Vowel Sounds, Syllabification, and Phonetic Transcription
Vowel Sounds and Articulation
Vowel sounds are produced in the initiation process by a voiced egressive airstream. Their quality is the result of the shaping of three movable organs: soft palate, tongue, and lips. Vowel qualities are produced:
- By raising the part of the tongue (front, center, and back) in different degrees and heights. The height depends on the vowel, if it is a higher vowel (/i:/) or a lower vowel (/æ/). Depending on the articulation, the front vowels (/i:/) are further forward than back vowels (/u/).
- By modifying the shape of lips, spreading or rounding them in different degrees.
- By raising or lowering the soft palate, this is irrelevant because all vowel phonemes in Spanish and English are oral.
To reflect the English Vowel Chart, a trapezium is used to show the area of the mouth in which vowels are produced by changing the shape of the tongue. The chart contains two different pieces of information:
- The part of the tongue raised (horizontal axis).
- The height of the tongue raised (vertical axis).
The vowels occupying intermediate positions between front and central are retracted (/i:/); those between central and back are advanced (/Ʊ/). A more complete classification would also include the lip position:
- Front and central vowels are unrounded.
- Back vowels are rounded, except /a:/.
All the English and Spanish vowels are pulmonic, egressive, voiced, and oral.
Syllabification
Syllabification is the term that refers to the division of a word into syllables. In accordance with the current recommendations of the IPA, a dot is used to divide syllables, which is not used where a primary or secondary stress mark occurs as these are effectively also syllable division markers.
There are different reasons that make syllable division difficult:
- On the one hand, different criteria can be used: either phonetic or morphological, which would render different divisions. Thus, for instance, the word stylistics would have the following division: “styl-is-tics” from a morphological point of view that would be different if we take into account its pronunciation: /staɪ – ‘lɪs – tɪks/.
- On the other hand, taking into account just pronunciation, there may be a considerable amount of disagreement that could lead to different possible divisions for a word. Thus, the word extra may be potentially divided up in 5 different ways: /’e.kstrə/, /’ek.strə/, /’eks.trə/, /’ekst.rə/, or /’ekstr.ə/, some of which are obviously unacceptable.
Transcription
Transcription is the systematic and consistent use of symbols to show the pronunciation of speech sounds or sound sequences in written form. Transcribing is resorting to symbols from a phonetic alphabet such as, for example, the IPA, to represent the pronunciation of a language as accurately as possible in writing. Put simply, we can say it is a way to “hear with your eyes” and produce sounds or sound sequences in any natural language more accurately.
Phonemic, Phonological, or Broad Notation
This uses only the phonemes. It does not show the finer or more detailed features of pronunciation and is written within slanting lines, also called slant brackets, oblique lines, or obliques, e.g., foot //fƱt/. Phonemic notation may be used for several purposes:
- To provide an overall picture of the sound system of a language.
- For languages that have no writing system of their own.
- For teaching purposes, to show how specific words should be produced in speech and to contrast the different pronunciations of some items, e.g., hat /hæt/ vs. hut /ht/.
Phonetic, Allophonic, or Narrow Notation
This is used to show in detail how sounds are produced and perceived. Here, we attempt to include a considerable amount of information concerning both its articulatory and auditory features, regardless of their function in a language. It reflects the allophonic variations of the phonemes in question. They are written within square brackets and, in order to reflect these peculiarities, phonetic transcription makes use of diacritics taken from the IPA in addition to the phonetic symbols. Diacritics are marks placed over, under, or through a phoneme to show variations in pronunciation; i.e., to show that the allophone with the mark is slightly different in pronunciation from the one without it, although not in meaning.
Rhythmic Clipping
Rhythmic Clipping is the reduction or shortening of a full syllable when followed by one or more reduced syllables occasioned by rhythmic factors. An example is the difference in the duration of the vowel in the syllable lead when it occurs in a foot without accompanying unstressed syllables, compared to, say, its duration when it occurs with following unstressed syllables, as in a word such as leader (or leadership). Informal measurements indicate that the duration of the vowel in the latter is less than 50% of the duration of the vowel in the former.
Voicing
Voicing is a sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes voiced due to the influence of its phonological environment. T-voicing is a case of voicing where /t/ may become voiced when surrounded by voiced phonemes. This flap or tap “t” sounds like a rapid /d/ or even like the /r/ (i.e., alveolar flap [r]) in some languages and happens particularly in American and Canadian English.
Rhyme or Rime
Rhyme or rime is the combination of the nucleus and coda. The ability to recognize and produce rhyming words is an important early phonological awareness skill present in reading programs. For instance, the ability to recognize the common sounds in words such as the /ɒg/ sound in frog, dog, and log and to produce rhyming words when asked, for example, to give a word that rhymes with boy, such as toy, joy, and coy.
Blending
Blending is merging the individual phonemes together to pronounce a word. In order to read an unfamiliar word, a child must recognize (‘sound out’) each grapheme, not each letter (e.g., ‘th-i-n’, i.e., /θ/ /ɪ/ /n/; not ‘t-h-i-n’ /ti:/ /eɪʧ/ /aɪ/ /en/), and then merge the phonemes together to make the word.
Segmentation
Segmentation is separating or hearing the individual phonemes within a word – for instance, the word wish consists of three phonemes: ‘w – i – sh’. In order to spell this word, a child must segment it into its component phonemes (i.e., /w/ /ɪ/ /ʃ/) and choose a grapheme to represent each phoneme.
Gimson’s Vowel System
I agree with Gimson’s system, which states that vowel quality and quantity are of equal significance. It is used due to two main reasons:
- It is the most widely-extended system, the one usually found in all types of dictionaries.
- It is the best one for teaching English pronunciation to foreign language learners because of the greater amount of information provided.