英语的历史 Cassification of Vowels.pptVIP

Classification of Vowels Definition of vowels Cardinal vowels Classification of vowels What is a vowel? In the production of a sound, if the air, once out of the glottis, is allowed to pass freely through the resonators, the sound is a vowel. In the production of vowels, the vocal organs do not come very close together to form obstructions to the air stream, so it is difficult to have a clear sensation of the whereabouts of the vocal organs. Therefore methods for describing vowels on some basis other than articulatory were thought in 19th century. Eventually, it occurred to phoneticians that it would be a way out to establish, on an auditory basis, a set of arbitrary reference points – cardinal vowels, so that a given vowel could be described in terms of its relation to them. Cardinal Vowels Of the various cardinal vowel systems, the most satisfactory is the one devised by Daniel Jones. Jones first fixed the qualities of the two vowels which were produced with the tongue in most easily felt positions. When the soft palate is raised and the lips are unrounded, the vowel produced with the tongue raised as high and as forward as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as [i]; and the vowel produced with the tongue held as low and as far back as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as [B]. Then between the two positions he selected three points where the vowel qualities seemed to be equal distant and symbolized them as [e, Z, a]. The same procedure was applied when the back of the tongue was raised from the [B] position while the lips changed progressively from a wide open shape to a closely rounded one. Another three auditory equi-distant points were thus established from the lowest to the highest position and they were given the symbols [C, o, u]. The first five of these vowels are pronounced with the lips unrounded, and the remaining three are pronounced with the lips rounded. These eight vowels are called primary cardinal vowel