Post on 19-Jan-2016
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Vowels
A comparative analysis of vowels in 4 languages
ENS701M
Experimental Phonetics
Maddalena Tovazzi
Minna Marika Timonen
1. Cardinal vowels
2. Vowel length
Cardinal vowels: Finnish and Icelandic
Cardinal vowels: Italian and English
2. Vowel length
Finnish Phonemic always shown in
spelling Tuli - tuuli Ahtisaari 0,117/ 0,177
Icelandic Allophonic VC = Long vowel VCC = Short vowel Fara - banna 0,153 / 0,294
Exceptions in Icelandic
LONG vowels also in:
one-syllable words with word-final vowel Þú 0,362 sec, fúll 0,227 sec
vowels preceding consonant clusters pr, tr, kr, sk, pj, tj, sj and tv, kv
Esja 0,288 sec, penni 0,098 sec
Italian
• There is no noticeable difference in lenght
• Vowels in final position are always pronounced clipped
• Vowels in stressed open syllables are long
• The distinction between close-mid (e o) and open-mid (ɛ ɔ) is made in stressed syllables only.
elemento
modo
English
• There is a well-known distinction between long and short vowels
• Nevertheless, many accents are nowadays “losing” this distinction
• More importance is given to lax/tense distinction, or free/checked distinction
Vowels are generally longer when in stressed syllables:
people carriage
Allophonic length
• Certain dialects display allophonic vowel length
• In the coda of a syllable, vowel phonemes are realized as allophones before voiced consonant phonemes
For example, in bat the phoneme is realized as a short allophone. In bad there is a longer realization, due to the presence of the voiced consonant:
bad bat
Alternation of vowels in a word
• Some Italian words seem to vary greatly between speakers
• One well known example is the word bene (good).
• There are 4 different realizations
1. closed + closed(0.175; 0.169)
2. open + closed(0.199; 0.086)
3. closed + open(0.114; 0.095)
4. open + open(0.167; 0.158)
• According to standard grammar, the correct pronunciation of the word is as shown in 3 (open/closed).
• All the four variations are nevertheless found everywhere. The alternation is NOT on a regional basis.