DOCSLIB.ORG

English Vowels Basic Vowel Description Tense And

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
English Vowels Basic Vowel Description Tense And Main vowel symbols of GA and WCE Front Central Back* Height [i] ‘beat’ [u] ‘boot’ higher high English vowels [I] ‘bit’ [U] ‘book’ lower high [e] ‘bait’ [o] ‘boat’ higher mid [E] ‘bet’ [´] ‘sofa’ [ç] ‘ bought, GA’ lower mid Narrow transcription [! ] ‘but’ [Å] ‘Bob, bought WCE’ higher low [Q] ‘bat’ [A] ‘Bob, GA’ lower low •Back vowels except [A] are rounded; the rest are unrounded • [Å] is described as lower low in your text and IPA. I’ll take either. It is ROUNDED • [e] and [o] are the first part (nucleus) of the diphthongs [ej] and [ow] 1 3 Basic vowel description Tense and Lax • The basic descriptors for vowels are HAR • English phonology traditionally makes the – Height distinction between tense and lax vowels – Advancement – This is not phonetically well-defined as a single – Rounding characteristic • It is useful to subdivide each height class into a – You just need to learn which vowels are classed as tense and lax ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ subdivision – You should learn all the heights in the next chart • This distinction based mainly on phonotactics – Phonotactics is the description of which sounds can occur together in a legal word or syllable of a language 2 4 Duration patterns tense and lax Occurrence of TENSE Vs vowels • Vowels called ‘tense’ occur freely at the ends of • Tense vowels are longer than lax vowels of the one syllable words same general height class i, ej, u, ow, Å ( A and ç in GA) /i/ longer than /I/ /u/ longer than /U/ • Also tense : aj, aw, çj /ej/ longer than /E/ • Examples : • The tense back vowels /ow/ and /Å/ (both /A/ and – ‘bee’, ‘bay’, ‘too’, ‘tow’ , ‘law’ ( ‘spa’ and ‘law’ in GA) /ç/ in GA) are longer than the lax central /! / • An exception to the ‘lax vowels shorter than tense’ is /Q/ – It is often as long as any other vowel 5 7 Length of tense v. lax vowels: All Occurrence of LAX Vs other things being equal • Vowels called ‘lax’ can mostly occur in one syllable words • Vowel length in English is affected by only if they end in a consonant I, E, U, ! , Q, many factors • Also lax : weak vowels like ´ • All other things being equal, a tense vowel • Examples : ‘bit’, ‘bet’, ‘put’, ‘but’ , ‘bat’ – No easy examples of these vowels at ends of 1-syllable English is longer than a lax vowel of a similar words height • Try to think of some – (Exception /Q/ is not shorter than low tense vowels (e.g., /Å/ ) 6 8 Transcribing vowel length for Moderately narrow transcription tense vs lax vowels of length • In a narrow transcription we can indicate relative • Ordinarily, we will not transcribe vowel length even in length of vowels by diacritics narrow transcriptions – [A>] Slightly longer than ‘baseline’ • On special occasions when attention is focused on length – [A˘] Substantially longer than ‘baseline’ you should know a three way ranking for 1-syllable words • Rogers suggests – Tense vowels with two symbols don’t ever need extra marks (natural to assume [ej] longer than [e]) – Tense vowels with one symbol could be written with single raised dot [A>] 9 11 Allophonic vowel length: pre Length transcription conventions voiceless obstruents 1 syllable words • Vowel length in English is affected by many • From longest to shortest: Three degrees of length for one- factors symbol vowels • All other things being equal, a vowel is shorter • 1) Lax vowel before voiceless consonant: ‘bit’, when it is before a voiceless consonant in the [bIt] same syllable • 2) Lax vowel before voiced consonant or tense vowel before voiceless consonant (these are about