The presentation examines the characteristics of American English vowels, including their features like lip position and tongue height, and discusses the impact of consonants like /ɹ/ and /l/ on vowel sounds. It also explores nasal consonants and the phenomenon of reduced vowels, highlighting the common occurrence of schwa and other unstressed vowel forms. Additionally, the effect of dialectical variations on vowel pronunciation is noted.

1. Vowels

2. In this presentation, we’ll look at the
vowels, in particular, the vowels of
American English, and some of the
challenges they pose.

3. Vowels are
characterized by
4 features:
● Lip position: rounded,
neutral of spead
● Muscle tension: tense
versus lax
● Tongue height: high, mid,
low
● Tongue advancement:
front, central, back

4. In addition,
NAE has
several
dipthongs
which include a
glide
movement.

5. 2 more
points about
vowels
All vowels are voiced.
All vowels are continuents -
during articulation of vowel
sounds, the airstream
escapes from the mouth in
an unobstructed manner.

6. More on vowel length
Sonorants include:
● All vowels
● Glides
● Liquids
● Nasals
There is a continuum of vowel
lengthening related to whether
the vowel does or does not
occur before a sonorant -
consonants that can be syllabic.
(Non sonorants are called
obstruents.)

7. CONTINUUM OF LAX VOWELS
Longer Shorter
Final voiced
sonorant consonant
Final voiced
obstruent consonant
Final Voiceless
consonant
/ɪ/ hill hid hit
/ɛ/ bell bed bet
/æ/ bang bad bat
/ʊ/ bull could cook
/ʌ/ bun buzz bus

8. CONTINUUM OF LAX VOWELS
Longer Shorter
Final voiced
sonorant consonant
Final voiced
obstruent consonant
Final Voiceless
consonant
/ɑ/ pa, palm pod pot
/ɔ/ law, lore laud loss

9. CONTINUUM OF TENSE VOWELS & DIPHTHONGS
Longer Shorter
No consonant or
final voiced
consonant
Final voiced
obstruent
consonant
Final Voiceless
consonants
/i/ bee, beer bead beet
/eɪ/ bay, bale bayed bait
/oʊ/ go, goal goad goat
/u/ boo, boom booed boot
/ɑʊ/ plow, our loud lout

10. CONTINUUM OF TENSE VOWELS & DIPHTHONGS (cont)
Longer Shorter
No consonant or
final voiced
consonant
Final voiced
obstruent
consonant
Final Voiceless
consonants
/ɑɪ/ buy, pyre bide bite
/ɔɪ/ boy, boil void voice

11. /ɹ/ coloring -
(the impact
of post
vocalic /ɹ/)
/ɹ/ coloring occurs
● when it follows a
vowel
● and occurs in the
same syllable

12. What happens to the vowel?
In anticipation of the /ɹ/, the vowel glides to the central /ɹ/
position and it takes on some retroflex qualities. This often
drastically alters the pronunciation of the vowel. For example,
in the word beard,is the vowel /i/ or / ɪ/? If we transcribe it as
/biɹd/ or as /bɪɹd/, neither really captures the precise
articulation of the /ɹ/ colored vowel.

13. Another example...
What about a word like hurt? Our text suggests a new symbol:
/ɜʳ/ but we can also use syllabic /ɹ̩ /. I’ve also seen some books
use /ɚ/ and I often find this to be a useful symbol for some
examples of /ɹ/ coloring.
Of course, this only fits some vowels. We would not use it in
beard. In fact, when vowels are colored by /ɹ/ some
distinctions may merge or disappear as in the table on the next
slide.

14. Distinction between /ɹ/ less and /ɹ/ colored vowels
Inventory of /ɹ/-less vowels Inventory of /ɹ/-colored vowels
/i/ bead
/ɪ/ bid
/eɪ/ bait
/ɛ / bed
/æ/ bad
/u/ pooch
/ʊ/ put
/oʊ/ load
/ɔ/ laud
/ɪɹ/ beard
(In some dialects, /iɹ/ occurs instead)
/ɛɹ/ bared
(In some dialects, /eɪɹ/ or /æɹ/ occurs instead)
/ʊɹ/ poor
(In some dialects, /uɹ/, /ɜʳ/ or even /oʊɹ/ occurs
instead)
/ɔɹ/ lord
(In some dialects, /oʊɹ/ occurs instead)

15. /l/ coloring
Post-vocalic /l/
also has an
impact on the
preceding
vowel although
not as much as
/ɹ/.
The effect of velarized (dark) [ɫ] is
most noticeable on front vowels
which are pulled back to create
more centralized versions than their
counterparts without /l/.
Vowel Centralized
(w/our postvocalic /l/)
Velarized
(colored by postvocalic /l/)
/i/
/ɪ/
/eɪ/
/ɛ/
/æ/
see, seed
Mick
may, maize
hep
tack
seal, sealed
milk
male, males
help
talc

16. Coloring of
vowels by
nasal
consonants
Nasals also impact the preceding
vowel causing the vowels to take on
a nasalized quality. Although our
text does not mention this, nasalized
vowels are often marked with a tilda
[ṽ].
Compare see vs. seen or seem
/si/ [sı̃m] [sı̃n]

17. Nasal assimilation is necessary to make a
smooth transition between an oral and nasal
sound.
There are also degrees of vowel nasalization in NAE:
Least
Initial Nasal Final Nasal
Greatest
Both Initial &
Final Nasal
maid
met
gnat
note
aim
ten
tan
home
main
men
man
gnome

18. Reduced
Vowels
A typical characteristic of English is
the frequent occurrence of reduced
vowels in the speech stream. The
most common of these is the
mid-central schwa /ə/, especially if
we include reduced vowels with
postvocalic /ɹ/.

19. Reduced
Vowels
(cont)
However, /ə/ is not the only reduced
vowel sound found in unstressed
syllables. There are also reduced
versions of /ɪ/ /i/ /o/ /u/.
Note that several of these are tense
vowels. Also note that /o/ is no
longer a diphthong. In all cases,
these front and back vowels become
more central due to lack of stress.

20. The Additional Unstressed Vowels of NAE
/ɪ/
● •
/i/
● •
/o/
● •
/o/
• ●
/u/
● •
music
reddish
sleeping
city
sassy
candy
meadow
narrow
shadow
hotel
motel
rosette
into
venue
menu

21. More on reduced vowels...
Whether to use schwa or one of the other reduced vowels
can be idiosyncratic or possibly dialectal, so there isn’t
necessarily a “right” or “wrong” choice.
Unstressed vowels occur in
● multisyllabic words
● function words

22. Function words include...
● Articles: the, a/an
● Prepositions: on, of, at,
in, to, etc.
● Copula be: am, are
● Auxiliary verbs: is, was,
has, have, can, will,
would, etc.
● Pronouns: he, you, his,
her, them, our, that, etc.
● Conjunctions: and, but,
or, as, than
● Conditionals: if

23. More on function words
Note that functions words have
● a stressed citation form (where the vowel is stressed
when the word is spoken in isolation, out of context)
AND
● a reduced form (the version that normally occurs in
natural speech