Phonetics:Vowels and diphthongs

What is phonetics? - Phonetics is the study of the actual

sounds of a language.

- You don’t realise many of those sounds exists, but they are there.

- Ex. If you say the word Top, there is a small puff of air after the [t]. It´s call aspiration. English speakers don´t hear it, but its there.

What is phonology? - Phonology studies which sounds make

differences in a language.

- Ex. We have 6 ways to pronounce /t/ in English:

The IPA ( International phonetic alphabet)Lets linguistics write down the actual sounds of the language.

Basic segment of speech:- The Vowel Chart.

- The Primary Set.

- The secondary Set. ( In this presentation we will only pay attention to the first set, those that we use in English)

The Cardinal Vowels:- Four references point

- In terms of articulatory limits/extremes

- Depend on different tongue position (narrowing)

- And tongue height

First vowel:

Highest tongue position in the mouth and the most front quality.

Second vowel just in the opposite:

The lowest possible tongue position, you have to open your mouth and the most back quality.

Third vowel:

The tongue its extremely low and has a very much front quality.

Fourth vowel:

Back quality and when the tongue is extremely high in the moth

- With this parameter we can now create two sets of cardinal vowels:

The primary set:

Cardinals from one to five are produced with spread lips.

Cardinals from six to eight are produce with rounded lips.

English vowels set:

Lips in a neutral position.

The schaw is an unstressed central vowel and is the most common vowel to appear in English.

Most important spelling:Long and short vowels and

minimal pairs

/i:/- ee: see, feed, bee- ea: read, eat- ie: shield, fiel- e: scence [si:n], be, these- eo: people- ey: key- ay: quay

Most important spelling:

/i/Mainly : “I” and “y”:

- Rich, lady, body, milk - In unstressed position it may be

represented by any vowel

Minimal pairs:/i:/ /i/

Most important spelling:

/e/Ea: head, deadE: bed, pen, sell A: many, any

/ /“a”: hand, match, lamp

Minimal pairs

Most important spelling:

/a:/- a: ask, grass, car.- er, eae: clerk, heart- al: half, calm- au: aunt, laugh

Minimal pairs

Most important spelling: / /

- o: not, box, dog- a: want, what, watch- au: because- ou: cough- ow: knowledge

Most important spelling:

/ / - o: horse- oor: poor- ore: more- aw: saw, law- oar: board - ou: bought

Minimal pairs

Most important spelling:

/ / - u: full, put- oo: book, look - ou: could, should- o: woman

/ U: /- oo: spoon, shoot, troop, boom- ou: soup, route- o: do- u: June, flu- ew, ue, ui, oe: jew, suit, shoe, blue

Minimal pairs:

Most important spelling: /^/

- u: sun run, fun- o: won, come, done- ou: country, southern, young- oo: blood, flood

Minimal pairs

Most important spelling: / /- ir: first - er: serve- ear: earth- ur: nurse- or: word - our: journey

Minimal pairs

Most important spelling: / /

-It has no regular character to represent it.-As it never occurs in stressed position, there are no contrastive elements.