(9) Allophones of English Vowels

- vowel sounds form a continuum, no distinct boundaries btw one type of vowel and another

- x unlike consonant sounds (a consonant may be e.g. a stop or a fricative, not halfway btw the two)

- the traditional terms high, low, back, and front:

- labels for the auditory qualities of the different vowels

- descriptions of vowels how they sound in relation to one another

- no absolute descriptions of the position of the tongue

Cardinal Vowels

- the cardinal vowel system devised by Daniel Jones = two scales per 8 vowels denoted by the following numbers and symbols:

(a) primary Cardinal Vowels: 1, [i]; 2, [e]; 3, [ε]; 4, [a]; 5, [ɒ]; 6, [ɔ]; 7, [o]; 8, [u]

(b) secondary Cardinal Vowels: 11, [æ]; 14, [ʌ]

Tense vs. Lax Vowels

- tense vs. lax vowels: differ in distribution

- lax vowels [ɪ, ε, æ, ʊ, ʌ, ɒ] = appear in closed syllables only

- tense vowels [all the oth. vowels] = appear in both closed and open syllables

- closed syllables = have a consonant at the end x open syllables = no consonant at the end

- pairs of a tense vowel + the lax vowel nearest to it in quality:

- [i] in ‘beat’ and [ɪ] in ‘bit’

- [eɪ] in ‘bait’ and [ε] in ‘bet’

- [u] in ‘boot’ and [ʊ] in ‘foot’

- the lax vowel: shorter, lower, and more centralised than the corresponding tense vowel

- the lax vowels [æ] in ‘hat’ and [ʌ] in ‘hut’ fall in no pair x but: both shorter than the low tense vowel [ɑ] in ‘spa’

Stressed vs. Unstressed Syllables

- [ə] used to designate a wide range of mid-central vowels with a reduced vowel quality; occurs only in unaccented syllables

- stressed syllables: full forms of vowels

- unstressed syllables: reduced form

Vowel Length

- the phonetic opposition btw short x long vowels = a complex of quality and quantity

- /ɪ/ in ‘bid’ x /i:/ in ‘bead’

- /ʊ/ in ‘good’ x /u:/ in ‘food’

- /æ/ in ‘cad’ x /ɑ:/ in ‘card’

- /ɒ/ in ‘cod’ x /ɔ:/ in ‘cord’

- /ə/ in ‘(for)ward’ x /з:/ in ‘word’

- morphophonemic alternation = relationship btw the vowels in the root morpheme of cognate words (the long vowel /aɪ/ in ‘divine’ x the short vowel /ɪ/ in ‘divinity’)

- orig.: an alternation btw a long x a short vowel of the same quality (the long vowel [i:] x the short vowel [i] > Great Vowel Shift > no longer vowels of the same quality)

- /aɪ/ in ‘wise’ x /ɪ/ in ‘wisdom’

- /i:/ in ‘hero’ x /e/ in ‘heroine’

- /eɪ/ in ‘sane’ x /æ/ in ‘sanity’

- /əʊ/ in ‘mediocre’ x /ɒ/ in ‘mediocrity’

- /aʊ/ in ‘pronounce’ x /ʌ/ in ‘pronunciation’