Vowel

Manners of articulation
Obstruent
Stop
Affricate
Fricative
Sibilant
Sonorant
Nasal
Flaps/Tap
Trill
Approximant
Liquid
Vowel
Semivowel
Lateral
Airstreams
Ejective
Implosive
Click
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. In Linguistics ( Articulatory phonetics) manner of articulation describes how the tongue lips and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make In Phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes obstruents and Sonorants An obstruent is a Consonant sound formed by A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards In Phonetics and Phonology, a sonorant is a Speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants Liquid consonants, or liquids, are Approximant Consonants that are not classified as Semivowels (glides because they do not correspond phonetically Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both In Phonetics, ejective consonants are Voiceless Consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the Glottis. Implosive consonants are stops (rarely Affricates with a mixed Glottalic ingressive and Pulmonic egressive Airstream mechanism. Clicks are speech sounds such as English tsk! tsk! used to express disapproval or the tchick! used to spur on a horse Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic [Help]
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In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! [ɑː] or oh! [oʊ], pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them The vocal tract is that cavity in animals and humans where sound that is produced at the sound source ( Larynx in mammals syrinx in birds is filtered The glottis is defined as the combination of the Vocal folds and the space in between the folds (the Rima glottidis) This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! [ʃː], where there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels

In all languages, vowels form the nucleus or peak of syllables, whereas consonants form the onset and (in languages which have them) coda. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal In Phonetics and Phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a Syllable that precedes the Syllable nucleus. In Phonology, a syllable coda comprises the Consonant sounds of a Syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a Vowel However, some languages also allow other sounds to form the nucleus of a syllable, such as the syllabic l in the English word table [ˈteɪ. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States bl̩] (the stroke under the l indicates that it is syllabic; the dot separates syllables), or the r in Serbian vrt [vr̩t] "garden". Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language,

We might note the conflict between the phonetic definition of 'vowel' (a sound produced with no constriction in the vocal tract) and the phonological definition (a sound that forms the peak of a syllable). ^[1] The approximants [j] and [w] illustrate this conflict: both are produced without much of a constriction in the vocal tract (so phonetically they seem to be vowel-like), but they occur on the edge of syllables, such as at the beginning of the English words 'yes' and 'wet' (which suggests that phonologically they are consonants). The American linguist Kenneth Pike suggested the terms 'vocoid' for a phonetic vowel and 'vowel' for a phonological vowel,^[2] so using this terminology, [j] and [w] are classified as vocoids but not vowels. Kenneth Lee Pike ( June 9 1912 &ndash December 31 2000) also known during his life as Ken Pike, was an American linguist

The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis, meaning "speaking", because in most languages words and thus speech are not possible without vowels. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Vowel is commonly used to mean both vowel sounds and the written symbols that represent them.

1 Written vowels
2 Articulation
3 Acoustics
4 Prosody and intonation
5 Monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs
6 Use of vowels in languages
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links

Written vowels

Main article: Writing system

The name "vowel" is often used for the symbols that represent vowel sounds in a language's writing system, particularly if the language uses an alphabet. A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either In writing systems based on the Latin alphabet, the letters A, E, I, O, U, W and Y are all used to represent vowels, although not all of these letters represent vowels in all languages (some of them, especially W and Y, are also used to represent approximants); in addition, extensions of the Latin alphabet have independent vowel letters such as Ä, Ö, Ü, Å, Æ, and Ø. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants

The phonetic values vary by language, and some languages use I and Y for the consonant [j], e. g. initial I in Romanian and initial Y in English. In the original Latin alphabet, there was no written distinction between V and U, and the letter represented the approximant [w] and the vowels [u] and [ʊ]. In Modern Welsh, the letter W represents these same sounds. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic Similarly, in Creek, the letter V stands for [ə]. The Creek language, also known as Muscogee ( Mvskoke in Creek is a Muskogean language spoken by the Muscogee (Creek Nation and Seminole There is not necessarily a direct one-to-one correspondence between the vowel sounds of a language and the vowel letters. Many languages that use a form of the Latin alphabet have more vowel sounds than can be represented by the standard set of five vowel letters. In the case of English, the five vowel letters A E I O and U can represent a variety of vowel sounds, while the letter Y and, to a lesser extent, W can represent both a vowel and a consonant (e. g. "gym", "cwm").

