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<strong>LG204</strong>-5-FY ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Background Approximants There are four phonemic approximants in English. Three [ w j] are classified as ‘central’ and the fourth [l] as lateral. If we divide them in a different way, we can say that [ l] are ‘liquids and [w j] are glides (see above). These approximants share a number of attributes. They may occur as the second element of word initial consonant clusters, although, as we shall see, there is some doubt about the status of [j] in this context. We’ll discuss this next term. When preceded by voiceless obstruents, approximants will be voiceless (e.g. play, pry, fry, fly, three, sleep, try, shriek, climb, cry, swim, twin, queen, cute, few, pure). /l/ has two positional allophones i.e. [l] (clear l) in syllable onsets and [] (dark l) in syllable rhymes. In many dialects dark l is vocalised (full [fuw]). The extent to which such vocalisation occurs and the contexts in which it is more likely to appear is a matter for research. In non-rhotic dialects, // occurs only in syllable onsets having been replaced by [] particularly following non-low vowels, although in recent years the schwa has also tended to disappear except where the preceding vowel is high. (fear [f], hour [a] higher [ha] but dare [d:] door [d:] etc.). As I mentioned in class, // also has two allophones (although the dark variant lacks a symbol as far as I can ascertain – this may be because it’s usually attached to a vowel – Ladefoged discusses rhoticised vowels in AmEng. For example [] for the vowel in dare in contrast to [] in a non-rhotic dialect. References Ladefoged P. (2001) A Course in Phonetics Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers THE VOWELS OF ENGLISH Over the past two weeks, we have discussed the articulation of English consonants and have been able to give a pretty accurate description of how and where they are articulated. This is because there is an interruption to the airstream that it’s possible to pinpoint. We found out, of course, that the consonants can be influenced by position in the word or by neighbouring sounds, which will cause them to vary in a number of ways. However, it’s still possible to describe the variation in terms of place, manner and voicing etc. When we come to the description of vowels, however, we have no points like this to guide us. There is no interruption to the airflow. Vowels involve the vibration of the vocal folds and a free passage of air. If we practise this we get something like []. So how do we vary vowel quality in order to give us a greater range than just one vowel? This can be achieved by changing the shape and size of the resonating chamber – the mouth. When the vibrating air particles enter this chamber, they will produce different notes according to this shape and size. This can be compared with the trick some people perform with glasses of water. They put different amounts of water into glasses and then play a tune by 12
<strong>LG204</strong>-5-FY ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Background pinging on the side of the glasses. The notes will be produced by the air resonating in the top of the glass and because the area of air in the glasses varies, so different notes can be produced. We can alter the shape of our oral cavity by using the tongue which can be raised, lowered (both from a neutral position – roughly the position of the vowel []) or can be retracted. In addition, a further dimension of lip-rounding can be added. Let’s start by going through the set of English vowels in relation to the relevant vowels in the set of cardinal vowels. The cardinal vowels are a set of reference points, idealised vowels which don’t all occur in any language. When we’ve located these reference points, we can plot in the English vowels. The English vowels show great variability across different accents, much more than do consonants. I shall stick to a fairly neutral set of Southern British vowels in the main, but may well make reference to other accents if it seems appropriate. There are 2 sets of cardinal vowels – primary and secondary – each containing 8. English has rough equivalents to all the primary set and to one or possibly two of the secondary set. In addition, there are a number of vowels which don’t figure even approximately in either set, and several diphthongs. The cardinal vowels were the brainchild of phonetician Daniel Jones. Two of them (1 and 5) have articulatory descriptions, the others are located in terms of their acoustic properties. They are equidistant from each other acoustically. Cardinal 1 requires the tongue to be placed as high in the oral cavity as it can be without creating frication. You may find that the sides of the tongue actually touch the back teeth but the air can still flow freely through the gap in the centre. This vowel is [i]. Cardinal 5 is formed by lowering the back part of the tongue to such an extent that the mouth is wide open. This is the vowel the doctor tells you to say in order to look down your throat. The symbol is []. The other two corners of the vowel trapezium are 4 – a low front vowel [] (note that this is not the vowel in this position in the IPA chart, where the symbol [a] is used) and 8 – a high back vowel [u], which involves a considerable amount of lip-rounding. The other four primary cardinals are 2, a slightly larger cavity than [i], for which the symbol is [e], as in the French word bée, which, as you will notice, is very different from the nearest English equivalent in bay. Cardinal 3 [] is closer to the French vowel in bête than that in the English word bet. The symbol for cardinal 6 is []. This is the symbol we would normally use for the vowel in caught. However, the cardinal is better exemplified by the sound in the French word côte (not to be confused with cot). Cardinal 7 is represented by [o], but is not the same as in bow, it’s more like the French beau. Both 6 and 7 involve lip rounding. Scottish English has vowels which are closer to the cardinals than does English English. The secondary cardinals reverse the lip settings of the primary set. All the front vowels and the low back [] involve spread or neutral lips, whilst the other back vowels involve lip rounding to some degree. Therefore the secondary set includes front rounded and back unrounded vowels. The two examples of secondary cardinals which can be found in English are 13 (rounded []) and 14 (unrounded []). It goes without saying that the English vowels are not exactly the same as the cardinal set. Cardinal 13 is represented by the symbol [] and 14 by the symbol []. 13
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