LING2002 Lecture 6: VOWELS
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
LECTURE 6
VOWELS
-Review: vowel properties
•Vowel distinctions are primarily due to:
-Tongue configuration (shape) characterised as height and backness of the highest point (or salient
point anyway)
-Lip configuration: unrounded, rounded, intermediate
•As well as,
-Nasality
-Phonation type
-Length: long vs short
-Complex articulations
•Diphthongs: transition from one target to another
-Characterising the vowel in terms of tongue configuration
•Mapping the highest point of the tongue characterises the place of articulation
-The range of possible articulations gives the vowel space
•Describing this space provides a reference system with which to describe the relative locations
•The vowel space that is defined by the tongue heights for possible vowels is idealised by the vowel
quadrilateral
-Cardinal vowels
•The cardinal vowel system was proposed by Daniel Jones as a set of reference points evenly
spaced around the periphery of the vowel spaces
-Combined articulatory and auditory
•The extremes can be defined in articulatory and/or auditory terms:
!1
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
-1 is the highest and frontest vowel without any turbulence/frication (ie
without becoming a fricative)
-8 is the highest and backest…
-(And 5 is the lowest and backest…)
-Auditory component
•The intervening points along the frontest and backest lines are specified auditorily
-The points at which the vowels sound equally different from each other based on general auditory
impression (‘perceptually equidistant’)
-So, 1 sounds as different from 2 as 3 sounds different to 4
•Or, using IPA symbols, [i] is meant to sound as different from [e] as [ɛ] sounds different from [a]
•A pure auditory approach is probably not very useful unless there are some relatively fixed reference
points
-IPA system of vowel description: reference points
•The IPA system follows the general tradition of the cardinal vowels
by defining reference points
•It provides symbols that can be used to cover most vowel
distinctions
-Using diacritics where greater precision is required
-Acoustic description of vowels
•Each articulatory configuration for a vowel has resonance properties that produce the distinctive
quality of the vowel
•Frequency bands at which the resonance is most intense are called formants
-Appear as dark bands on spectrograms
•Vowels can be characterised in terms of the central frequencies of their formants
-The first formant (F1) is the lowest
-Average formant frequencies of US English vowels (F1, F2, F3)
!2
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Review: vowel properties: vowel distinctions are primarily due to: Tongue con guration (shape) characterised as height and backness of the highest point (or salient point anyway) Lip con guration: unrounded, rounded, intermediate: as well as, Complex articulations: diphthongs: transition from one target to another. Characterising the vowel in terms of tongue con guration: mapping the highest point of the tongue characterises the place of articulation. Cardinal vowels: the cardinal vowel system was proposed by daniel jones as a set of reference points evenly spaced around the periphery of the vowel spaces. Combined articulatory and auditory: the extremes can be de ned in articulatory and/or auditory terms: 1 is the highest and frontest vowel without any turbulence/frication (ie wednesday, 15 march 2017 without becoming a fricative) 8 is the highest and backest (and 5 is the lowest and backest ) Auditory component: the intervening points along the frontest and backest lines are speci ed auditorily.