Other languages cope with the limitation in the number of Latin vowel letters in similar ways. Many languages, like English, make extensive use of combinations of vowel letters to represent various sounds. Other languages use vowel letters with modifications, e. g. Ä in Finnish, or add diacritical marks, like umlauts, to vowels to represent the variety of possible vowel sounds. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation Diaeresis or trema See also Diaeresis History Historically the diaeresis mark or trema is far older than the umlaut mark Some languages have also constructed additional vowel letters by modifying the standard Latin vowels in other ways, such as æ or ø that are found in some of the Scandinavian languages. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages The International Phonetic Alphabet has a set of 28 symbols to represent the range of basic vowel qualities, and a further set of diacritics to denote variations from the basic vowel. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

Articulation

Vowels

Height

Vowel height is named for the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the jaw. The jaw is either of the two opposable structures forming or near the entrance to the Mouth. In high vowels, such as [i] and [u], the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, whereas in low vowels, such as [a], the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. The IPA prefers the terms close vowel and open vowel, respectively, which describes the jaw as being relatively open or closed. However, vowel height is an acoustic rather than articulatory quality, and is defined today not in terms of tongue height, or jaw openness, but according to the relative frequency of the first formant (F1). A formant is a peak in the Frequency spectrum of a sound caused by acoustic Resonance. The higher the F1 value, the lower (more open) the vowel; height is thus inversely correlated to F1. ^[3]

The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies seven different vowel heights:

True mid vowels do not contrast with both close-mid and open-mid in any language, and the letters [e ø ɤ o] are typically used for either close-mid or mid vowels. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A near-close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly A close-mid vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned A near-open vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a near-open vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as

Although English contrasts all six contrasting heights in its vowels, these are interdependent with differences in backness, and many are parts of diphthongs. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with It appears that some varieties of German have five contrasting vowel heights independently of length or other parameters. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The Bavarian dialect of Amstetten has thirteen long vowels, reported to distinguish four heights (close, close-mid, mid, and near-open) each among the front unrounded, front rounded, and back rounded vowels, plus an open central vowel: /i e ɛ̝ æ̝/, /y ø œ̝ ɶ̝/, /u o ɔ̝ ɒ̝/, /a/. Austro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. Amstetten is a municipality in Alb-Donau-Kreis, 20 kilometers north-west of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Otherwise, the usual limit on the number of contrasting vowel heights is four.

The parameter of vowel height appears to be the primary feature of vowels cross-linguistically in that all languages use height contrastively. No other parameter, such as front-back or rounded-unrounded (see below), is used in all languages. Some languages have vertical vowel systems in which, at least at a phonemic level, only height is used to distinguish vowels. Vertical vowel system refers to a system of Vowels in a language which requires just one Vowel dimension to phonemically distinguish vowels

Backness

Tongue positions of cardinal front vowels with highest point indicated. Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds of languages The position of the highest point is used to determine vowel height and backness

Vowel backness is named for the position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth. In front vowels, such as [i], the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth, whereas in back vowels, such as [u], the tongue is positioned towards the back of the mouth. However, vowels are defined as back or front not according to actual articulation, but according to the relative frequency of the second formant (F2). A formant is a peak in the Frequency spectrum of a sound caused by acoustic Resonance. The higher the F2 value, the fronter the vowel; backness is thus inversely correlated to F2.

