PRESENTER: Rhea H.

Alberto
What is
VOWELS?
Vowels
are syllabic speech sounds
produced with a relatively
unobstructed air stream, without
any restrictions in the organs. The
quality of vowels is determined by
a certain configuration of the vocal
tract in the production of sounds.
When producing vowels differ in
length, quality, and loudness.
They are also particularly
described in terms of the physical
dimensions:

*tongue height and advancement

*tenseness
*lip rounding
Vowels are usually voiced and are
narrowly related in prosodic
deviation such as stress, tone ,
and intonation. Vowels are
primarily represented by the
letters: a , e, i , o, u.
Vowels vs. Consonants
Vowels differ from consonants as described:
1.Vowels are produced without any friction or obstruction
in the hallow tube or air stream. While consonants are
made by totally or partially restricting the airflow that
gets out of the mouth.
2.A vowel is a free-flowing sound. The air escapes freely
through the mouth while in consonants the air has to
work harder to push its way out.
3.When producing vowel sounds, the mouth and the throat
are open and do not close at any point. The tongue does
not touch the lips and the teeth in producing consonants,
the sound is impeded by the teeth, the tongue and the
5. The vowel sounds are described in terms of
tongue height, tongue advancement, and
roundedness of the mouth. The consonants sounds
are described in terms of voicing, place and manner
of articulation
6. Some vowels can be an entire word – “a”, “I”,
however, no consonants can be a word by itself.
7. Every word has a vowel, while not every word has
a consonants
8. Vowels can be sung and yelled, yet consonants
are difficult to sing, and cannot be yelled singly.
Vowel Quality

Vowel quality is a phonetic terminology

that refers to the distinction that makes a
vowel sound different. It is determined by
the position of the speech articulators,
such as the differences between “ beat
and bit”, “ bulk and ball”
CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS

There are five vowels in English alphabet. These are

categorized accordingly in their vowel qualities,
articulation, lengthening and thickness, and voicing.
CARDINAL VOWELS
The cardinal vowel system is a set of reference
vowel qualities that distinguish different vowel
sounds. This is to identify the highest point of the
tongue, by which a vowel can be articulated or how
much the tongue is advanced or retracted when
pronouncing a vowel. Generally, cardinal vowels
help to recognize vowels in diverse language.
Cardinal vowel qualities are conventionally agreed
upon and specified.
Secondary Cardinal Vowel
The secondary cardinal vowels complement the primary
vowels. Secondary vowels are produced by reversing the lip-
posture of how the primary vowels are articulated.
Articulation of the Tongue

The vowel articulation

correspond to the form of the mouth
and the position of the tongue when
vowel sounds are produced. Vowels
are articulated based on tongue height
an tongue advancement
Tongue Height

Vowels can be high, low, mid, mid-high

and mid-low. These classifications are based on
the height of the tongue where vowels are
articulated. Notice the position of your tongue
when you say the words “ bead, peak, and
mean”. The position of your tongue is closed to
the roof of the mouth when you utter these
words. These are called high vowels. High
vowels are produced when the tongue is raised
Tongue Advancement
When the vowels are produced, the tongue may be retracted or
advanced into three positions: (a) the back of the mouth, (the center),
and (c) the front. This is called tongue advancement or back-ness

Lets practice:
bid, bird, bode
lean, learn, law
fat, car, job

When the words “bid, lean and fat” are produced, the tongue is slightly
advanced; the vowels in these words are front vowels. While in
producing the words “ bird, learn, and car” the tongue is slightly raised,
hence the vowels are mid or central. In producing the words “ bode,
law and job” the tongue is retracted backward, the vowels are called
back vowels.
 Stability
of Articulation
Monophthongs – A monophthongs is a single
vowel sound in which the positioning of the
articulations at both beginning and end is fairly
fixed and does not glide up or down.
Monophthongs can be a lexeme or a syllable.
Syllables are units of pronunciation with one
rhythmic character of the word. The word “
pit” is a monosyllabic word that contains a
single auditory quality, therefore, a
monophthong. The vowel in this word is
produced with one sound /i/ using one mouth
LETS PRACTICE:

A B
bill – bell better
pin – pen funny
chick – check keeper
fill – fell stagnant
rest – wrist epic

The words above in set A have one syllable. Each

word has one monophthongs, which articulation of
each sound does not change; thus the vowel sound
stays the same. Meanwhile, the wors in set B contain
Diphthongs- If monophthongs has a single
vowel sound, a diphthongs has a two- vowel
sound. Diphthong are formed when two single
vowels are combined in a syllable. Usually, it is a
combination of a vowel plus a glide. A glide is
considered as semi-vowel since it phonetically
resembles a vowel sound. Rather then being a
nucleus of a syllable, a glide functions as a
syllable boundary.
When you utter the words “ guy, loud,
side ,coin ,fear” , you will hear a vowel and a
glide.

