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Description of English Vowels

Vowel is a speech sound produced by humans when the breath flows out through the mouth without being blocked by the teeth, tongue or lips.
Vowel is a speech sound in which the mouth is open and the tongue is not touching the top of the mouth , the teeth etc.

Vowels are described by the IPA using the three dimensions of:
  1. Closeness/Height
  2. Frontness
  3. Rounding

1) Closeness/Height

  • The closeness category refers to the position of the mandible (open or close) while the height of a vowel refers to the vertical position of the tongue towards the palatal area (Low or High).
  • Based on the 'closeness' ,there are five variations used to define vowels such as:  Open,Open-Mid,Mid,Close-Mid,and Close. 
  •  Based on the 'height ' there are also five variations use to define vowels.They are: high,mid-high,mid,mid-low and low. 

Open:

Open vowels use a depressed (lower level) position of the mandible with a low position of the tongue. [a:],[b]

Open-Mid:

Open-mid vowels use a partially depressed position of the mandible with the tongue position being located half way between the palatal area and the floor of the mouth. [e],[ʌ],[ɔ:],[ɜ:]

Mid:

Mid vowels use a middle position of the mandible with the tongue being located in central position of the palatal area and the floor of the mouth. [ə]

Close-Mid:

Close-mid vowels use a closed mandible position with a tongue position that is located half way between the palatal area and the floor of the mouth. [ei],[əʊ]

Close: 

Close vowels use as closed mandible position and a high tongue position.The tongue actually resting on the alveolar ridge. [i:],[i],[u:] 

  • In addition we will see on vowel chart,several vowels are not clearly defined using the closeness labels.In order to provide clear and descriptive labels for all vowels, phoneticians have agreed on the use of the terms "near-open" and"near-close" to described the additional vowels.Thus the closeness description labels will be:Open,near-open,open-mid,mid ,close-mid,near-close and close.

2)Frontness:

Frontness refers to the horizontal position of the tongue in relation to the front or back of the mouth.Generally, the three variation of frontness are Front,Central and Back.

Front:

The front vowels are produced by the placement of the tongue tip in various position from the upper incisors (the front cutting teeth) to the lower ones. [i:],[i],[e],[æ]

Central:

The central vowel is produced when the tongue is resting in neutral position in the oral cavity. [ə],[ɜ:]

Back:

Back vowels are produced when the back part of the tongue is moved up or down in the velar area. [ʌ],[a:],[ɒ],[ɔ:],[u:]
  • Similar with the closeness dimensions,several vowels which are not clearly defined using the particular labels (in this case,the frontness labels),will use the terms "near-front"and "near-back"on the chart to describes the additional vowels.
  • Thus the frontness description labels will be "Front,near-front,central,near-back and back".

  3)Rounding:

  • Rounding refers to the position of the lips during the production of the vowel.
  • The two lips position are rounded and unrounded.

Rounded:

Rounded vowels produced in the rounded position, require the lips to be open and protruded (to stick out) to some degree. [ɒ],[ɔː],[u:],[ʊ]

Unrounded:

Unrounded vowels produced in the unrounded position, require the lips to be spread and the corners of the mouth retracted to varying degree. [i:],[i],[ɪ],[æ],[e],[ɑː],[ʌ],[ɜ:],[ə]

 
Dimensions:
Description:
Closeness/height
Closeness:- open, near-open, open-mid, mid, close-mid, near-close, close

Height:- high, mid-high, mid, mid-low, low
Frontness
Front, near-front, central, near-back, back
Rounding
Rounded, unrounded
 

  • Oxford university has established the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as the standard pronunciation of General English based on the establishment,some particular symbols and phonetic features in the IPA chart are changed ,such as:
(a) The tense vowels (The vowels require tension in production and are long in duration), followed by length mark (:) or frequently written by colon (:).

(b) The variation of close front unrounded vowels /i/ is added for the pronunciation of the words (particular) (usually used to transcribe the /i/ in the final position of word.)
(c) The symbol of open-mid front unrounded vowel is changed into /e/. Thus the English vowel chart will be shown as follows:
 

The Explanation of Vowels presentation format:

Similar with consonants, for  the purposes of clarity and consistency of the parameters of vowel sounds, generally , it can be determined sequentially based on the three aspects of vowels:
  • Describe the sound based on the closeness or height
  • Describe the sound based on the frontness ;and 
  • Describe the sound based on the rounding.
Thus to make a sound parameter of /u:/ for example, we can describe it as follows:
"[u:] is a close (high) back rounded sound."

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