The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies five different degrees of vowel backness:

Although English has vowels at all five degrees of backness, there is no known language that distinguishes all five without additional differences in height or rounding. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A near-front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a near-front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A near-back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a near-back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as

Roundedness

Main article: Vowel roundedness

Roundedness refers to whether the lips are rounded or not. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. In most languages, roundedness is a reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels, and not distinctive. Usually the higher a back vowel, the more intense the rounding. However, some languages treat roundedness and backness separately, such as French and German (with front rounded vowels), most Uralic languages (Estonian has a rounding contrast for /o/ and front vowels), Turkic languages (with an unrounded /u/), Vietnamese (with back unrounded vowels), and Korean (with a contrast in both front and back vowels). The Uralic languages (jʊˈrælɨk constitute a language family of 39 Languages spoken by approximately 20 million people Estonian (; ˈeːsti ˈkeːl is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1 The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system

Nonetheless, even in languages such as German and Vietnamese, there is usually some phonetic correlation between rounding and backness: front rounded vowels tend to be less front than front unrounded vowels, and back unrounded vowels tend to be less back than back rounded vowels. That is, the placement of unrounded vowels to the left of rounded vowels on the IPA vowel chart is reflective of their typical position.

Different kinds of labialization are also possible. "Lip rounding" redirects here See Roundedness for the lip rounding of vowels The Japanese /u/, for example, is not rounded like English /u/, where the lips are protruded (or pursed), but neither are the lips spread to the sides as they are for unrounded vowels. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Rather, they are compressed in both directions, leaving a slot between the lips for the air to escape. (See Vowel roundedness for illustrations. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. ) Swedish and Norwegian are two of the few languages where this feature is contrastive, having both protruded-lip and compressed-lip high front vowels. Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language The close front rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents In many treatments, both are considered a type of rounding, and are often called endolabial rounding (pulled in and compressed; the margins of the lips approach each other) and exolabial rounding (pushed out and pursed; the insides of the lips approach each other). However, some phoneticians do not believe that these are subsets of a single phenomenon of rounding, and prefer instead the three independent terms rounded, compressed, and spread (for unrounded).

Nasalization

Main articles: Nasal vowel and Nasalization

Nasalization refers to whether some of the air escapes through the nose. A nasal vowel is a Vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through Nose as well as the Mouth. In Phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by In Phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by In nasal vowels, the velum is lowered, and some air travels through the nasal cavity as well as the mouth. A nasal vowel is a Vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through Nose as well as the Mouth. An oral vowel is a vowel in which all air escapes through the mouth. French, Polish and Portuguese contrast nasal and oral vowels. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal.

Phonation

Main article: Phonation

Voicing describes whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of Phonetics. Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of Phonetics. The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of Mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the Larynx. Most languages only have voiced vowels, but several Native American languages, such as Cheyenne and Totonac, contrast voiced and devoiced vowels. The Cheyenne language ( Tsėhesenėstsestotse or in easier spelling Tsisinstsistots is a Native American language spoken in present-day Montana The Totonacan Languages are a family of closely-related languages spoken by approximately 200000 Totonac and Tepehua people in the states of Vowels are devoiced in whispered speech. In Japanese and Quebec French, vowels that are between voiceless consonants are often devoiced. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Quebec French ( le français québécois, le français du Québec) or less often Québécois French, is the predominant varieties

Modal voice, creaky voice, and breathy voice (murmured vowels) are phonation types that are used contrastively in some languages. Vocal fry registerIn Linguistics, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation or vocal fry or glottal fry) Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, soughing, or susurration) is a Phonation in which the Vocal cords vibrate as they do in Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of Phonetics. Often, these co-occur with tone or stress distinctions; in the Mon language, vowels pronounced in the high tone are also produced with creaky voice. Tone is the use of pitch in Language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is to distinguish or inflect words The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon, who live in Burma and Thailand. In cases like this, it can be unclear whether it is the tone, the voicing type, or the pairing of the two that is being used for phonemic contrast. This combination of phonetic cues (i. e. phonation, tone, stress) is known as register or register complex.

Tongue root retraction

Main articles: Advanced and retracted tongue root. In Phonetics, advanced tongue root and retracted tongue root, abbreviated ±ATR are contrasting states of the root of the Tongue during the pronunciation

Advanced tongue root (ATR) is a feature common across much of Africa. The contrast between advanced and retracted tongue root resembles the tense/lax contrast acoustically, but they are articulated differently. ATR vowels involve noticeable tension in the vocal tract.