the SAME – E.g. length) • /Q/ in ‘bat’ is shorter than in ‘bad’ or ‘ban’ ‘bid’ [bI>d] ; ‘beat’ [bi>t] • /E/ in ‘bet’ is shorter than in ‘bed’ or ‘bell’ • 3) Tense vowel elsewhere (before voiced consonant or at • /i/ in ‘beat’ is shorter than in ‘bead’ or ‘bees’ or ‘bee’ end of word) ‘be’ [bi:] , ‘bead’ [bi:d] 10 12 This is a little different from Other variations length: prosodics, rate Rogers More things we won’t transcribe • The above is for special exercises only. • Vowel length in English is affected by many factors • Actual facts of vowel duration in English are very complex • Vowels in various positions in longer utterances get • My rules are closer to the truth than Rogers, but it’s shorter or longer depending on position impossible to nail this down simply in a narrow • All other things being equal transcription – Vowels in syllables at ends of phrases get longer : prepausal • Our transcription in special exercises will be only to lengthening illustrate that we know the following reliable facts: – Vowels in two syllable utterances are shorter than those in one syllable utterances. ‘Dog’ in ‘Dog’ than in ‘Bad dog’ – Tense vowels are longer than similar lax vowels – Vowels in a ‘tonic’ syllable (most emphasized syllable) of a phrase – Vowels before voiceless consonants are shorter than the same longer than those not in tonic syllable vowel before voiced consonants (or at end of word) • S1: ‘You’re a good DOG’, S2: ‘You’re a GOOD dog’ • Dog longer is S1 than S2 13 15 Another source of length Nasalization of vowels One more thing we WILL transcribe with variation: Stress diacritic • Vowel length in English is affected by many factors • Vowels in English are noticeably nasalized when they • All other things being equal, a vowels with primary stress occur before nasal cosonants in same syllable is longer than one with secondary stress – ‘ban’ /bQn/ [bQ)n] – Vowel with weak stress is shortest of all – ‘bin’ /pIn/ [bI)n] • This is too much detail to note in transcription • Rogers suggests there is also nasalization after nasal C’s – We run out of diacritics!!! – But this is quite minor compared to nasalization before nasal • But you should still know that mores stressed vowels are consonants and we will ignore it in transcription longer than less stressed vowels in English ‘nab’ vs ‘ban’ – (It’s part of how we know what vowels are stressed) 14 16 Some special caes: Vowels Note also before /®/ before /®/ • Dialects of English do not show a full inventory of • Diphthongs /aj aw çj / also occur before /®/ tense and lax vowels before /®/ – ‘fire’, ‘flour’, ‘coir’ • Following the text, I will use ‘lax vowel’ symbols for most ‘simple’ pre-r vowels, though many • (last word rare = ‘coconut husk fibre’) sound at least as close to the nearby tense one • Some dialects have more vowels before /®/ – Exceptions – ‘cheery’, ‘Mary’, ‘merry’, ‘marry’, ‘Murray’ • Lower mid vowel in ‘bore’ /bçr/ • Low vowel in ‘bar’ /ba®/ or /ba®/ • Some have fewer • Rather than argue, I will accept alternates in next – ‘shore’, ‘lure’,‘sure’, ‘bore’, ‘tour’ chart 17 19 Other curious environments Example WCE vowels before /®/ / N S ( g Z )/ Word Rogers Alternate • Text notes that mainly only lax vowels occur before ‘beer’ bI® bi® N S – Some related restrictions apply to /g/ and /Z / in some ‘bare’ bE® be® dialects • There are some exceptional words, onomatopoea ‘tour’ tU® tu® and borrowings ‘bore’ bç® bo® • Not too important… but we’ll check some facts of local pronunciation ‘bar’ (tense!) bar bA® 18 20 WCE Vowels pre /N / For your edification • Facts not well documented in WCE--lets’ check /N/ • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frug – ‘ping’ ‘ring’ • The Frug was a