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PURE VOWELS�Monothongs

Dr.B.Winmayil

Assistant Professor of English

V.V.Vanniaperumal College for Women

Virudhunagar

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Definition

Vowels
Pulmonic eggressive air from the lung escapes
freely
continuously (without complete closure along the oral passage)
Through the mouth

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Articulators

Passive Articulator :

Roof of the Mouth

Active Articulator :

Tongue

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Description of Vowels(12)

Part of the tongue used
Height of the tongue
Position of the lips

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Part of the tongue used

Front Vowels
Back Vowels
Central Vowels

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Front Vowels

Front of the tongue

Hard Palate

Wide Gap

S.No.	Vowel	Word	Script
1.	[i:]	seen	/si:n/
2.	[ɪ]	sit	/sɪt/
3.	[e]	head	/hed/
4.	[ӕ]	pan	/pӕn/

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Front Vowel Diagram

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Back Vowels

Back of the tongue

Soft Palate

Wide-enough Gap

S.No.	Vowel	Word	Script
1.	[ɑ:]	part	/pɑ:(r)t/
2.	[ᴐ] or [ɒ]	hot	/hᴐt/
3.	[ᴐ:]	caught	/kᴐ:t/
4.	[ʊ]	full	/fʊl/
5.	[u:]	fool	/fu:/

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Back Vowel Diagram

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Central Vowels

Centre of the tongue

Between Hard Palate & Soft Palate

Wide-enough Gap

S.No.	Vowel	Word	Script
1.	[ᴧ]	cut	/kᴧt/
2.	[ᴈ:]	girl	/gᴈ:(r)l/
3.	[ә]	ago	/әgәu/

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Central Vowel Diagram

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Identify the words with front vowels

had
mole
bed
kid
but
fit
boon
ball
treat

/hӕd/
/bed/
/kɪd/
/fɪt/
/tri:t/

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Identify the words with back vowels

tool
pole
pull
kid
sort
taught
rule
ball
pot
page
soft

/tu:l/
/pʊl/
/sᴐ:t/
/tᴐ:t/
/ru:l/
/bᴐ:l/
/pɒt/
/sɒft/

glue
girl
wood
car
pale
farm
what
not
palm
soda
sleep

/glu:/
/wʊd/
/kɑ:(r)/
/fɑ:m/
/wɒt/
/nɒt/
/pɑ:m/

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Identify the words with central vowels

man
earth
son
kill
hut
urban
sing
around
age
soda

/ᴈ:(r)θ/
/sᴧn/
/hᴧt/
/ᴈ:(r)bәn/
/әraʊnd/
/sәʊdә/

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Height of the Tongue

AA raises at diff. height
Sounds are not alike in the classification based on part of AA
Eg fool, full, fought, God, part [:[u:] , [ʊ], [ᴐ:], [ᴐ] or [ɒ], and [a:] ]
Close Vowels
Open Vowels
Half-close vowels
Half-open vowels

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Close Vowel

Articulated with the tongue very close to the roof of the mouth, but with a gap between them for the air from the lungs to escape freely without friction

Open Vowel

Articulated when the tongue is far away from the roof of the mouth, and with a wide gap between them for the air from the lungs to escape freely without friction

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Half-close vowel

Articulated with the tongue raised between the close and open positions, but nearer the close position than the open position

Half-open vowel

Articulated with the tongue raised between the close and open positions, but nearer the open position than the close position

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Front Vowels

Position	Vowel	Type	Word	Script
1.	[i:]	Front Close	seen	/si:n/
2.	[ɪ]	Between close and half close	sit	/sɪt/
3.	[e]	Between half-close and half-open	head	/hed/
4.	[ӕ]	Front open	pan	/pӕn/

Vowel Area

Tongue - AA

Roof of the mouth

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Back Vowels

Position	Vowel	Type	Word	Script
5.	[ɑ:]	Back open	part	/pɑ:(r)t/
5.	[ᴐ] or [ɒ]	Back open	hot	/hᴐt/
6.	[ᴐ:]	Between half-close and half-open	caught	/kᴐ:t/
7.	[ʊ]	Between close and half-close	full	/fʊl/
8.	[u:]	Back close	fool	/fu:/

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Central Vowels

Position	Vowel	Type	Word	Script
Above 12	[ᴧ]	Just above open	cut	/kᴧt/
Bt 10 & 11	[ᴈ:]	Between half-close and half-open	girl	/gᴈ:(r)l/
Below 10	[ә]	Just below half-open	ago	/әgәu/

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Vowel Quadrangle

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Position of the Lips

Rounded

[u], [ʊ], [o], [ɔ]

Unrounded

[i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ], [æ], [ɑ], [ʌ], [ə]

the mid and high back vowels are rounded, the front and central vowels unrounded

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Vowel-length

Longer – word final eg /bi:/ , /kᴐ:/
Longer – followed by voiced consonants eg. /bi:d/ /kᴐ:d/
Slightly shorter - followed by voiceless consonants

eg. /bi:t/, /kᴐ:t/

Vowel tit-bits

/ә/ - schwa – most frequently occurring vowel
Does not occur in accented syllable
Occurs in weak form of many words
To/tu:/ : /aim gәuiᵑ tu iᵑglәnd/ - weak form