In the word “coin” ( co -> in ) , the vowel moved from a long O sound to
a /j/ sound.
In the word “fear” ( fe -> ar ) , the vowel moved from a long E sound to
an /a/ sound.

When uttering these words, the organs of speech glide from one vowel
position to another within the syllable, therefore, the sounds in the
words move and change.
 Lip Rounding,
Lengthening, and
Tenseness
Roundedness

Say the words: boot, book, boat, and bore.

Did you notice the pursing and rounding of your lips when
you uttered these word?

Vowels are classified in terms of roundedness. Vowel

roundedness in phonetics refers to the rounding of the lips
during the articulation of the vowel. It is a vowel
labialization, where the lips are involved in producing the
vowel sounds. When pronouncing a rounded vowel, a circular
or sphere opening of the lips is formed. When vowels are
unrounded the lips are relax
Vowel Lengthening

The different between the vowel production of

these words is the lengthening of the vowel .
Generally, if a one-syllable word is followed by an
unvoiced consonants. The lengthening of vowels
produces long vowel sounds. Long vowel sounds
are sounds of the five vowel letters (a, e, I, o, u).
Long vowels often occur when a vowel is placed
next to another such as in the words “beam,
deem, rain, road, seen, achieve, paid, beauty”
The vowel is lengthened before a syllable
boundary.
Tense and Lax
Vowel

Notice how your mouth

stretches when you say “too”
and relaxes when you say “to”.
“Too” is a long vowel, while “to”
is a short vowel
Rhotic
Vowel
In phonetics, rhoticity is the term that
describes the sound of the /r/, base on
sound quality. Rhotic vowel (also
called r-colored, retroflex, and vocalic
r or rhotacized vowel) are altered
vowels resulting in the lowering of the
frequency of the third formant. Rhotic
vowels are produced when the tip of
the tongue is curled upward.
CONSONAN
T
Consonants – are all the letters in
the alphabet that are not vowels. They
are speech sounds that are articulated
with partial restrictions of the vocal
tract when the air is pushed through
from the glottis to the mouth.
The flow of the air is restricted in a
way that the airflow passes the
constriction. Consonants are the /b/,
/k/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /l/, /m/, /f/, /s/,
/t/, /v/. In producing these sounds,
the air is constructed.
FEATURES OF CONSONANTS
SOUNDS

The production of the air affects

the sounds; thus, these
terminologies need to be
understood when studying
consonants sounds.
Stops versus Continuants

Stops are sound labels in which the

flow of the airstream is completely
blocked such as in the sounds of /m/,
/n/, /b/, and /p/. Continuants, on the
other hand, are sounds that are
impeded but the airstream is not
blocked.
Sonorants versus Obstruents

Sonorants are a natural class of

continuants which are articulated
without the obstruction of the
airstream. These include
approximants, glides, liquids, nasals,
and even vowels. In contrast to
sonorants, obstruents are produced
by obstructing airflows, such as in
Sibilants versus Aspirated

Sibilants are the hissing sounds,

a natural class of fricatives, such
( s ) sought, ( z ) zero, ( ∫ ) shine,
( ʒ ) leisure while aspirated sounds,
on the other hand, are modified
sounds produced with forceful
expulsion of air. These include the
sounds of ( h) in “hat” or the ( p )
Flaps and Clicks

Flaps are another modified consonants sounds

formed by a single quick of the tongue against the
roof part of the mouth. An example of flap is “tt” in
the words “better and letter”

Clicks on the other hand, are produced in the

mouth by a suction mechanism that produces a
smacking sound of the tongue and the roof of the
mouth or between the lips. There are no clicks in
the English language although implosives are
Pulmonic versus Non-Pulmonic
sounds

Most of the sounds are made by

the pressure of the air from the
lungs. These are termed as
pulmonic sounds just like when
you produce the /h/ sound. When
the air slightly or completely
Ejectives and Implosives

Some consonants are voiceless.

Ejectives are voiceless
consonants, which are pronounced
with a glottalic egressive airstream,
or the glottis is simultaneously
closed. Egressive sounds are
produced when the air is pushed
THANK
YOU!