How does the length of vowels differentiate vowel sounds?

How does the length of vowels differentiate vowel sounds?

In most varieties of English, for instance Received Pronunciation and General American, there is allophonic variation in vowel length depending on the value of the consonant that follows it: vowels are shorter before voiceless consonants and are longer when they come before voiced consonants.

Is vowel length predictable?

In English, on the other hand, the length of a vowel is completely predictable. If a vowel comes before any of these sounds [p,t,k,f,θ,s,ʃ], then it will be short. Otherwise it will be long. In phonetic terms, vowels are short before voiceless consonants, and long before voiced consonants.

What are some ways vowels are distinguished from each other?

The body of the tongue moves in the mouth to shape each vowel, and for some vowels, the lips are rounded as well. Linguists classify vowels according to four pieces of information: tongue height, tongue backness, lip rounding, and tenseness.

What is vowel length rule?

When a vowel comes before a voiceless consonant, it is typically said for the shortest duration. When a vowel comes before a voiced consonant, it is said a little bit longer. And when a vowel comes at the end of a syllable, also called an open syllable, the vowel is said for the longest duration.

Is vowel length distinctive in English?

While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in many other languages, for instance in Arabic, Czech, Hindi, Sanskrit, Fijian, Finnish, Japanese, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Classical Latin, Lombard, German, Dutch, Latvian, Old English, Samoan, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese.

Why are long vowels called long?

The alphabet sounds (when the vowel “says its name”) are called “long vowels.” We call them ‘long’ because we hold them slightly longer than the short sounds. However, they are completely different sounds– not a longer version of the same sound.

Is vowel length phonemic in English?

I prefer the analysis that vowel length is not phonemic, and that vowel length is only incidental to certain vowel phonemes where the main distinction is the vowel quality (the precise sound) rather than the quantity (the length), but it’s also possible to analyse it the other way around: that some vowels sound (only …

How do you indicate a long vowel?

The long vowels can be represented by a horizontal line above the vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.

What is a vowel quality?

A term in phonetics for the property that makes one VOWEL sound different from another: for example, /iː/ as in sheep from /ɪ/ as in ship. The quality of a vowel is determined by the position of the tongue, lips, and lower jaw, and the resulting size and shape of the mouth and pharynx.

What are the characteristics of vowels?

Vowels are commonly described according to the following characteristics: The portion of the tongue that is involved in the articulation: front, central or back. The tongue’s position relative to the palate: high, mid or low. The shape of the lips: rounded or unrounded (spread).

Why are vowels called long and short?

How do you know if a vowel is long?

A long vowel is a vowel sound that is pronounced the same way as the name of the letter itself. For example, the long U sound is pronounced like “yoo,” as would be the case in words like “lure” and “tube.” By contrast, the short U sound is pronounced more like “uh,” as in words like “cub” and “tub.”

Do all vowel sounds have the same length?

Generally speaking, some vowel sounds tend to be longer than others, but no vowel sound has a fixed length and many other factors affect length, as we are about to see. English contains 6 single (monophthong) vowel sounds that are normally short (ish):

What is the difference between RP and American English vowel length?

American English vowel length. In General American English (GenAm), vowel length is not as distinctive as in RP. Clipping still occurs, but the American equivalent of the RP lax (SHORT) vowels are not always so short – in many American accents, all vowels can become lengthened for emphasis.

Why do long vowels lose their length in connected speech?

This is because the weak vowels after the stressed syllable eat into the space available for the ‘long vowel’. In connected speech, this causes long vowels to reduce in length significantly. The main stress in a unit of speech will often be longer than normal, compare the length of the word YES /jes/ in this example:

What is the difference between allophonic variation in vowel length?

In most varieties of English, for instance Received Pronunciation and General American, there is allophonic variation in vowel length: vowels are shortened before fortis consonants but have full length in all other contexts (i.e. word-finally, before lenis consonants, nasals and /l/ ).