Secondary narrowings in the vocal tract

Main article: Pharyngealization

Pharyngealized vowels occur in some languages; Sedang uses this contrast, as do the Tungusic languages. Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation Sedang is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern Laos and the Kon Tum Province in south central Vietnam. The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus Tungus are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Pharyngealisation is similar in articulation to retracted tongue root, but is acoustically distinct. Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of Sound, Ultrasound and Infrasound (all mechanical waves in gases liquids and solids

A stronger degree of pharyngealisation occurs in the Northeast Caucasian languages and the Khoisan languages. The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakho-Dagestanian, or Dagestanian, are a family of Languages The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern and eastern Africa; in southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi These might be called epiglottalized, since the primary constriction is at the tip of the epiglottis.

The greatest degree of pharyngealisation is found in the strident vowels of the Khoisan languages, where the larynx is raised, and the pharynx constricted, so that either the epiglottis or the arytenoid cartilages vibrate instead of the vocal cords. Strident vowels (also called sphincteric vowels) are strongly pharyngealized vowels accompanied by (aryepiglottal trill, where the Larynx is The larynx (plural larynges) colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the Neck of Mammals involved in protection of the The arytenoid Cartilages are a pair of small three-sided Pyramids which form part of the Larynx, to which the Vocal cords are attached

Note that the terms pharyngealized, epiglottalized, strident, and sphincteric are sometimes used interchangeably.

Rhotic vowels

Main article: R-colored vowel

Rhotic vowels are the "R-colored vowels" of English and a few other languages. In Phonetics, vocalic r refers to the phenomenon of a Rhotic segment such as or occurring as the Syllable nucleus. In Phonetics, vocalic r refers to the phenomenon of a Rhotic segment such as or occurring as the Syllable nucleus.

Tenseness/checked vowels vs. free vowels

Main article: Tenseness

Tenseness is used to describe the opposition of tense vowels as in leap, suit vs. In Phonology, tenseness is a particular Vowel or Consonant quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages including English In Phonology, tenseness is a particular Vowel or Consonant quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages including English lax vowels as in lip, soot. This opposition has traditionally been thought to be a result of greater muscular tension, though phonetic experiments have repeatedly failed to show this.

Unlike the other features of vowel quality, tenseness is only applicable to the few languages that have this opposition (mainly Germanic languages, e. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. g. English), whereas the vowels of the other languages (e. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States g. Spanish) cannot be described with respect to tenseness in any meaningful way. In discourse about the English language, "tense and lax" are often used interchangeably with "long and short", respectively, because the features are concomitant in the common varieties of English. This cannot be applied to all English dialects or other languages.

In most Germanic languages, lax vowels can only occur in closed syllables. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds Therefore, they are also known as checked vowels, whereas the tense vowels are called free vowels since they can occur in any kind of syllable. In Phonetics and Phonology, checked vowels are those that usually must be followed by a Consonant in a stressed Syllable, while In Phonetics and Phonology, checked vowels are those that usually must be followed by a Consonant in a stressed Syllable, while

Acoustics

Related article: Phonetics. Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech

Spectrogram of vowels [i, u, ɑ]. [ɑ] is a low vowel, so its F1 value is higher than that of [i] and [u], which are high vowels. [i] is a front vowel, so its F2 is substantially higher than that of [u] and [ɑ], which are back vowels.

The acoustics of vowels are fairly well understood. The different vowel qualities are realized in acoustic analyses of vowels by the relative values of the formants, acoustic resonances of the vocal tract which show up as dark bands on a spectrogram. A formant is a peak in the Frequency spectrum of a sound caused by acoustic Resonance. In Physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to Oscillate at maximum Amplitude at certain frequencies, known as the system's The spectrogram is the result of calculating the Frequency spectrum of Windowed frames of a compound signal. The vocal tract acts as a resonant cavity, and the position of the jaw, lips, and tongue affect the parameters of the resonant cavity, resulting in different formant values. A resonator is a device or system that exhibits Resonance or resonant behavior that is it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonance The acoustics of vowels can be visualized using spectrograms, which display the acoustic energy at each frequency, and how this changes with time.

