LG204 background.pdf
LG204 background.pdf
LG204 background.pdf
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<strong>LG204</strong>-5-FY ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Background<br />
In addition to the above vowels, of course, there is one on the chart which is not listed<br />
as phonemic. This is schwa []. The reason it isn’t listed is that it isn’t phonemic.<br />
More on schwa later in the course.<br />
Listing the vowels in the way we have appears to indicate that the pure vowels behave<br />
in some sense as a set as do the diphthongs. However, notice that some of the pure<br />
vowels will occur minimally paired with the diphthongs in final open syllables<br />
whereas others may not.<br />
Thus:<br />
3.<br />
[e] bay [a] buy [a] bough [o] bow [] boy<br />
[i] bee [u] boo [] bar [] bur [] bore<br />
4.<br />
[] *b [] *b [] *b<br />
[] *b [] *b [] *b<br />
Notice from the above charts that the vowels are now grouped, not as pure and<br />
complex, but as long (3) and short (4). Long vowels may occur freely in open final<br />
syllables or in open monosyllables whereas short ones may not. Another way of<br />
distinguishing between the set of ‘long’ vowels and the set of ‘short’ ones is by<br />
describing the former as ‘tense’ and the latter as ‘lax’. These two labels correlate<br />
roughly with the feature [±ATR] although this correlation is problematic, because<br />
whilst for non-low vowels tenseness roughly corresponds to advanced tongue root,<br />
this is not true of low vowels. It is generally acknowledged that [] is [+ATR] and<br />
[] is [−ATR], the reverse of their settings for tenseness.<br />
(Non-rhotic) English also has what are known as ‘centring diphthongs’. Like the<br />
other English diphthongs, these diphthongs have the syllabic peak as the first element,<br />
however, in spite of the fact that the ‘offglide’ schwa may be more sonorous than the<br />
syllabic peak. ([] as in hear has a sonority profile of 45). In addition of these<br />
centring diphthongs there are also 2 triphthongs. All of these are listed below:<br />
[] hear *[] dare †[] poor †[] door **[a] hire<br />
[a] higher [a] hour<br />
* This diphthong has tended to be monophthongised as [:] (dare = [d:])<br />
† Both the diphthongs [] and [] are very rarely heard, and the contrast between<br />
poor (formerly [p]), pour (formerly [p]) and paw has been neutralised as [p].<br />
** For many speakers this diphthong does not exist and hire and higher are<br />
homophones [ha].<br />
We shall be discussing this form of diphthong in the context of rime structure<br />
constraints and moraic structure later in the course.<br />
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