dance craze from the 1960s that – ‘(Mr) Peng’ evolved from another dance of the era, The Chicken. – ‘pang’ The Chicken, which featured lateral body – ‘Hong Kong’ (tense vowel !!!) movements, was used primarily as a change of pace – ‘long’ (tense vowel !!!) step while doing The Twist. As young dancers grew – ‘hung’ more tired they would do less work, moving only their • Any other vowels or diphthongs? hips while standing in place. They then started making up arm movements for the dance, which – Hint : old McDonald prompted the birth of The Swim, The Monkey, The Dog, The Watusi, and The Jerk. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frug 21 23 WCE Vowels pre / g / WCE Vowels pre /S Z / • Facts not well documented in WCE--lets’ check /g/ • Again facts not well documented-- lets’ check – ‘league’ – ‘pig’ • ‘leash’, ‘leige’ (rare before /i/ - but easy) – ‘(the) Hague’ • ‘wish’ – ‘bag’ – ‘bug’ • ‘fresh’ – ‘berg’ – ‘(the) Frug’ • ‘crash’ – ‘sugar’ • ‘slosh’ – ‘dog’ – ‘hog’ • ‘push’ • Any other vowels? • ‘wash’ 22 24 Words with tense vowels before / Canadian raising /S Z / • Again facts not well documented-- lets’ check • The diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ in Cdn Eng • ‘leash’, ‘leige’ – The nuclei ( /a/ part) show ‘notorious’ raised • ‘woosh’, ‘swoosh’ ‘douche’ , ‘rouge’, ‘luge’ (higher ! / ! /) as well as shorter allophones before voiceless consonants • ‘wash’ ‘slosh’ ‘Taj (Mahal)’ • ‘ride’ / »®ajd / -> [» ®a> jd] • ‘slosh’ • ‘right’ / »®ajt / -> [» ®! jt] • ‘push’ • ‘loud’ / / -> • ‘wash’ »lawd [» la> wd] • ‘lout’ / lawt / -> [» l! wt] 25 27 Vowels before […] More than Canada • Vowels before dark l are often ‘retracted’ • Though rarely acknowledged, many other (‘backer’) than usual dialects show ‘half’ of Canadian raising • Sometimes there is a [´] like or [U] component – The vowel /aj/ is raised before voiceless sounds • ‘Trail’ vs ‘trade’ ´ [»tH®e˘ …] vs [»tH®e>jd] in many other dialects • Some dialects show ‘monophthongization’ of some back vowels – Americans and Canadians on TV know often – ‘coal’ [»kHo˘ …] rather than [»kHo>w …] use the phrase ‘out and about’ as a Canadian • Some dialects have lost some vowel distinctions shiboleth rather than ‘right makes might’ before l. – Salt Lake City ‘steel’ and ‘still’ 26 28.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Length and Voicing in Friulian and Milanese Francesc Torres-Tamarit
    Length and voicing in Friulian and Milanese Francesc Torres-Tamarit To cite this version: Francesc Torres-Tamarit. Length and voicing in Friulian and Milanese: Or why rule-free derivations are needed. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Springer Verlag, 2015, 33 (4), pp.1351-1386. 10.1007/s11049-014-9271-7. hal-01677835 HAL Id: hal-01677835 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01677835 Submitted on 8 Jan 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Length and voicing in Friulian and Milanese Or why rule-free derivations are needed Francesc Torres-Tamarit Received: date / Accepted: date Abstract This paper claims that phonology should express the relationship between vowel length and obstruent voicing operationally rather than in parallel. The empirical focus in on Friulian and Milanese. The distribution of vowel length in Friulian is predictable from the under- lying laryngeal specification of obstruents. Stressed vowels are long before underlyingly voiced word-final obstruents although they devoice. This situation creates opacity. In the light of the interaction between vowel lengthening and final devoicing, this paper argues in favor of Harmonic Serialism, a version of Optimality Theory that combines constraint ranking with serial deriva- tions.
