PARAMETERS FOR DESCRIBING THE MONOPHTHONGS OF THE ENGLISH SOUND SYSTEM

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PARAMETERS FOR DESCRIBING THE MONOPHTHONGS OF THE ENGLISH SOUND SYSTEM
In order to classify the vowels of English, it is essential to consider certain factors which are necessary for proper classification. The first thing to be noted is that it is from the lungs that the airstream for the production of speech sounds flows (in most human languages). For the production of vowels, the airstream flows without any obstruction. Although there is no obstruction to the flow of the airstream, the tongue moves and the shape of the lips changes according to the kind of vowel being produced. In addition to the movement of the tongue and changes in the shape of the lips, the jaw also moves. These factors are what are termed parameters for describing vowels.
In describing the vowels of English there are five (5) basic parameters

 1 The vertical position of the tongue

This refers to how high or low in the mouth is the tongue e.g. high, mid, and low. This is also referred to how open or close the jaws are during the production of vowels, hence instead of using high and low, close and open can be used respectively.
2 The horizontal position of the tongue

That is, how forward or backward in the mouth the tongue is which invariable means the part of the tongue that is bunched up during the production of the sounds.
3Lip rounding

Vowels vary as to whether the lips are rounded or spread. The back vowels /ʊ/, /u:/, /ɒ/, and /ɔ:/ in boot/bu:t/, put/pʊt/, orange/ˈɒrɪnʤ/, and bore/bɔ:/ respectively are the only rounded monophthongs in English. They are produced with pursed or rounded lips. On the other hand, the vowel /i:/ that can be heard in cheese/ʧi:z/ is unrounded, with the lips in the shape of a smile. For better understanding of lip rounding, stand in the front of a mirror and pronouncing the word who, but prolonging the pronunciation, as if you were an owl: whooooooooooooooooooo. Now pose as if you want to take a picture and say cheese, only say it with a prolonged vowel: cheeeeeeeeeese.
4 Tenseness

 When producing certain vowel sounds, there is usually a higher degree of tension in the tongue, that is, certain vowels are produced with a higher force than others. For instance, the vowel /i:/ in cheese/ʧi:z/ has a slightly higher tongue position than /ɪ/ in ink/ɪŋk/. This is also true for /u:/ in boot/bu:t/ and /ʊ/ in bush/bʊʃ/, /әʊ/ in boat/bәʊt/ and /ɔ:/ in bore/bɔ:/. The first vowel in each pair is generally produced with greater tension of the tongue muscles than its counterparts, and they are often a little longer in duration. These vowels can be distinguished by the features tense and lax as shown below
Tense                                    lax
                                          /i:/ beat/bi:t/                     /ɪ/ bit/bɪt/
                                         /u:/ boot/bu:t/                   /ʊ/ put/pʊt/
                                         /ɑ:/ palm/pɑ:m/                /æ/ hat/hæt/
                                         /ɜ:/ girl/gɜ:l/                     /ɔ:/ bore/bɔ:/
                                                                                  /ʌ/ hut/hʌt/
                                                                                  /ɒ/ pot/pɒt/
                                                                                 /e/ bet/bet/
                                                                                 /ә/ about/әˈbaʊt/

 Tense vowels may occur at the ends of words; /si:/, /su:/, /pɒ:/ and /sɜ:/ represent the English words see sew, pa and sir. Lax vowels mostly do not occur at the end of words; /sɪ/, /se/, /sʊ/, /sæ/ are not possible words in English (the only exception to this generalization is /ɔ:/, which occur in words such as /sɔ:/. Although, the schwa sound /ә/ can end words in non rhotic accents where /r/ after vowel sounds (especially schwa /ә/) in final positions are not produced for example after/ˈæftә/).

 5 Longevity
There are 12 monophthongs in the English sound system. These are however classified into short vowels and long vowels. Short vowels in the sense that their production is not prolonged; there are seven of such vowels in English.
·         Short vowels
/ɪ/ as in kit/kɪt/
/e/ as in dress/dres/
/æ/ as in trap/træp/
/ʌ/ as in strut/strʌt/
/ɒ/ as in lot/lɒt/
/ʊ/ as in foot/fʊt/
/ә/ as in another/әˈnɒðә/
And long in the sense that the sense that their production is prolonged, that is the tongue remain in the same position a little longer for the production of these sounds in comparison to the longevity of the tongue in positions for the production of short vowels. There are five such vowels in English.
·         Long vowels
/I:/ as in fleece/fli:s/
/ɑ:/ as in palm/pɑ:m/
/ɔ:/ as in thought/θɔ:t/
/u:/ as in goose/gu:s/
/ɜ:/ as in nurse/nɜ:s/
These vowels may be placed in the vowel quadrilateral (based on the cardinal vowel diagram by Daniel Jones) as shown in the diagram below.
Parameters for describing English Monophthongs



Having considered the parameters for describing the monophthongs, each monophthong can now be classified as
Vowel N­o
Phonetic Symbol
Description
Word example
1
/i:/
Close front unrounded tense vowel
Beach/bi:ʧ/
2
/ɪ/
Half-close front unrounded lax vowel
City/ˈsɪti/
3
/e/
Half-open front unrounded lax vowel
Test/test/
4
/æ/
Open front unrounded lax vowel
Apple/ˈæpl/
5
/ɑ:/
Open back unrounded tense vowel
Farm/fɑ:m/
6
/ɒ/
Open back rounded lax vowel
Orange/ˈɒrɪŋʤ/
7
/ɔ:/
Half-close  back rounded lax vowel
Form/fɔ:m/
8
/ʊ/
Half-close back rounded lax vowel
Cook/kʊk/
9
/u:/
Close back rounded tense vowel
Cool/ku:l/
10
/ʌ/
Half-open central unrounded lax vowel
Love/lʌv/
11
/ɜ:/
Mid central unrounded tense vowel
Firm/fɜ:m/
12
/ә/
Mid central unrounded lax vowel
Ago/әˈgәʊ/

Friday Abiona Stephen is a researcher, educator, writer, linguist, web designer, proofreader and editor with keen interest in child language development, computer language processing, web designing, and proofreading. He is a graduate of Lagos State University, Ojo, with a second class upper degree in English Education.

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