This document discusses vowels and how they are produced in speech. It explains that vowels involve an unobstructed airflow from the lungs, and that languages vary in the number of vowels they have in their systems. It also describes how vowels are classified based on three factors: height or tongue position in the mouth, frontness or backness of tongue position, and lip rounding. Finally, it maps out the vowel space of English and labels the standard vowels according to these classification factors.

1. Phonetics vowels

2. vowels free flow of air there is no blocking or constriction of air flow Vowels are extremely important as most of the time syllable is built around a vowel Languages vary as to the number of vowels in their systems Ubhyk a now extinct language has been analysed as having only one, but 80 consonants! Some languages have more vowels than consonants Hawaiian has 8 consonants but 10 vowels, 5 long ones and five short ones

3. Where are vowels made

4. The vowel space Regularised as a wonky quadrilateral The left is the front of the mouth It is sloped because the lower jaw is shorter than the upper jaw

5. Dividing up vowels Unlike most consonants where we have to make discrete muscle movements to change from one consonant to another The vowel space is continuous … diphthongs shows us this So dividing up the vowels is a bit tricky But like consonants we can use three features to label them Height, tongue position, lip position

6. Height differences in vowels different positions of tongue and jaw It is the lower jaw that moves up and down towards or away from the fixed upper jaw. Different vowels of English are along this pathway Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooo BEAT >BID>BET>BAT>(BARD) BOOT>BIRD/SCHWA?CAUGHT>BARD/POT

7. Labelling height HIGH/CLOSE CLOSE MID/MID_HIGH LOW/OPEN BEAT BIT DRESS TAP BOOT PUT CAUGHT BUT POT BARD OPEN MID/MID-LOW BIRD SCHWA

8. Labelling tongue position Different vowels require raising and lowering of the tongue in different places in your mouth Say iiiiiiiiiii with your finger in your mouth Where do you feel pressure most from your tongue? What about with uuuuuuuuuu? Front versus back versus central

9. The vowel space FRONT CENTRAL BACK heed hid head had food good caught hut f a ther

10. Lips? Round or spread Like the voiced/voiceless distinction this creates pairs of vowels On the left on IPA vowel charts is the spread vowel. Lips are flat. On the right of the pair lips are rounded. In English all the front vowels are spread Most of our back vowels are rounded except the BARD vowel and the BUT

11. English vowels cot  Bard/  ɑ bat  low caught  but  bet  Mid-low a bout  bird  Mid-high put  bit  Lower High boot  beat  High Back rounded Back unrounded Central unrounded Front unrounded

12. The cardinal vowels FRONT CENTRAL BACK         Idealised vowels at the extreme points of the vowel space. All cardinal front vowels are unrounded. Back vowels are round  8  7 6  4  5  3  2  1

13. Other common distinctions Long vowels Some linguists add : to BEAT, i.e. i: as well as the BARD< BOOT AND CAUGHT vowels to show that they are longer than the DRESS CAT BUT PUT POT Vowels Not really necessary. More important for languages which distinguish long vowels and short vowels where the mouth is exactly or almost exactly the same Māori he ‘a/some’ he: ‘error’

14. Nasalised vowels nasal stops block the airflow in the oral cavity but allow air out the nose in a continuous stream Nasal vowels allow air through the nasal cavity as well as the oral cavity In English vowels are nasalised if they are near nasal consonants but some languages have which are inherently nasal Warao, Amazon hiha ‘your hammock’ hĩhã ‘kind of bird’