Vowels

Question 1

What are the vowel dimensions modulated by?

Answer 1

Height, backness, tenseness, rounding

Question 2

Identify the vowel height that belongs to the following characteristics:
a) Tongue body is neither raised nor lowered
b) Tongue body is lowered
c) Tongue body is raised

Answer 2

a) Mid
b) Low
c) High

Question 3

What IPA is associated with a high vowel?

Answer 3

[i] as in [sil ðə dil] ‘seal the deal’
[ɪ] as in [fɪtbɪt] ‘fitbit’
[u] as in [vudu] ‘voodoo’
[ʊ] as in [kʊkbʊk] ‘cookbook’

Question 4

What IPA is associated with a mid vowel?

Answer 4

[ɛ] as in [bɛd ənd brɛkfəst] ‘bed and breakfast’
[ʌ] as in [stʌn gʌn] ‘stun gun’

Question 5

What IPA is associated with a low vowel?

Answer 5

[æ] as in [kætnæp] ‘cat nap’
[ɑ] as in [lɑŋ gɑn] ‘long gone’

Question 6

Identify the vowel backness that belongs to the following characteristics:
a) Tongue body is closer to the teeth
b) Tongue body is closer to velum
c) Tongue body is closer to the palate

Answer 6

a) Front
b) Back
c) Central

Question 7

What is the IPA for front vowels?

Answer 7

[i], [ɪ], [ɛ], [æ]

Question 8

What is the IPA for central vowels?

Answer 8

[ʌ]

Question 9

What is the IPA for back vowels?

Answer 9

[u], [ʊ], [ɑ]

Question 10

Identify the tenseness of the following vowels:
a) [i], [u], [ɑ]
b) [ɪ], [ɛ], [æ], [ʌ], [ʊ]

Answer 10

a) Tense
b) Lax

Question 11

What are the differences between tense and lax?

Answer 11

Tense: more constriction, more peripheral articulation, longer
Lax: less constriction, more central, shorter

Question 12

What are the characteristics of Schwa?

Answer 12

Mid, central, lax, reduced, unstressed, extra short

Question 13

Why is Schwa a reduced vowel?

Answer 13

It is derived from other vowels through a vowel reduction process

Question 14

Which vowels are rounded in Canadian English?

Answer 14

High back and mid back vowels

Question 15

What is a monophthong?

Answer 15

A simple vowel with no change in articulation

Question 16

What is a diphthong?

Answer 16

A complex vowel with change in articulation during pronunciation

Question 17

True or false: Monophthongs are always tense

Answer 17

False, diphthongs are always tense

Question 18

What are the major diphthongs?

Answer 18

[aj] as in [sajnaj] ‘Sinai’
[aw] as in [hawnaw] ‘how now?’
[oj] as in [hojti tojti] ‘hoyty-toyty’

Question 19

What are the minor diphthongs?

Answer 19

[ej] as in [nejsej] ‘naysay’
[ow] as in [sowlow] ‘solo’

Question 20

What is the caught-cot merger?

Answer 20

Original [ɔ] is now pronounced as [ɑ] rather than as itself
Example: Caught [kɑt] vs cot [kɑt]

Question 21

True or false: Speakers of varieties with cot-caught merger have an easy time differentiating the sounds

Answer 21

False, they have difficulty perceiving the difference

Question 22

What are the two uses of turned c?

Answer 22

As a full vowel (varieties without cot-caught merger) and as a variant of [ow] (all varieties and always occurs before [r])

Question 23

What are the 5 most common vowels cross-linguistically?

Answer 23

[i, e, a, o, u]

Question 24

Do vowels tend to be spread out or in proximity to each other in the vowel space?

Answer 24

Spread out for maximum contrast

Question 25

What are some examples of languages with the five vowel system?

Answer 25

Japanese, Spanish, Hawaiian, Tamil, Greek, Swahili, Russian, Hebrew