The first formant, abbreviated "F1", corresponds to vowel openness (vowel height). Open vowels have high F1 frequencies while close vowels have low F1 frequencies, as can be seen at right: The [i] and [u] have similar low first formants, whereas [ɑ] has a higher formant. An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as

The second formant, F2, corresponds to vowel frontness. Back vowels have low F2 frequencies while front vowels have high F2 frequencies. A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward This is very clear at right, where the front vowel [i] has a much higher F2 frequency than the other two vowels. However, in open vowels the high F1 frequency forces a rise in the F2 frequency as well, so an alternative measure of frontness is the difference between the first and second formants. For this reason, some people prefer to plot as F1 vs. F2 – F1. (This dimension is usually called 'backness' rather than 'frontness', but the term 'backness' can be counterintuitive when discussing formants. )

In the third edition of his textbook, Peter Ladefoged recommended use of plots of F1 against F2 – F1 to represent vowel quality. Peter Nielsen Ladefoged ( September 17, 1925 – January 24, 2006) was an English-American linguist and phonetician ^[4] However, in the fourth edition, he changed to adopt a simple plot of F1 against F2,^[5] and this simple plot of F1 against F2 was maintained for the fifth (and final) edition of the book. ^[6] Katrina Hayward compares the two types of plots and concludes that plotting of F1 against F2 – F1 "is not very satisfactory because of its effect on the placing of the central vowels",^[7] so she also recommends use of a simple plot of F1 against F2. In fact, this kind of plot of F1 against F2 has been used by analysts to show the quality of the vowels in a wide range of languages, including RP British English,^[8]^[9] the Queen's English,^[10] American English,^[11] Singapore English,^[12] Brunei English,^[13] North Frisian,^[14] Turkish Kabardian,^[15] and various indigenous Australian languages. ^[16]

R-colored vowels are characterized by lowered F3 values. In Phonetics, vocalic r refers to the phenomenon of a Rhotic segment such as or occurring as the Syllable nucleus.

Rounding is generally realized by a complex relationship between F2 and F3 that tends to reinforce vowel backness. One effect of this is that back vowels are most commonly rounded while front vowels are most commonly unrounded; another is that rounded vowels tend to plot to the right of unrounded vowels in vowel charts. That is, there is a reason for plotting vowel pairs the way they are.

Prosody and intonation

Main articles: Prosody, Intonation. In Linguistics, prosody (from Greek προσωδία) is the Rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech In Linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch whilst speaking which is not used to distinguish words

The features of vowel prosody are often described independently from vowel quality. In non-linear phonetics, they are located on parallel layers. The features of vowel prosody are usually considered not to apply to the vowel itself, but to the syllable, as some languages do not contrast vowel length separately from syllable length. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds

Intonation encompasses the changes in pitch, intensity, and speed of an utterance over time. In Linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch whilst speaking which is not used to distinguish words An utterance is a complete unit of speech in Spoken language. In tonal languages, in most cases the tone of a syllable is carried by the vowel, meaning that the relative pitch or the pitch contour that marks the tone is superimposed on the vowel. A tonal language is a language that uses tone to distinguish words In Linguistics, Speech synthesis, and Music, the pitch contour of a sound is a function or curve that tracks the perceived pitch of the sound If a syllable has a high tone, for example, the pitch of the vowel will be high. If the syllable has a falling tone, then the pitch of the vowel will fall from high to low over the course of uttering the vowel.

Length or quantity refers to the abstracted duration of the vowel. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound In some analyses this feature is described as a feature of the vowel quality, not of the prosody. Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian, Arabic and Latin have a two-way phonemic contrast between short and long vowels. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound The Mixe language has a three-way contrast among short, half-long, and long vowels, and this has been reported for a few other languages, though not always as a phonemic distinction. The Mixe languages are languages of the Mixean branch of the Mixe-Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico. Long vowels are written in the IPA with a triangular colon, which has two equilateral triangles pointing at each other in place of dots ([iː]). The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The IPA symbol for half-long vowels is the top half of this ([iˑ]). Longer vowels are sometimes claimed, but these are always divided between two syllables.

