Unit 2.

English Vowels

1. English Vowel Sounds. Articulatory Features

1.1. Vocal Fold Vibration
1.2. Absence of obstruction in the oral cavity
[Link] position
1.4. Tongue height
1.5. Lip posture
1.6. Duration
2. English monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs
3. Speech phenomena affecting vocal sounds
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1. Introduction
The words vowel and consonant are very familiar ones, but when we study the sounds
of speech scientifically we find that it is not easy to define exactly what they mean. The
most common view is that vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the
flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. However, there are many cases where
the decision is not so easy to make. One problem is that different languages have
different ways of dividing their sounds into vowels and consonants; for example, the
usual sound produced at the beginning of the “red” is felt to be a consonant by most
English speakers, but in some other languages (some dialects of Chinese, for instance)
the same sound is treated as one of the vowels. Another problem is that some English
sounds that we think of as consonants, such as the sounds at the beginning of the word
“way”, do not really obstruct the air more than some vowels do” (Roach, 2000: 10-11) –
see UNIT 3: CONSONANTS (section on approximants). This means that the vowel-
consonant distinction is not as straightforward as it might initially appear and, indeed,
this distinction poses complex theoretical problems. However, for the purpose of this
course, we will assume that sounds can be clearly divided into vowels and consonants.
2. English Vowel Sounds: Articulatory Features
From an articulatory point of view, English vowels can be classified according to the
following parameters:

1) the action of the vocal folds: All English vowels are voiced (= the vocal folds
vibrate in the production of vowels).

2) The absence of obstruction in the oral cavity: All English vowels are produced
with an “open approximation” of the articulators. In other words, when we
articulate a vocalic sound, the front, centre or back of the tongue raises towards
some part of the palate without causing friction and, as a result, the air coming from
the lungs is not obstructed (as happens in the case of consonant sounds).
→ Note that these two features (action of the vocal folds and absence of obstruction in
the oral cavity) are shared by all English vowels.

Figure 1. Vowel articulation (absence of Figure 2. Consonant articulation

complete obstruction in the oral cavity) (obstruction in the oral cavity)
3) Tongue position (or “backness”): tongue position refers to the part of the tongue
(see Figure 3 above) that is raised in the process of articulation. Put differently, it
refers to the part of the tongue that is highest in the articulation of a given vowel
(compare Figures 4 and 5 below). According to this parameter, vowels are
classified as:
a. Front vowels: the front of the tongue moves towards the front of the (hard)
palate. These are front vowels: /i:/, / ɪ/, /e/, / æ/.
b. Back vowels: the back of the tongue moves towards the back of the palate (soft
palate). These are back vowels: /uː/, /ʊ/, /ɔ:/, /ɒ/ /ɑː/.
c. Central vowels: the centre of the tongue moves towards the middle of the (hard)
palate. These are central vowels: / ʌ/, /ə/, /ɜː/.

Figure 4. articulation of front Figure 5. articulation of back

vowel vowel

4) Tongue height: it refers to how close the tongue is to the roof of the mouth and,
consequently, it determines the degree of openness of the mouth (see Figure 6
below). According to this parameter, vowels are classified as:
a. Close (or high): the upper tongue surface is close to the roof of the
mouth. These are close vowels: . /i:/, /uː/,
b. Half-close (or high-mid): the upper tongue is not as close to the roof of the mouth
as it is in the articulation of close vowels. These are half-close vowels: /ʊ/, / ɪ/
c. Half-open (or low-mid): the tongue is raised, but less prominently than in
half-close vowels. These are half-open vowels: /ə/, /ɜː/, /e/, /ɔ:/
d. Open (or low) vowels: vowels that are produced with an open mouth cavity, with
the tongue far away from the roof of the mouth. These are open vowels: / ʌ/, /ɒ/,
/ɑː/, / æ/.

