Classification of English vowels according to the degree of tenseness.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1657.

Classification of English vowels according to length.

Classification of English vowels according to the position of the lips.

According to the position of the lips vowels may be: 1. rounded and 2. unrounded.

1. Roundedvowels are those in the production of which the lips are more or less rounded and protruded.

2. Unroundedvowels are those in the production of which the lips are spread and neutral.

According to the position of the lips vowels may be: 1. long and 2. short.

According to the degree of tenseness vowels are divided i8nto two groups: 1. tense and 2. lax.

1. Tensevowels are those in the production of which the organs of speech are tense, that is to say, the muscles of the tongue, the walls of the mouth-resonator and of the pharynx are tense. All the English long vowels

are tense.

2. Laxvowels are those in the production of which the muscles of the organs of speech are less tense. All the English short vowels are lax.

The greater tenseness of long vowels is closely connected with their length. In pronouncing a long vowel the organs of speech are held in certain position for a rather long time. Retaining the quality of a long vowel unchanged requires greater muscular tension of the organs of speech than in the articulation of a short vowel.

In addition to the above principles, the English vowels are also classified according to the character of their end. From this point of view they may be: (a) checked and (b) free.

(a) checkedvowels are those which are pronounced without any diminution in the force of utterance to wards their end. They have, therefore, a strong end. Therefore they can only occur in a closed syllable, i.e. a syllable which ends in a consonant sound. All the English short vowels under stress are checked.

(b) freevowels are those which are pronounced with a diminution in the force of utterance to wards the end. Therefore, they have a weak end. Free vowels need not be immediately followed by a consonant and may, therefore occur at the end of a syllable. All the English long monophthongs and all the diphthongs are free, no matter whether they are stressed or not. The English short vowels in an unstressed syllable are also free.

The English vowel phonemes are not differentiated according to the position of thesoft palate.They are all oral,i.e. in the pronunciation of any English vowel the soft palate is always raised and the entire volume of air passes out through the mouth cavity.