    [Show full text]
  • Koine Pronunciation 2012
    Παράρτημα γ´ Ἡ Κοινὴ Προφορά 217 Ἡ Κοινὴ Προφορά Koiné Pronunciation Notes on the Pronunciation System of Koiné Greek, (These notes are of a technical nature beyond language learning, intended primarily for teachers.) When a person wants to use living language methods to learn a language, one is required to make some choices about what kind of pronunciation system to use. As long as students only need to write Greek or to look at Greek on a printed page, the pronunciation system is not a very important issue. As soon as students set their sights on a higher goal and want to include language learning methodologies that will lead to a fluent control of the language, they must come to grips with the need to include audio and oral material in a program. And audio material for an ancient language means that decisions must be made about the kind of pronunciation system to be used. Principles Governing the Pronunciation in this Course # 1. The pronunciation system is primarily intended for persons wishing to learn Koiné Greek, the general Greek dialect used from the third century before the Common Era (BCE) to the fourth century of the Common Era (CE). In particular, the focus is on the Koiné Greek of what is historically the Roman period in the land of Israel, 63 BCE to 325 CE. # 2. The pronunciation should preserve the same significant sound distinctions that were used in the Roman period. This means that the pronunciation system should be phonemic. This term will be explained below. # 3. The pronunciation system should, as far as practical, be historical.
    [Show full text]
  • Vowel Quality and Phonological Projection
    i Vowel Quality and Phonological Pro jection Marc van Oostendorp PhD Thesis Tilburg University September Acknowledgements The following p eople have help ed me prepare and write this dissertation John Alderete Elena Anagnostop oulou Sjef Barbiers Outi BatEl Dorothee Beermann Clemens Bennink Adams Bo domo Geert Bo oij Hans Bro ekhuis Norb ert Corver Martine Dhondt Ruud and Henny Dhondt Jo e Emonds Dicky Gilb ers Janet Grijzenhout Carlos Gussenhoven Gert jan Hakkenb erg Marco Haverkort Lars Hellan Ben Hermans Bart Holle brandse Hannekevan Ho of Angeliek van Hout Ro eland van Hout Harry van der Hulst Riny Huybregts Rene Kager HansPeter Kolb Emiel Krah mer David Leblanc Winnie Lechner Klarien van der Linde John Mc Carthy Dominique Nouveau Rolf Noyer Jaap and Hannyvan Oosten dorp Paola Monachesi Krisztina Polgardi Alan Prince Curt Rice Henk van Riemsdijk Iggy Ro ca Sam Rosenthall Grazyna Rowicka Lisa Selkirk Chris Sijtsma Craig Thiersch MiekeTrommelen Rub en van der Vijver Janneke Visser Riet Vos Jero en van de Weijer Wim Zonneveld Iwant to thank them all They have made the past four years for what it was the most interesting and happiest p erio d in mylife until now ii Contents Intro duction The Headedness of Syllables The Headedness Hyp othesis HH Theoretical Background Syllable Structure Feature geometry Sp ecication and Undersp ecicati on Skeletal tier Mo del of the grammar Optimality Theory Data Organisation of the thesis Chapter Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • The Teachability-Intelligibility Issue: Vowel Length in Globenglish
    1 The teachability-intelligibility issue: vowel length in GlobEnglish RAFAEL MONROY-CASAS (Published in Gagliardi, C. & Maley A. (2010) ,EIL, ELF, Global English: Teaching and Learning Issues. Peter Lang: Bern) It is an indisputable fact that English has become not just a global language but the global language. There are other languages that can claim this prerogative (Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Italian, etc. – see Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 26, 2006), but none of these can question the privileged position English occupies as a world language. The ‘English factor’ in Graddol’s words (2007) is everywhere, and yet, despite this gratifying thought to both native and non-native speakers for what it means in terms of greater easiness of communication, there are a number of elements that can challenge the idea of a unified world system (Monroy, 2007). There is on the one hand, an increasing internal centrifugal movement, which, although observable in other linguistic systems, is particularly evident in the case of English, as titles like World Englishes (Kachru, 1985), The English Languages (Tom McCarthur, 1998), Englishes (Görlach,1991), More Englishes (Görlach 1995), Still more Englishes (Görlach, 2002), World Englishes (Jenkins, 2003), World Englishes (Melchers & Shaw, 2003) show; on the other, emerging pronunciation standards in nations like India, Singapore, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc., “each as ‘correct’ as any other” (Quirk, 1985: 2-3), are superseding normative models such as RP or GA as better options in a world where NNs (non-native speakers) with different linguistic backgrounds outnumber Ns (native speakers) (Graddol, 1997; 2006). No wonder that experts fear 2 that fragmentation could be a reality unless some action is taken.
