - o or /

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ENGLISH VOWEL SOUNDS: SINGLE VOWELS

/i:/ Long close tense front unrounded

-Position of the tongue : The tongue is as far

forward as possible in the mouth. The
middle part of the tongue is curved, almost
touching the roof of the mouth, while the tip
is behind the bottom front teeth.
-Lip position: Lips are very spread, like in a
smile. The corner of the lips are pulled wide.
- Jaw-dropping: The jaw is fairly closed, but
the teeth do not touch.

Tea
Meet
Key

Pronunciation of / i: /
1.
2.
3.
4.

Open your mouth just a little.

Spread your lips into a smile
Push your tongue forward in your mouth
Move your tongue a little as you say it

IPA name: Long close front unrounded

Usual spellings:
ea eat, pea, meat, cheap, leave, pleased
ee see, free, meet, screen, seen
Other spellings:
ie field, priest, chief
e_e these, scene
ey key
eo people
i ski, police
e me, be, she (stressed)

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// Short half-close lax front unrounded

-Position of the tongue: The tongue is

curved in the middle, but the tip is down,
just behind the bottom front teeth. In this
sound the tongue is not as close to the roof
of the mouth as it is in sound [i:].
-Lip position: Lips are in a neutral position;
the corners of the lips are still pulled back a
little bit, but without tension.
-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is completely
relaxed

Ship
Sit
Bit

Pronunciation of / /
1.
2.
3.
4.

Practice / i: /
Open your mouth a little more.
Do not spread your lips into a smile
Pull your tongue down a little

IPA name: Near-close near-front unrounded

Stressed spellings
i if, it, ill, big, pin, fill, disk, king
u busy, business
y system, myth, rhythm
o women
e pretty
ea ear, near (before r in the same syllable)
ui build, guilt
i_e live, give
Unstressed spellings:
be believe
de degree
pre prepare
re repeat
et pocket, ticket
ect subject, object (n.)
ace preface, surface
ess actress, waitress
y (in final position) city, easy
(/ i / on dictionaries)
ex explain, expect, exam, exibit
ate (adjectives and nouns) chocolate, climate, graduate
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/e/ Short half-open lax front unrounded

-Position of the tongue : Since this is a

front vowel the tongue is pulled forwards.
The mid part of the tongue is raised
towards the roof of the mouth. The tip of
the tongue rests against the bottom front
teeth. The tongue is somewhat widened, a
feature not very often taken into account.
-Lip position: Lips are unrounded spread
-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is open a little.

Bet
Met
Pen
Bell
IPA symbol []

Pronunciation of / e /
1. Practice / /
2. Open your mouth a little more for / e /

IPA name: Open-mid front unrounded

This sound is always stressed and it never appears in final position
Usual spellings:
e egg, bed, help, stress, twelve
ea death, health, sweat, breast
Other spellings:
ue guess, guest
ie friend
a any, many

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// Short open lax front unrounded

-Position of the tongue: The back part of the

tongue is raised a little in the back; the front
of the tongue stretches forward and presses
behind the bottom front teeth. The
production of this sound requires stretching
of the tongue.

-Lip position: Lips are more spread than in

vowel [i:].
-Jaw-dropping: The production of this sound
requires a large opening jaw.
Man
Laughed
Sad
Hat

Pronunciation of / /
1. Practice / e /
2. Open your mouth a little more.

IPA name: Near-open front unrounded

This sound is always stressed and it never appears in final position
Usual spellings:
1. Monosyllabic words followed by one or more consonants
a add, man, catch, plan, black
Exception: when followed by l, w, r, or r + another consonant
Call, saw, car, market
2. Stressed syllables followed by one or more consonants
a animal, apple, answer, damage, demand
Exception: when followed by t, w, r, or r + another consonant
Father, lawyer, cardigan
Other spellings:
a_e have (stressed)
au laugh (NAE)
ai plaid, plait

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// Short open lax central unrounded

-Position of the tongue: The tongue is

relaxed and slightly pressed down in the
back. It is also flat in shape. As for height,
it is raised a little more than in vowel [:],
where the tongue is as low as possible.
-Lip position: Lips are in neutral position.
-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is in neutral
position. It is not as open as in vowel [:].
Pronunciation of / /

Cup
Cut
Love

Stressed Schwa

1. Practice / /
2. Close your mouth a little.
3. Your tongue should rest in the middle of
your mouth
4. This is a short, relaxed sound

IPA name: Open-mid back unrounded (WEDGE)

(often pronounced as / /: near-open central unrounded)
This sound is always stressed and it never appears in final position
Usual spellings:
In monosyllabic words with u, this letter is usually pronounced with this phoneme
u sun, cut, tub, nut, up, bus, jump, lunch, truck
Exception: Bush, bull, Ruth, rule, put
Other spellings:
u summer, culture, funny
o_e one, come, love
o front, month, mother, among, onion, son
ou country, couple
oo blood, flood
oe does

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// Short half-open lax central unrounded

-Position of the tongue: The tongue is

relaxed and flat, placed at mid height in the
mouth.
-Lip position: Lips are very relaxed and in
neutral position.

-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is in a rest position

without the teeth quite touching.
The schwa always goes on an unstressed
syllable. Partly due to vowel reduction, this is
the commonest sound in American English.

