Preliminaries

•  login to www.pollev.com/leslielee
•  peer instruction
–  open book

EL1101/GEK1011 –  solo vote (no discussion)

–  group discussion
Week 3 –  group vote
Phonetics II (Vowels)

•  turn to your neighbours and introduce yourself!

•  recall: 3 key parameters for describing consonants 1. Which of the following pairs of words contain vowels of di#erent
heights?
–  voicing, place, manner
•  not very useful for describing vowels…
a.  lean, lass
–  unlike consonants, we are not obstructing the air!ow at a
b.  lean, less
particular place in the vocal tract when we produce vowels
c.  lean, lane
•  de"nition of vowel: air!ow through the vocal tract is not
obstructed d.  a & b
•  so we can only refer to relative, rather than speci"c, areas e.  a & c
–  this is what causes widespread variation in how vowels f.  b&c
are produced g.  a, b & c
–  because the air!ow is not being obstructed, it also doesn’t make h.  none of the above
sense to talk about manner of articulation (obstruction)
–  all vowels (in English) are voiced
•  so we need a di#erent set of parameters for vowel description

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 –  many languages, including English, make a distinction between
•  vowel height (tongue height) 3 vowel heights
–  relative •  3 broad areas within a continuous space
•  every time we produce the ‘same’ vowel, our tongue is (most –  no height distinction within each area
likely) in a slightly di#erent position
–  b/c unlike with consonants, our tongue isn’t making i
lean high •  many Singaporeans have
contact with any surface merged [ɛ] and [æ]
–  but we think we are producing/hearing the ‘same’ vowel lane e •  i.e. [ɛ] and [æ] are not
because that slight di#erence is not enough to make us mid distinct vowels for many
think of it as a di#erent vowel less ɛ
Singaporeans (men/man)
»  marginal range of acceptability for what counts as
lass æ low
the ‘same’ vowel
•  but b/c height is relative, rather than "xed, this means the
production of vowels is less stable than consonants
–  this lack of stability creates opportunity for change
»  dialectal variation
answer: g
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–  recall:
2. Which of the following pairs of words contain vowels of di#erent
•  3 vowel heights
heights?
•  no height distinction within each area
a.  moon, moan
b.  mourn, moan i
lean high u moon
c.  mourn, mart
d.  a & b lane e o moan
mid
e.  a & c less ɛ ɔ mourn
f.  b&c
lass æ low ɑ mart
g.  a, b & c
h.  none of the above

answer: e
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 •  vowel backness (tongue backness)
3. Which of the following pairs of words contains vowels of di#erent
–  again relative
backness?
–  many languages, including English, distinguish 3 degrees of
backness
a.  tape, the
•  3 broad areas
b.  the, butt
–  follow the vertical lines
c.  butt, barn
–  no backness distinction within each area
d.  a & b
e.  a & c front central back •  many
i u Singaporeans
f.  b&c
have merged
g.  a, b & c [ʌ] and [ɑ]
e o
h.  none of the above tape ə
the ɛ ɔ
ʌ butt
æ ɑ barn
answer: e
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•  (lip) rounding
4. Which of the following pairs of words contain vowels that di#er in
–  rounded vowels vs. unrounded vowels
rounding?
–  in English, all the non-low back vowels are rounded
a.  hoop, home •  for most dialects of English, only the non-low back vowels
are rounded
b.  home, hoard
–  ‘BBC English’ has a low round back vowel [ɒ] in words
c.  hoard, hard like ‘pot’
d.  a & b –  most other dialects use [ɔ] or [ɑ] instead
e.  a & c round vowels
i u hoop
f.  b&c
g.  a, b & c home
e o
h.  none of the above ə
ɛ ɔ hoard
ʌ
(ɒ)
æ ɑ hard

answer: c
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 •  tenseness
5. Which of the following pairs of words contains vowels that di#er in
–  height and backness are su*cient to distinguish many of the
tenseness?
English vowels from one another
•  e.g. [ɑ] = low back vowel vs. [æ] = low front vowel
a.  mat, mart
•  e.g. [ə] = mid central vowel vs. [ʌ] = low central vowel
b.  feast, !st
–  but some vowel pairs cannot be di#erentiated by height and
c.  boat, bought backness
d.  a & b •  [i] and [ɪ] are both high front vowels
e.  a & c •  [u] and [ʊ] are both high back vowels
f.  b&c •  [e] and [ɛ] are both mid front vowels
g.  a, b & c •  [o] and [ɔ] are both mid back vowels
h.  none of the above –  notice that rounding doesn’t help di#erentiate the vowels in
each pair either
•  both members in each pair share the same value for
rounding

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–  so we need another parameter: tenseness

