VOWELS AND CONSONANTS
INTRODUCCIÓN
Hoy en día existen un sin
número de problemas teóricos relacionados a la identificación y estudio de las
vocales del inglés, pero de manera
general asumimos que los sonidos claramente se dividen en vocales y
consonantes. Sin embargo el estudio que corresponde iniciar hoy tiene que ver
con el análisis de las vocales y de cómo estas se diferencian entre unas y
otras (cortas y largas). Es importante la lectura e interpretación de cada uno
de los párrafos en inglés, pero también encontrarás los links de otras páginas
muy útiles.
ENGLISH VOWELS
The first matter to consider is the shape and position
of the tongue. It is usual to simplify the very complex possibilities by
describing just two things: firstly the vertical distance between the upper
surface of the tongue and the palate, and secondly the part of the tongue
between front and back, which is raised highest.
Phoneticians need a very accurate ways of classifying
vowels, and have developed a set of vowels, arranged in a close-open, front
back, which are not the vowels of any particular language. People being trained
in phonetics have to learn to make them accurately and recognize them
correctly. However we should adopt the diagram of cardinal vowels as a standard
reference system.
But there is another important variable of vowel
quality and that is lip rounding. Although the lips can have many different
shapes and positions, so we will consider only three possibilities:
1. Rounded: where the corners of the lips are brought
towards each other and the lips pushed forwards. This is most clearly seen in
cardinal vowel No 8 (u)
2. Spread: with the corners of the lips moved away from
each other, as for a smile. This is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel 1 (i)
3. Neutral: where the
lips are not noticeable rounded or spread, the noise most English people make
when they are hesitating (written “er”) has neutral position
THE ENGLISH VOWEL SYSTEM
The RP variety of British English, with twenty vowel
phonemes (standard American English has fifteen), has a relatively large vowel
system, which is characteristic of Germanic languages (Swedish has even more
vowels). There are seven short vowels, five long vowels and eight diphthongs.
The vowels and their corresponding phonemic symbols are shown in the table
below:
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| VOWELS PHONEMIC SYMBOLS |
To see more information, please visit the following
page:
