Vowel sounds are notorious for varying between one variety of English and the next, often being a key element in what we recognize as different accents. So, you may feel that some of the words offered in the earlier lists as examples don’t seem to be pronounced with the vowel sounds exactly as listed. Also, some of the sound distinctions shown here may not even be used regularly in your own speech. It may be, for example, that you make no distinction between the vowels in the words caught and cot and use [ɑ] in both. You may also be used to seeing the vowel sound of pet represented as [e] in dictionaries rather than with [ɛ] as used here.

You may not make a significant distinction between the central vowels [ə], called “schwa,” and [ʌ], called “wedge.” If you’re trying to transcribe, just use schwa [ə]. In fact, in casual speech, we all use schwa more than any other single sound. It is the Front High I e a O o U Mid Low Central Back Figure 3.4 The sounds of language 35 unstressed vowel (underlined) in the everyday use of words such as afford, collapse, photograph, wanted, and in those very common words a and the.

There are many other variations in the actual physical articulation of the sounds we have considered here. The more we focus on the subtle differences in the actual articulation of each sound, the more likely we are to find ourselves describing the pronunciation of small groups or even individual speakers. Such subtle differences enable us to identify individual voices and recognize people we know as soon as they speak. But those differences don’t help us understand how we are able to work out what total strangers with unfamiliar voices are saying. We are clearly able to disregard all the subtle individual variation in the phonetic detail of voices and recognize each underlying sound type as part of a word with a particular meaning. To make sense of how we do that, we need to look at the more general sound patterns, or the phonology, of a language.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم حفظ النظام ينهي استعداداته الخاصة بحفل تخرج طالبات الجامعات العاشر

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تنشر أكاليل الزهور ومظاهر الفرح بمناسبة ذكرى ولادة أمير المؤمنين (عليه السلام)

مجمع الشيخ الكليني يواصل تحضيراته لاستقبال المشاركات في حفل تخرج طالبات الجامعات العاشر

وصول المشاركات في فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة الثقافي النسوي العالمي الثامن إلى كربلاء

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ماذا يحدث لجسمك عند تناول الوجبات السريعة يوميا؟

لصحة عظام المرأة.. الشاي أفضل أم القهوة؟

لبناء العضلات وإنقاص الوزن.. ما أفضل توقيت لتناول البيض؟

أطعمة صحية تساعد على التعافي من "الإنفلونزا الخارقة"

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

دراسة تكشف قدرة الحيتان على سماع الأصوات منخفضة وعالية التردد من مسافة بعيدة

تجربة جديدة: الأسفلت المدعوم بالطحالب يقاوم الحفر ويقلل الانبعاثات الكربونية

تسريبات تكشف ملامح أول هاتف قابل للطي من "أبل"

رصد نوع نادر من القطط في تايلاند للمرة الأولى منذ عقود

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Phonetic Transcription

Phonetics

Word sharing and dialects: Dialects generally borrow from dialects

Dialects—Where Do You Draw the Line?

The standard

Koinés

Externally motivated change

Chain shifts

Changes to make life easier

Systemic changes

Weakening of intervocalic unvoiced stops

Simplification of consonant clusters