    [Show full text]
  • LT3212 Phonetics Assignment 4 Mavis, Wong Chak Yin
    LT3212 Phonetics Assignment 4 Mavis, Wong Chak Yin Essay Title: The sound system of Japanese This essay aims to introduce the sound system of Japanese, including the inventories of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs. The phonological variations of the sound segments in different phonetic environments are also included. For the illustration, word examples are given and they are presented in the following format: [IPA] (Romaji: “meaning”). Consonants In Japanese, there are 14 core consonants, and some of them have a lot of allophonic variations. The various types of consonants classified with respect to their manner of articulation are presented as follows. Stop Japanese has six oral stops or plosives, /p b t d k g/, which are classified into three place categories, bilabial, alveolar, and velar, as listed below. In each place category, there is a pair of plosives with the contrast in voicing. /p/ = a voiceless bilabial plosive [p]: [ippai] (ippai: “A cup of”) /b/ = a voiced bilabial plosive [b]: [baɴ] (ban: “Night”) /t/ = a voiceless alveolar plosive [t]: [oto̞ ːto̞ ] (ototo: “Brother”) /d/ = a voiced alveolar plosive [d]: [to̞ mo̞ datɕi] (tomodachi: “Friend”) /k/ = a voiceless velar plosive [k]: [kaiɰa] (kaiwa: “Conversation”) /g/ = a voiced velar plosive [g]: [ɡakɯβsai] (gakusai: “Student”) Phonetically, Japanese also has a glottal stop [ʔ] which is commonly produced to separate the neighboring vowels occurring in different syllables. This phonological phenomenon is known as ‘glottal stop insertion’. The glottal stop may be realized as a pause, which is used to indicate the beginning or the end of an utterance. For instance, the word “Japanese money” is actually pronounced as [ʔe̞ ɴ], instead of [je̞ ɴ], and the pronunciation of “¥15” is [dʑɯβːɡo̞ ʔe̞ ɴ].
    [Show full text]
  • A Contrastive Study Farah Hafedh Ibrahim College of Arts,Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq Email : [email protected]
    36 Syllables in English and Arabic : A contrastive Study Farah Hafedh Ibrahim College of Arts,Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq Email : [email protected] Abstract The present study investigates syllables in both English and Arabic for the sake of revealing the similarities and differences between them in these two languages. The syllable is regarded as the basic unit or the building block of speech that has attracted the attention of English and Arab phoneticians. The present study tackles the nature of English and Arabic syllables, sheds light on some of the theories that described them as well as classifying them into types and describing their structure. The study arrives at the conclusion that there are many differences between syllables in English and syllables in Arabic. These differences concern the way syllables are viewed, their types and their structure. However, both languages consider the syllable to be the basic unit of speech. Phonetically, syllables are described in English as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow preceded and followed by great obstruction; whereas in Arabic, syllables are phonetically described as chest pulses. Keywords: Syllable; Syllable Nature; Syllable Type; Structure Introduction The term syllable, in English language, is not easy to define since it can be defined phonetically, or phonologically or both phonetically and phonologically. Starting with Ladefoged (2006:242) who describes the syllable as “the smallest unit of speech. Every utterance must contain at least one syllable”. He (ibid.) further states that speech is composed of segments such as vowels or consonants and these segments are considered to be aspects of the syllable.
    [Show full text]
  • Part 1: Introduction to The
    PREVIEW OF THE IPA HANDBOOK Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet PARTI Introduction to the IPA 1. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet? The aim of the International Phonetic Association is to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. For both these it is necessary to have a consistent way of representing the sounds of language in written form. From its foundation in 1886 the Association has been concerned to develop a system of notation which would be convenient to use, but comprehensive enough to cope with the wide variety of sounds found in the languages of the world; and to encourage the use of thjs notation as widely as possible among those concerned with language. The system is generally known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Both the Association and its Alphabet are widely referred to by the abbreviation IPA, but here 'IPA' will be used only for the Alphabet. The IPA is based on the Roman alphabet, which has the advantage of being widely familiar, but also includes letters and additional symbols from a variety of other sources. These additions are necessary because the variety of sounds in languages is much greater than the number of letters in the Roman alphabet. The use of sequences of phonetic symbols to represent speech is known as transcription. The IPA can be used for many different purposes. For instance, it can be used as a way to show pronunciation in a dictionary, to record a language in linguistic fieldwork, to form the basis of a writing system for a language, or to annotate acoustic and other displays in the analysis of speech.
