Department of Linguistics

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Vowels

In this topic we examine vowel articulation. We will focus on tongue position (vowel height and fronting), lip posture (spread, neutral and rounded), nasalisation, retroflexion, and duration. We will also examine the distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs.

References

The material outlined in these course notes needs to be supplemented by reading from other sources. Reading material covering vowels can be found in:-

• Cox, 2012 (section 2.7)
• Clark, Yallop & Fletcher (sections 2.7- 2.8)
• Ladefoged (pages 18-22 and chapters 4 and 9)

Topics

1. Vowel tongue articulation
2. Vowel lip posture
3. Complex Vowel Articulations (including Diphthongs)

Related Topics

Vowels are also dealt with in the following modules:-

• Vowel Systems
• Australian English Vowels
• Vowel Diagrams of Four English Dialects
• IPA Vowel Symbols
• Phonemic (Broad) Transcription of Australian English
• Phonetic (Narrow) Transcription of Australian English

Vowel features will also be dealt with in the module on:-

• Distinctive Features