Vowels and diphtong

linguistics

1. V owels and Diphthongs

2. VOWELS Vowel is a speech sound produced without significant constriction of the air flowing through the mouth.

3. Vowels are produced with a relatively open vocal tract. Vowels do not have place and manner of articulation. Vowels are almost always voiced. Vocal fold vibration is the source for vowel sounds. The standard descriptors for consonants (place, manner, and voicing) are not helpful when we want to describe vowels.

4. Vowel sounds can be divided into sets in a number of different ways. 1. In terms of voicing. In English, all vowels are voiced (except when whispering), but some languages, such as Japanese, have voiceless vowels as well.

5. 2. In terms of which part of the tongue is raised, distinguishing between front vowels (as in eat ), in which the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth, central vowels (as in cup ), and back vowels (as in coop ), in which the tongue is positioned towards the back of the mouth.

6. 3. In terms of how high the tongue is raised, distinguishing between high vowels (or close vowels) as in beat, mid vowels (or half-close vowels) as in bait , and low vowels (or open vowels) as in bat .

7. 4. In terms of whether or not the vowel is tense or lax

8. 5. In terms of whether or not the lips are rounded (as in shoe ) or unrounded (as in she ). In English, rounding is allophonic (back vowels are rounded; front vowels are not), but some languages (such as French) contain front rounded vowels and some others (such as Turkish) contain back unrounded vowels.

9. 6. In terms of length, distinguishing between long vowels such as in knee and short vowels as in knit . In English, length is allophonic (tense vowels are long; lax vowels are short), but some languages distinguish between vowels that are the same in quality and only different in length.

10. Broadly speaking, there are two types of vowels in English, namely, monophthongs and diphthongs. Diphthongs are two-part vowels, whereas monophthongs have only one part.

11. DIPHTHONG Diphthong is a vowel in which there is a change in quality during a single syllable, as in the English words boy, buy, bow . Diphthongs can be analyzed as a sequence of two vowels or as vowel glide

12. Semi-Vowel is a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by allowing the airstream from the lungs to move through the mouth and/or nose with only very slight friction. For example, in English the /j/ in / jes / yes is a semi-vowel. In terms of their articulation, semi-vowels are very like vowels, but they function as consonants in the sound system of a language.