Tongue position and tongue height are often reflected in a chart known vowel
quadrilateral. This chart classifies vowels according to their tongue position
(front/central/back) and the degree of the tongue raising
(close/half-close/half-open/open). The distribution of English vowels in the vowel
quadrilateral is as follows:

5) Lip posture/shape: it refers to the shape adopted by the lips in the articulation of
the different vowel sounds. According to this parameter, we can distinguish:
a. Rounded: the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and
the lips pushed forwards. These are rounded vowels: /u:/ /ʊ/ / ɒ/ /ɔː/
b. Unrounded: there is no lip rounding. These are unrounded vowels: /i:/, / ɪ/, /e/,
/ə/, /ɜː/, : / ʌ/, /ɑː/, / æ/.
Note that, when it comes to “unrounded” vowels, most scholars also distinguish
between “spread” vowels and “neutral” vowel. In the production of “spread” vowels,
the corners of the liops are moved away from each other, as for a smile -this is most
clearly seen in the production of /i:/. In the production of “neutral” vowels, the lips are
not noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English speakers make when they are
hesitating (written “er”) has neutral lip position.

6) Duration: it refers to the length of a vowel. Thus, English distinguishes between

short vowels (/ ɪ/, /e/, /ə/ /æ/, /ʌ/, / ɒ/ /ʊ/) and long vowels (/i:/, /ɜː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/ /u:/).
Long vowels are signaled by the presence of [:]. This notwithstanding, it is
important to bear in mind that duration alone is not enough to give account of
vocalic contrasts. Thus, for example, the contrast between /i:/ and /ɪ/ does not only
depend on vowel quantity (or duration), but also on vowel quality: /i:/ is a close
vowel, whereas /ɪ/ is a half-close vowel.

3) English Vowel Sounds: Monophthongs, Diphthongs and Triphthongs

Thus far, we have examined English monophthongs, that is, vowels produced with only
one quality (these vowel sounds are also called “steady-state vowels”). However, in
English, there are certain vowel sounds that experience a clear change (also known as
“glide”) in quality. Vowel sounds with two qualities are called diphthongs; vowel
sounds three qualities are called triphthongs.

1) English Diphthongs
English has eight diphthongs which are classified as closing or centring diphthongs
depending on the direction of the quality change:
● Closing diphthongs move from a more open position to a closer one (see Figure
8)
● Centring diphthongs move from a more external position to a more central one
(see Figure 9)
Figure 8. Figure 9.

2) English Triphthongs

English has five triphthongs, all of them formed by adding /ə/ closing diphthongs.

🡺 Please note that the symbol used to represent the vowel sound in words such as
“car” is not the same as the symbol used to transcribe diphthongs and
triphthongs with an “a-type” sound. Compare the following examples:
● Car: /ka:/ similar to the letter “a” handwriting + colons
● Out /aut/
🡺 Please bear in mind that the symbol used to represent «o-type» sounds within
diphthongs and triphthongs is different. Compare the following examples:
● Cod /kɒd/
● Cord / kɔːd/
● Boy /bɔɪ/ → [ɔ], which only appears in English diphthongs and
triphthongs is shorter than /ɔː/ - hence, no colons (:)

3) Speech Phenomena Affecting English Vowel Sounds

1) Neutralization
Neutralization refers to the process whereby the difference between two vowels
becomes blurred or neutralized. We will consider the following processes of
neutralization:

a. Neutralization /i:/ - /ɪ/: In certain contexts the contrast /i:/ - /ɪ/ is neutralized –
in other words, many speakers use a vowel which is in between /i:/ and /ɪ/. This
neutralization is represented with the symbol /i/ and the vowel sound is
commonly known as “happy vowel”. This vowel sound tends to occur:
● In word-final position in words spelt with final “-y”, “-ey”, “-ee”, “-ea”
b. Neutralization /u:/ - / ʊ/. In certain contexts, the contrast /u:/ - / ʊ/ is
neutralized. This phenomenon is represented with the symbol /u/ and it can
occur in:
● Weak forms of “you”, “do”, “to” , “who”

2) Vowel Monophthong
Traditionally, word such as poor, sure, tour were pronounced with the diphthong /ʊə/.
This diphthong is slowly disappearing in modern RP and is being replaced by the long,
back, rounded monophthong /ɔː/. This means that some pairs of words which used to be
distinct now sound identical. For example, more and moor used to be /mɔː/ and /mʊə/.
now, many speakers pronounce them both as /mɔː/. the only words that consistently use
the /ʊə/ diphthong are those spelt with the letter combination ewer: words such as
brewer, sewer, ewer, fewer. These can never be pronounced with /ɔː/. The other situation
where /ʊə/ is retained is when a word ending in /u:/ and spelled ue has the ending r
attached to it, as in truer and bluer. These words retain the diphthongal pronunciation.