    [Show full text]
  • Vocale Incerta, Vocale Aperta*
    Vocale Incerta, Vocale Aperta* Michael Kenstowicz Massachusetts Institute of Technology Omaggio a P-M. Bertinetto Ogni toscano si comporta di fronte a una parola a lui nuova, come si nota p. es. nella lettura del latino, scegliendo costantamente, e inconsciamente, il timbro aperto, secondo il principio che il Migliorini ha condensato nella formula «vocale incerta, vocale aperta»…è il processo a cui vien sottoposto ogni vocabolo importato o adattato da altri linguaggi. (Franceschi 1965:1-3) 1. Introduction Standard Italian distinguishes seven vowels in stressed nonfinal syllables. The open ɛ,ɔ vs. closed e,o mid-vowel contrast (transcribed here as open è,ò vs. closed é,ó) is neutralized in unstressed position (1). (1) 3 sg. infinitive tócca toccàre ‘touch’ blòcca bloccàre ‘block’ péla pelàre ‘pluck’ * A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the MIT Phonology Circle and the 40th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, University of Washington (March 2010). Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments as well as to Maria Giavazzi, Giovanna Marotta, Joan Mascaró, Andrea Moro, and Mario Saltarelli. 1 gèla gelàre ‘freeze’ The literature uniformly identifies the unstressed vowels as closed. Consequently, the open è and ò have more restricted distribution and hence by traditional criteria would be identified as "marked" (Krämer 2009). In this paper we examine various lines of evidence indicating that the open vowels are optimal in stressed (open) syllables (the rafforzamento of Nespor 1993) and thus that the closed é and ó are "marked" in this position: {è,ò} > {é,ó} (where > means “better than” in the Optimality Theoretic sense).
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley Phonlab Annual Report
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report Title Strengthening, Weakening and Variability: The Articulatory Correlates of Hypo- and Hyper- articulation in the Production of English Dental Fricatives Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1hw2719n Journal UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report, 14(1) ISSN 2768-5047 Author Melguy, Yevgeniy Publication Date 2018 DOI 10.5070/P7141042482 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UC Berkeley Phonetics and Phonology Lab Annual Report (2018) Yevgeniy Melguy Susan Lin, Brian Smith M.A. Qualifying Paper 9 December 2018 Strengthening, weakening and variability: The articulatory correlates of hypo- and hyper- articulation in the production of English dental fricatives 1. INTRODUCTION A number of influential approaches to understanding phonetic and phonological variation in speech have highlighted the importance of functional factors (Blevins, 2004; Donegan & Stampe, 1979; Kiparsky, 1988; Kirchner, 1998; Lindblom, 1990). Under such approaches, speaker- and listener-oriented principles—ease of articulation vs. perceptual clarity—often work in opposite directions with respect to consonantal articulation. Minimization of effort is thought to drive a general “weakening” of consonants (resulting in decreased articulatory constriction and/or duration) which often makes them more articulatorily similar to surrounding sounds. This can result in assimilation, lenition, and ultimately deletion, and generally comes at the expense of clarity. By contrast, maximization of clarity drives consonantal “strengthening” processes (resulting in increased articulatory constriction and/or duration) that makes target segments more distinct from neighboring sounds, which can result in fortition. Clear speech generally involves more extreme or “forceful” articulations, and usually comes at the expense of requiring more articulatory effort from the speaker.
