Língua Inglesa V

Aula 9

Paula Bullio
a) Vowels in English

2
 Long vowels

• We must start talking about the long vowels saying

that they happen in similar contexts as the short
vowels.
• It happens because the length of all English vowel
sounds varies very much according to their context
and the presence or absence of stress.
• To remind you that these vowels tend to be long,
the symbols consist of one vowel symbol plus a
length mark made of two dots :. We have: ɨ:, ɜ:, ɑ:,
ɔ:, u:. We have six short vowels and five long
vowels.
Scanned from ROACH, P. English Phonetics and
Phonology – a pratical course, Cambridge, CUP, 2009
• ɨ: example words: beat, mean, peace

• This vowel is nearer to cardinal vowel 1, i.e, it is

closer and more front than is the short vowel of
bid, pin and fish. Although the tongue shape is not
much different from cardinal vowel 1, the lips are
only slightly spread and this results in a rather
different vowel quality.
• ɜ: example words: bird, fern, purse

• This is a mid-central vowel which is used in

most English accents as a hesitation sound
(written “er”), but which many learners find
difficult to copy. The lip position is neutral.
• ɑ: example words: card, half, pass

• This is an open vowel in the region of cardinal

vowel 5, but not as back as this. The lip
position is neutral
• ɔ: example words: board, torn, horse

• The tongue height for this vowel is between

the cardinal vowel 6 and 7 and closer to the
latter. This vowel is almost fully back and has
quite strong lip rounding.
• u: example words: food, soon, loose

• The nearest cardinal vowel to this is 8, but

this is much less back and less close, while
the lips are only moderately rounded.
 Diphthongs
• In terms of length, diphthongs are similar to the
long vowels.

• Perhaps the most important thing to remember

about the diphthongs is that the first part is much
longer and stronger than the second part; for
example, most of the diphthong “aɪ” (as in the
words “eye” and “I”) consists of the “a” and a glide ɪ.

• We should always remember that the last part of

English diphthongs must not be made too strongly.
• The total number of diphthongs is eight. The
easiest way to remember them is in terms of
three groups divided as in this diagram:

Scanned from ROACH, P. English Phonetics and Phonology – a

pratical course, Cambridge, CUP, 2009
Let’s observe some examples
 The syllable
• The syllable is a very important unit. Most
people believe that even if they cannot define
what a syllable is, they can count on how
many syllables there are in a given word or
sentence.
• If they are asked to do this they often tap their
fingers as they count: syllable’s importance in
the rhythm of speech.
• If one tries the experiment of asking a native
speaker to count the syllables in a sentence,
there is often disagreement.
• When we looked at the nature of vowels
and consonants, it is shown that one could
decide whether a particular sound was a
vowel or a consonant on phonetic grounds
(in relation to how much they obstructed
the airflow) or on phonological grounds
(vowels and consonants having different
distributions).
• We find a similar situation with the syllable,
in that it may be defined both phonetically
and phonologically.

• Phonetically – in relation to the way we

produce them and the way they sound - ,
syllables are usually described as consisting
of a center which has little or no obstruction
to airflow and which sounds comparatively
loud; before and after this center (i.e at the
beginning and end of the syllable), there will
be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less
loud sound.
• What we will call a minimum syllable is a single
vowel in isolation (“are”, “or”, “er”). These are
preceded and followed by a silence. Example:
“m”, which sometimes indicate agreement, or
“ʃ”, to ask for silence.
• Some syllables have an onset – that is, instead
of silence, they have one or more consonants
preceding the center of the syllable: “bar”, “key”,
“more”.
• Syllables may have no onset but have a coda –
that is, they end with one or more consonants:
“am”, “ought”, “ease”.
• Some syllables have both onset and coda:
“ran”, “sat”, “fill”
• Phonologically is quite different. What this
involves is looking at the possible combinations
of English phonemes;
• The study of the possible phoneme
combinations of a language is called
phonotactis. It is simplest to start by looking at
what can occur in initial position.
• No word begins with more than three
consonants. In the same way, we can look at
how a word ends: it can end with a vowel, or
with one, two, three or four consonants. No
current word ends with more than four
consonants.
 Syllable division
• There are still problems with the description of
the syllables: an unanswered question is how
we decide on the division between syllables
when we find a connected sequence of them
as we usually do in normal speech.
 Syllable Division Rules

• Separate prefixes, suffixes, and root

words
– pre/view, work/ing, re/do, end/less,
out/side
• Are two consonants next to each other?
– buf/fet, des/sert, ob/ject, ber/ry, fer/ry
• Never split 2 consonants that (when
pronounced together) make only 1 sound
– "th", "sh", "ph", "th", "ch", and "wh"
• Is the consonant surrounded by vowels?
– Does the 1st vowel have a long sound? (Like
the 'i' in line)
• Divide before the consonant.
• ba/by, re/sult, i/vy, fro/zen, Cu/pid
– Does the 1st vowel have a short sound? (Like
the 'i' in mill)
• Divide after the consonant.
• rav/age, met/al, riv/er, mod/el, cur/tal
• Is there a 'ckle' in the word? Divide right before
the 'le'.
– tack/le, freck/le, tick/le, buck/le
• Is there a 'le'? Divide 1 letter before the 'le'.
– ap/ple, rum/ble, fa/ble, ta/ble
• Reading
• DE SAUSSURE, Ferdinand. (1916). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris:
Payot.
• SAPIR, Edward (1925). "Sound patterns in language". Language 1 (2): 37–51.
• _______ (1933). "La réalité psychologique des phonémes". Journal de
Psychologie Normale et Pathologique 30: 247–265.
• STAMPE, David. (1979). A dissertation on natural phonology. New York:
Garland.
• SWADESH, Morris (1934). "The phonemic principle". Language 10 (2): 117–129.
• TRAGER, George L.; Bloch, Bernard (1941). "The syllabic phonemes of
English". Language 17 (3): 223–246.
• TWADDELL, William F. (1935). On defining the phoneme. Language monograph
no. 16. Language.

• References
• GODOY, S.; GONTOW, C.; MARCELINO, M. English Pronunciation for
Brazilians. SP, Disal, 2006
• HARLEY, Trevor A., The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory, 2nd ed.
Psychology Press, 2001
• ROACH, P. English Phonetics and Phonology – a pratical course, Cambridge,
CUP, 2009
• UNDERHILL, A. Sound Foundations – Learning and teaching pronunciation,
Macmillan, Oxford, 2005
Língua Inglesa V

Atividade 9

Paula Bullio
buck third sock saw
truck bird lock straw

net cat feet kill

pet hat eat hill

train flute book

plane boot cook