Prepared by; Rica Mae R.

Aguado BSE 2A

1.) Describe vowels.

• A vowel is most often identified as a letter that is not a consonant. More specifically, a
vowel is a sound that when paired with a consonant makes a syllable.A vowel is any sound that
a letter makes that is not a consonant sound.

•There are five English vowels,A, E, I, O, U.

•Sometimes, Y can also function as a vowel, but it is not considered a vowel in and of itself.
When sounding vowels, your breath flows freely through the mouth.

•Unlike consonants, each of the vowel letters has more than one type of sound or can even be
silent with no sound at all

2.)Difference between monopthongs and dipthongs.

• Monophthong (pronounced "Mono-F-thong")it is simply a vowel. The word

monophthong shows that a vowel is spoken with exactly one tone and one mouth position. For
example, when you say "teeth", then while you are creating the sound of the "ee", nothing
changes for that sound. A monophthong can be a lexeme of a language and as such it can as
well be a syllable. There is no shorter syllable than a single monophthong. While, diphthong is a
sound made by combining two vowels, specifically when it starts as one vowel sound and goes
to another, like the oy sound in oil. So diphthongs are double vowel sounds in words like late,
ride, or pout. If two vowels in a row are the same, as in boot or beer, then it's not a diphthong.

3.)Example of simple vowels (monopthongs) and (dipthongs).

Monopthongs- Apple, Map, Truck, Man, (a)

Set, Jet, Bent, met (e)

Tips, Strip, Tin (i)

Top, hot, offer, pollen (o)

Cut, hug, mutt, strut (u)

Dipthongs- Cry, My, Like, Bright, Lime, Lake, iRain, Lay, Eight

4.)Basic parameters for describing vowels. As high-front unrouded vowel.

Whatever variety of English is spoken, vowels may be differentiated by differences in five main
parameters:
 1.)Openness of the mouth

Vowels differ from one another according to the extent to which the jaws are either open or
close (not ‘closed’, as a complete closure would prevent the free flow of air out of the mouth).
Look at yourself in a mirror and say the vowel sound /ɑ/, as in the word palm. It should be
obvious that the jaws are wide apart and you have adopted a relatively open mouth posture.
This is, therefore, an open vowel. Now contrast this with the vowel /i/, as in the word fleece.
This time, you should notice that the mouth is nearly closed, i.e. the vowel /i/ is a close vowel.
You can both see and feel the relative openness or closeness of the mouth by alternating the
production of these vowels in quick succession (/i/ – /ɑ/ – /i/ – /ɑ/ – /i/ – /ɑ/) as you observe
yourself in a mirror.

The categories are:

close: the mouth is nearly closed, as we have seen with the vowel /i/

close-mid: this position is intermediate between a middle position (in which the mouth is open
almost exactly halfway) and the close position.

open-mid: this position is intermediate between a middle position (in which the mouth is open
almost exactly halfway) and the open position.

open: the mouth is wide open, as with the vowel /ɑ/

2.)Tongue elevation

The tongue can take up a variety of positions in the mouth. On the vertical axis it is usually
described as taking up one of three positions: [high, mid, low]

An example of the tongue occupying a high position is the vowel sound /i/ as in the word fleece
(which we know is also a close vowel). Try saying /i/ aloud again whilst looking in a mirror. This
time, instead of focusing on the position of the jaws, see and feel that the front portion of the
tongue is elevated relatively high in the mouth. Now contrast this with the vowel /æ/ as in the
word trap. This time you should notice that the tongue takes up a low position in the mouth. An
example of a vowel in which the tongue is placed about halfway between high and low is the
sound /ɛ/ as in the word dress. This is, therefore, described as a mid vowel.

When articulating vowels, there is a correlation between tongue elevation and openness of the
mouth. Close vowels (with the mouth relatively closed) are articulated with a relatively high
tongue elevation. In contrast, open vowels are typically articulated with a relatively low tongue
position.

3.)Position of tongue elevation

Whereas the elevation of the tongue describes the position of the tongue on the vertical axis
(high, mid, low), the ‘position of tongue elevation’ refers to where this elevation takes place on
the horizontal axis. Again, three positions are recognized: [front, central, back]

Referring once more to the vowel /i/, we have noted that it is both a close vowel and a high
vowel. In addition, you may have noticed when observing yourself articulating this sound in a
mirror that the elevation of the tongue is at the front of the mouth. It is, therefore, also
described as a front vowel. This is because the highest point of the tongue is towards the front
of the mouth, below the front portion of the hard palate. Now contrast this again with the
vowel /ɑ/, as in the word palm. This time, as you say the vowel aloud, you should feel that the
tongue elevation is towards the back of the mouth. This is, therefore, a back vowel sound, i.e.
the highest point of tongue elevation is towards the back of the mouth, below the soft palate.
The central position is harder to both see and feel but an example of this is the vowel /ɜ/ as in
the Southern British English pronunciation of the word nurse. Central vowels are, logically,
articulated with the highest point of the tongue intermediate between the front of the mouth
(below the front portion of the hard palate) and the back of the mouth (below the soft palate).

4.) Lip shape

During the production of English vowels, just two lip shapes are usually adopted: [ rounded,
unrounded]

The difference can be illustrated by alternating between saying the vowel sounds /u/, as in the
word goose and /i/, as in the word fleece. Look at yourself once more in a mirror as you
alternate between saying these vowels in rapid succession (/u/ – /i/ – /u/ – /i/ – /u/ – /i/). You
will see that the lips are rounded and pushed forwards for the production of /u/ but that they
are spread (unrounded) for the vowel /i/.

5.) Length of vocalization

Without exception, vowels are produced with the vocal folds vibrating. They are, therefore,
all voiced. In addition, vowels may be sustained for relatively longer and shorter intervals of
time. They are categorized as: [long, short]

Again, saying the vowel sound /u/, as in the word goose. This can be heard to be a relatively
long vowel if you now contrast this by saying the vowel /æ/ as in trap.

A further example of a long vowel is /i/, as in peat. This can be contrasted with the short
vowel /ɪ/, as in pit. Again, try speaking aloud these two words, alternating between them, i.e.
peat – pit – peat – pit, and so on. This should help you distinguish the relative difference in the
length of vocalization of /i/ and /ɪ/. Sometimes, for example when it is important to make clear
that a particular vowel is a long vowel, a colon-like mark (ː) is placed after the symbol for the
vowel, e.g. /iː/, /uː/, /ɑː/.
5.) Difference between tense and lax vowels.

Lax vowels are also called short vowels, and tense vowels are also called long vowels. In one
syllable words that end in a vowel, that vowel is typically tense. In one syllable words that end in
a consonant, the vowel is typically lax. Compare, be - bet, say - sat, to - top, and so on.

6.) Describe the following suprasegmentals:

a.) PITCH (tone and intonation)- refers to the perception of relative frequency (e.g. perceptually
high-pitched or low-pitched). Tone refers to significant (i.e. meaningful, constrastive, phonemic)
constrasts between words signalled by pitch differences. Tone may be lexical, as in Mandarin Chinese.
Intonation refers to the rise and fall of voice pitch over entire phrases and sentences, even in non-tone
languages, such as English.

b.) LENGTH- the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may have arisen from one etymologically, such
as in Australian English.

c.) STRESS- or accent is relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word, or to a
certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as increased
loudness and vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and changes in pitch.