Machine
Doctor
Father
Allow
Unstressed Schwa

Pronunciation of / /
1. Practice / /
2. Make it very short for / /.
3. Your tongue should rest in the middle of
your mouth
4. This sound is always short and weak

IPA name: Mid central unrounded (SCHWA)

This sound is always unstressed
Spellings:
a apartment, Ireland, banana, husband
e open, jacket, darkness, oven
i liquid, humid, capital, typical
o occur, lemon, lesson, obtain
u suppose, circus, column, suspend
Common suffixes:
-er, -or doctor, teacher
-ial memorial, trivial
-sian Asian, Parisian
-ion opinion, million
-tion production, definition
-cient ancient, efficient

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/:/ Long open tense back unrounded

-Position of the tongue: The tongue is

really flat in the mouth. The back part of
the tongue is pulled back in the mouth,
but the tip is just behind the bottom front
teeth.
-Lip position:
position.

Lips are in

neutral

-Jaw-dropping: The jaw drops more than

in any other vowel. The tongue presses
down a little.

Hot
Cop
Sock

Pronunciation of / : /
1. Practice / /
2. Open your mouth wide for / : /.
3. Your tongue should rest in the bottom of
your mouth

IPA name: Long open back unrounded

Usual spellings:
a art, bar, barbeque, car, dark, data, hard, large, part, want, wash, garage (NAE)
o hot, not, bottom, box, comic, common, competence, doctor, monster, stop (These words are
transcribed and pronounced with / / in British English)
Other spellings:
au audience (NAE), laugh (BrE)
In American English dialects there is no distinction between / : / or / /

/ / is short open lax back rounded

IPA name: Open back rounded

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/:/ Long half-open tense back rounded

-Position of the tongue: The tongue is

more raised than in the case of [:] and is
placed in the middle. The tongue is
pulled back a little and the tip does not
touch the teeth.

-Lip position: Lips take up the rounded

position. The position for these vowel is
less marked than in vowel [u:].
-Jaw-dropping: The jaw drops, not as
much as in the case of [:].
Ball
Dawn
Bought

Pronunciation of / : /
1. Practice / : /
2. Open your mouth wider
3. Push your lips forward a little and make
them round

IPA name: Long open-mid back rounded

Usual spellings:
o (before r) corn, force, short, bored, more, before, sport
a (before l) tall, call, fall, always, also, ball, walk, talk
au fault, pause, August, audience (BrE), audio, sauce, cause
aw saw, awful, law, draw, dawn, raw,
Other spellings:
a warn, war, warm
oor door, floor
our source, four, your, course
ought thought, bought, fought
aught caught, taught
oa broad, board

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/u:/

Long close tense back rounded

-Position of the tongue: The back part of

the tongue raises toward the soft palate,
while the front part of the tongue is down,
just behind the bottom front teeth.
-Lip position: Lips take up a very rounded
position, projected away from the mouth.
-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is closed and the
teeth do not touch.

Too
Pool
Suit

Pronunciation of / u : /
1. Push your lips forward into a circle
2. Pull your tongue up and back
3. Push your lips into a tighter circle as
you say it

IPA name: Long close back rounded

Usual spellings:
oo food, too, moon, choose, smooth
ew new, few, chew, screw, view
u_e rule, rude, tube
ou you, group, wound
Other spellings:
o do, who, lose, move
ue true, glue, blue
ui fruit, suit

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// Short half-close lax back rounded

-Position of the tongue: The back part of the

tongue raises toward the soft palate, without
touching it; the tip of the tongue rests down
behind the bottom front teeth. The difference
with [u:] is that the back part of the tongue is
less raised , and the tongue is not as back as
before.
-Lip position: The lips are rounded, but not as
much as in [u:]

Book
Pull
Look

-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is closed and the teeth

do not touch.
Pronunciation of / /
1.
2.
3.
4.

Practice / u: /
Open your mouth a little
Your lips should be less rounded
Dont push your lips into a tight circle

IPA name: Near-close near-back rounded

Usual spellings:
oo cook, book, look, foot, room, hook, good
u push, butch, pull, put, full, bush
Other spellings:
ou would, should, could
o woman, wolf

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/:/ or /:/
Long half-close tense central unrounded

-Position of the tongue: As central vowel,

the tongue raises towards the roof of the
mouth in the middle.
-Lip position: The lips are slightly
rounded, but not as much as in [u:] or [:].
-Jaw-dropping: The jaw is in neutral
position.
British phoneme [:] has no retroflexapproximant attached to it

Fur
Word
Shirt

Rhotacized Schwa
/:/ (stressed)
// (unstressed)

Pronunciation of / : /
1. Practice / /
2. Close your mouth a little
3. Curl the tip of your tongue up and back

IPA name: (Rhotacized) Long open-mid central unrounded

Usual spellings:
ur burn, church, curve, fur, hurt, nurse, occur, Thursday, curly, return
ir bird, dirty, first, girl, skirt, birth, thirty, thirst, circle
er per, nerve, verb, herb, prefer, term, service, certain
or (after w) word, work, world, worm, worse, attorney
Other spellings:
ear (followed by consonant) earn, earth, heard, learn, early, pearl
our journey, courtesy, journal, courage, tournament (NAE)

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