It should be noted that the length of the vowel is a grammatical abstraction, and there may be more phonologically distinctive lengths. For example, in Finnish, there are five different physical lengths, because stress is marked with length on both grammatically long and short vowels. However, Finnish stress is not lexical and is always on the first two moras, thus this variation serves to separate words from each other. Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in Phonology that determines Syllable weight (which in turn determines stress

In non-tonal languages, like English, intonation encompasses lexical stress. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word A stressed syllable will typically be pronounced with a higher pitch, intensity, and length than unstressed syllables. For example in the word intensity, the vowel represented by the letter 'e' is stressed, so it is longer and pronounced with a higher pitch and intensity than the other vowels.

Monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs

Main articles: Monophthong, Diphthong, Triphthong, and Semivowel

A vowel sound whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the vowel is called a monophthong. A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with In Phonetics, a triphthong (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos" literally "with three sounds" or "with three Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at Monophthongs are sometimes called "pure" or "stable" vowels. A vowel sound that glides from one quality to another is called a diphthong, and a vowel sound that glides successively through three qualities is a triphthong. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with In Phonetics, a triphthong (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos" literally "with three sounds" or "with three

All languages have monophthongs and many languages have diphthongs, but triphthongs or vowel sounds with even more target qualities are relatively rare cross-linguistically. English has all three types: the vowel sound in hit is a monophthong [ɪ], the vowel sound in boy is in most dialects a diphthong [ɔɪ], and the vowel sounds of, flower (BrE [aʊə] AmE [aʊɚ]) form a triphthong (disyllabic in the latter cases), although the particular qualities vary by dialect. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology.

In phonology, diphthongs and triphthongs are distinguished from sequences of monophthongs by whether the vowel sound may be analyzed into different phonemes or not. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU For example, the vowel sounds in a two-syllable pronunciation of the word flower (BrE [flaʊə] AmE [flaʊɚ]) phonetically form a disyllabic triphthong, but are phonologically a sequence of a diphthong (represented by the letters <ow>) and a monophthong (represented by the letters <er>). British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. Some linguists use the terms diphthong and triphthong only in this phonemic sense.

Use of vowels in languages

The semantic significance of vowels varies widely depending on the language. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from In some languages, particularly Semitic languages, vowels mostly serve to denote inflections. The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice This is similar to English man vs. men. In fact, the alphabets used to write the Semitic languages, such as the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic alphabet, do not ordinarily mark all the vowels. The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. These alphabets are technically called abjads. An Abjad is a type of Writing system in which each symbol stands for a Consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate Vowel. Although it is possible to construct simple English sentences that can be understood without written vowels (cn y rd ths?), extended passages of English lacking written vowels are difficult if not impossible to completely understand (consider dd, which could be any of add, aided, dad, dada, dead, deed, did, died, dodo, dud, dude, eddie, iodide, or odd).

In most languages, vowels are an unchangeable part of the words, as in English man vs. moon which are not different inflectional forms of the same word, but different words. Vowels are especially important to the structures of words in languages that have very few consonants (like Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian), and in languages whose inventories of vowels are larger than their inventories of consonants. The Polynesian languages are a Language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. The Hawaiian language (Hawaiian ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i) is an Austronesian language that takes its name from Hawai'i, the largest island in the tropical