    [Show full text]
  • Vowel Length/ Duration in Geminated and Non-Geminated Arabic Words
    =================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 18:4 April 2018 India’s Higher Education Authority UGC Approved List of Journals Serial Number 49042 ================================================================ Vowel Length/ Duration in Geminated and Non-geminated Arabic Words Asmaa Adel Abdulrahman and Dr. L. Ramamoorthy =========================================================== Abstract This paper investigates vowel length in Arabic and how it gets affected by neighboring consonants, in particular when it occurs in geminated or non-geminated phonetic environment in words. The paper examines vowel length before and after geminated and non-geminated consonants. It also focuses on the length of geminated/non-geminated consonants themselves and the proportion between them. The present study also investigates the proportion of vowels to consonants in the words and the proportion of geminated words to their non-geminated counterparts as a whole. Eighteen geminated and non-geminated Arabic words are selected and recorded randomly by the researcher who is a native speaker of Arabic. The data were recorded at the Phonetics Lab of the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad/India. It was concluded that gemination in Arabic affects vowel and consonants as well as total length/ duration of the word as a whole. It is also observed that some vowels/ consonants have greater proportion than their non-geminated counterparts. The whole words were also affected by germination in terms of length and duration. Keywords: Duration, Gemination , Arabic,Vowels, consonants, Acoustic analysis. 1. Introduction Arabic is the mother tongue of over 400 million people. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) _ the descendant of Classical Arabic branches into 22 vernacular dialects in the 22 Arab countries, each country having its own regional vernacular variety (Humran.A and Shyamala.K.C.
    [Show full text]
  • A Phonetic, Phonological, and Morphosyntactic Analysis of the Mara Language
    San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Spring 2010 A Phonetic, Phonological, and Morphosyntactic Analysis of the Mara Language Michelle Arden San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Arden, Michelle, "A Phonetic, Phonological, and Morphosyntactic Analysis of the Mara Language" (2010). Master's Theses. 3744. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.v36r-dk3u https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/3744 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MARA LANGUAGE A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Linguistics and Language Development San Jose State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Michelle J. Arden May 2010 © 2010 Michelle J. Arden ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled A PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MARA LANGUAGE by Michelle J. Arden APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY May 2010 Dr. Daniel Silverman Department of Linguistics and Language Development Dr. Soteria Svorou Department of Linguistics and Language Development Dr. Kenneth VanBik Department of Linguistics and Language Development ABSTRACT A PHONETIC, PHONOLOGICAL, AND MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MARA LANGUAGE by Michelle J. Arden This thesis presents a linguistic analysis of the Mara language, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in northwest Myanmar and in neighboring districts of India.
    [Show full text]
  • The Vowels & Consonants of English
    Department of Culture and Communication Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation (IKK) ENGLISH The Vowels & Consonants of English Lecture Notes Nigel Musk The Consonants of English - - - Velar (Post Labio dental Palato Dental Palatal Glottal Bilabial alveolar alveolar) Alveolar Unvoiced (-V) -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V Voiced (+V) Stops (Plosives) p b t d k g ʔ1 Fricatives f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h Affricates ʧ ʤ Nasals m n ŋ Lateral (approximants) l Approximants w2 r j w2 The consonants in the table above are the consonant phonemes of RP (Received Pronunciation) and GA (General American), that is, the meaning-distinguishing consonant sounds (c.f. pat – bat). Phonemes are written within slashes //, e.g. /t/. Significant variations are explained in the footnotes. /p/ put, supper, lip /ʃ/ show, washing, cash /b/ bit, ruby, pub /ʒ/ leisure, vision 3 /t/ two, letter , cat /h/ home, ahead 3 /d/ deep, ladder , read /ʧ/ chair, nature, watch /k/ can, lucky, sick /ʤ/ jump, pigeon, bridge /g/ gate, tiger, dog /m/ man, drummer, comb /f/ fine, coffee, leaf /n/ no, runner, pin /v/ van, over, move /ŋ/ young, singer 4 /θ/ think, both /l/ let , silly, fall /ð/ the, brother, smooth /r/ run, carry, (GA car) /s/ soup, fussy, less /j/ you, yes /z/ zoo, busy, use /w/ woman, way 1 [ʔ] is not regarded as a phoneme of standard English, but it is common in many varieties of British English (including contemporary RP), e.g. watch [wɒʔʧ], since [sɪnʔs], meet them [ˈmiːʔðəm].
    [Show full text]