The Function of Quantity and Quality in the System of English Vowels

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1210.

Vowels have two main characteristics: vowel length and vowel quality. Which of these characteristics is distinctive? – It's quality.

Actually this problem has for a long time been the point of disagreement among phoneticians. Most Russian phoneticians think the difference in quality is decisive. They claim that a feature can be systemic if it does not depend on the context. The length of English vowels depends on a lot of factors, the first being the phonetic context.

Let's look at the following minimal pair: bit – bi:t. The vowels are practically the same in length, but the quality is different. In the minimal pair bit – bi:d the difference in length is obvious, but the difference in quality is still there. So the difference in quality is a stable distinctive feature, while vowel length is redundant.

Vowel quality is distinctive regardless of the position of the vowel. Vowel length is dependent on the phonetic context, in particular, on the following consonant. It is the so-called positional length. Vowels are longest in an open syllable, slightly shorter before a sonorant or a voiced lenis consonant, they are the shortest when followed by a voiceless fortis consonant: see-sead-seat, paw-pawn-pork, car – card – cart.

We've made the conclusion that vowel quality is a distinctive feature. Now what are the components of vowel quality?

1) Stability of articulation: monophthongs, diphthongs and diphthongoids. It is necessary to single out this group because it affects the meaning.

2) The position of the tongue

a) horizontal movement: front, front-retracted, central, back-advanced, back.

In some classifications front-retracted and back-advanced vowels are not distinguished, but it is necessary, because the meaning is affected.

b) vertical movement: high (close), mid, low (open).

We also distinguish two variants within each group – broad and narrow.

Sit – si:t ( broad, narrow); pot (broad) – po:t (narrow)

There are also such characteristics as lip rounding: rounded – unrounded, energy discharge: free (long vowels) – checked (short vowels) and tenseness ( long vowels – tense, short vowels – lax).

In conclusion I'd like to say that all the 20 vowel phonemes can be distinguished by quality alone, which makes this feature distinctive, or phonemic.