References

^ Laver, John (1994) Principles of Phonetics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. A Acoustic phonetics Active articulator Affricate Airstream mechanism This table lists all the Vowel letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet. In non-rhotic English dialects, such as Received Pronunciation, every Lexical word must contain at least one spoken vowel in its pronunciation English phonology is the study of the Phonology (ie the sound system of the English language. 269.
^ Crystal, David (2005) A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics (Fifth Edition), Maldern, MA/Oxford: Blackwell, p. 494.
^ According to Peter Ladefoged, traditional articulatory descriptions such as height and backness "are not entirely satisfactory", and when phoneticians describe a vowel as high or low, they are in fact describing an acoustic quality rather than the actual position of the tongue. Peter Nielsen Ladefoged ( September 17, 1925 – January 24, 2006) was an English-American linguist and phonetician Ladefoged, Peter (2006) A Course in Phonetics (Fifth Edition), Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 189.
^ Ladefoged, Peter (1993) A Course in Phonetics (Third Edition), Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 197.
^ Ladefoged, Peter (2001) A Course in Phonetics (Fourth Edition), Fort Worth: Harcourt, p. 177.
^ Ladefoged, Peter (2006) A Course in Phonetics (Fifth Edition), Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 189.
^ Hayward, Katrina (2000) Experimental Phonetics, Harlow, UK: Pearson, p. 160.
^ Deterding, David (1997) The formants of monophthong vowels in Standard Southern British English Pronunciation, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 27, 47-55.
^ Hawkins, Sarah and Jonathan Midgley (2005) Formant frequencies of RP monophthongs in four age groups of speakers, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35, 183-199.
^ Harrington, Jonathan, Sallyanne Palethorpe and Catherine Watson (2005) Deepening or lessening the divide between diphthongs: an analysis of the Queen's annual Christmas broadcasts. In William J. Hardcastle and Janet Mackenzie Beck (eds. ) A Figure of Speech: A Festschrift for John Laver, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 227-261.
^ Flemming, Edward and Stephanie Johnson (2007) Rosa's roses: reduced vowels in American English, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37, 83-96.
^ Deterding, David (2003) An instrumental study of the monophthong vowels of Singapore English, English World-Wide, 24, 1–16
^ Salbrina, Sharbawi (2006) The vowels of Brunei English: an acoustic investigation. English World-Wide, 27, 247-264.
^ Bohn, Ocke-Schwen (2004) How to organize a fairly large vowel inventory: the vowels of Fering (North Frisian), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34, 161-173.
^ Gordon, Matthew and Ayla Applebaum (2006) Phonetic structures of Turkish Kabardian, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36, 159-186.
^ Fletcher, Janet (2006) Exploring the phonetics of spoken narratives in Australian indigenous languages. In William J. Hardcastle and Janet Mackenzie Beck (eds. ) A Figure of Speech: A Festschrift for John Laver, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 201-226.

Bibliography

Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, 1999. Cambridge University ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Johnson, Keith, Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics, second edition, 2003. Blackwell ISBN 1-4051-0123-7
Ladefoged, Peter, A Course in Phonetics, fifth edition, 2006. Peter Nielsen Ladefoged ( September 17, 1925 – January 24, 2006) was an English-American linguist and phonetician Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth ISBN 1-4130-2079-8
Ladefoged, Peter, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, 1995. University of Chicago ISBN 0-226-46764-3
Ladefoged, Peter and Ian Maddieson, The Sounds of the World's Languages, 1996. Blackwell ISBN 0-631-19815-6
Ladefoged, Peter, Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages, 2000. Blackwell ISBN 0-631-21412-7.
Lindau, Mona. (1978). Vowel features. Language, 54, 541–563.
Stevens, Kenneth N. (1998). Acoustic phonetics. Current studies in linguistics (No. 30). Cambridge, MA: MIT. ISBN 0-262-19404-X.
Stevens, Kenneth N. (2000). Toward a model for lexical access based on acoustic landmarks and distinctive features. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 111 (4), 1872–1891.
Korhonen, Mikko. Koltansaamen opas, 1973. Castreanum ISBN 951-45-0189-6
Watt, D. and Tillotson, J. (2001). A spectrographic analysis of vowel fronting in Bradford English. English World-Wide 22:2, 269–302. Available at [1]

External links

Vowels and Consonants Online examples from Ladefoged's Vowels and Consonants, referenced above.
Dictionary of All-Vowel Words: a free online dictionary with over 1,000 words with no consonants and examples of usage from literature.
Materials for measuring and plotting vowel formants

Dictionary

-noun

(phonetics) A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.
A letter representing the sound of vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o and u, and sometimes y.

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