•  tense feast pool
i u
–  higher and less centralized; tends to be longer as well
!st ɪ ʊ pull
•  lax
e o
–  lower and more centralized; tends to be shorter as well mate ə boat
ɛ ɔ
•  de!ned only for these vowel pairs! (tense on left) ʌ
met bought
–  [i] vs. [ɪ] æ ɑ
–  [u] vs. [ʊ] mat mart
–  [e] vs. [ɛ]
–  [o] vs. [ɔ]
–  many Singaporeans have merged [i] and [ɪ]
•  the others can be identi"ed by height/backness/rounding
alone –  many Singaporeans have merged [ʊ] and [u]

answer: f
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•  "nal vowel chart of English monophthongs
6. Which of the following words contains a diphthong?
front central back •  SgE mergers
i u high •  i/ɪ
a.  price
ɪ ʊ •  u/ʊ
b.  toy
e o •  ɛ/æ
ə mid c.  cow
ɛ ɔ •  ʌ/ɑ
ʌ d.  a & b
(ɒ)
æ ɑ low e.  a & c
only in BBC
f.  b&c
English
g.  a, b & c
•  warning! h.  none of the above
–  there are many di#erent versions of vowel charts online, some
of which di#er from this
–  you are expected to follow this one for the purposes of this
course (and for your sanity)
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•  diphthong
–  a vowel that involves a movement of the tongue body from one 7. Which of the following words contains a diphthong?
position to another
•  vs. monophthong – a vowel that maintains a relatively
constant position throughout a.  bout

–  transcribed as vowel-glide sequences or vowel-vowel sequences b.  bane

•  let’s transcribe them as vowel-vowel sequences c.  bone

•  considered as single sounds (like a#ricates) d.  a & b

–  3 main diphthongs in English: [aɪ] ‘price’, [aʊ] ‘cow’, [ɔɪ] ‘toy’ e.  a & c

•  [a] is only ever used as part of a diphthong in English, never f.  b&c
as a monophthong g.  a, b & c
ɪ ʊ h.  none of the above

ɔ
answer: g
a 19 20
•  diphthong vs. diphthongized vowels
–  [e] and [o] are sometimes transcribed as [eɪ] and [oʊ] to re!ect
the fact that the tongue does move a little in the production of
Variation
these vowels
•  we call these diphthongized vowels •  because the vowel space is continuous, there is considerable
variation in vowel pronunciation between dialects of English
•  but they are not real diphthongs!
–  vowel mergers
–  the movement of the tongue here is minute
•  vowels that used to be distinct have been merged into a
–  c.f. real diphthongs, which involve a relatively large single vowel
movement of the tongue body
–  vowel shifts
•  vowel changes position and thus sounds di#erent
ɪ ʊ •  let’s consider 3 di#erent dialects
e o –  Standard US English (aka General American)
ɔ –  Standard UK English (aka Received Pronunciation (RP) or BBC
English)
a answer: a –  Singapore English
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General American Received Pronunciation

i u
•  this is the one that we have been considering so far •  aka ‘BBC English’
ɪ ʊ
i u •  two additional monophthongs e
ə
ɪ ʊ –  [ɜ] – mid central tense vowel (so [ə] is lax) ɜ
ɛ ɔ
e o –  [ɒ] – low back round vowel ʌ
ə
ɛ ɔ ɒ
•  [əʊ] instead of [o] æ ɑ
ʌ
•  diphthongs: [aɪ], [aʊ], [ɔɪ], [ɪə], [ʊə], [ɛə]
æ ɑ
•  ‘r-dropping’ – r is not pronounced if no vowel follows
•  plus 3 diphthongs: [aɪ], [aʊ], [ɔɪ] •  RP vs. GA
•  GA is ‘r-ful’ – r is pronounced even if no vowel follows –  nurse: [nɜs] vs. [nəɹs] cure: [kjʊə] vs. [kjʊɹ]
–  e.g. [niɹ] ‘near’, [nəɹs] ‘nurse’, [baɪkəɹ] ‘biker’, [kɛɹ] ‘care’, –  lot: [lɒt] vs. [lɑt] care: [kɛ] vs. [kɛɹ]
[hɔɹs] ‘horse’, [fɑɹ] ‘far’… –  goat: [ɡəʊt] vs. [ɡot] horse: [hɔːs] vs. [hɔɹs]
23 –  near: [nɪə] vs. [niɹ] 24
 Singapore English What you should know
•  mergers i u
–  [i] and [ɪ] → [i] •  4 parameters for describing vowels

–  [u] and [ʊ] → [u] e o –  height, backness, tenseness, rounding

ə
–  [ɛ] and [æ] → [ɛ] ɛ ɔ •  diphthongs (vs. monophthongs & diphthongized vowels)

–  [ɜ] and [ə] → [ə] •  dialectal variation

–  [ɔ] and [ɒ] → [ɔ] a •  you will not be asked to transcribe words

–  [ʌ] and [ɑ] → [a] –  so don’t freak out if you don’t know how a word is
pronounced in a particular dialect
•  diphthongs
•  but you should know how to interpret transcriptions
–  [ai] ‘my’, [ɔi] ‘boy’, [au] ‘now’, [iə] ‘near’, [uə] ‘poor’

•  mostly r-dropping, but young people (esp. females) increasingly do
not
–  square: [skwɛ] vs. [skwɛɹ]
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Reminder

•  no lecture and tutorials next week (CNY)

•  enjoy your linguistics-free week (and feasting)!

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