5 Vowels, Part II
Lowercase U: [u]
This can be heard here:
| u Lowercase U |
The vowel [u] is heard in the word “moods,” and in the lexical set goose. This free vowel is called the close back rounded vowel. Its symbol is the “lowercase U”. To connect the sound to the symbol, think of words like: aluminum, illusion, Jules, June, Raul, rude, Susan, truth, tune, Zulu. It also appears in other spellings and is often represented by “OO”. Similar to the [i], this sound/symbol combination is used in many European languages, for instance “tu” in Italian.
In phonemic transcription systems, where Free Vowels are always marked as long, the goose lexical set is denoted by this lower case <u> and the length diacritic, /uː/. |
| Draw the Lowercase U exactly as you normally would, making sure to use the stem on the end (as other symbols look very similar, but lack this final stem— [ʋ] or [ʊ]). | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: goose
Alternates: Some accents have an onglide into goose such as [əu]. The [u] vowel is sometimes used as a substitute in the foot lexical set, especially for those accents (usually non-English) that lack the goose-foot distinction. Some languages lack the [w] sound as use [u] in its place, and so accents based on these languages substitute [u] for [w]. |
|
| Spellings: | rheumatism, blew, do, canoe, maneuver, doom, rouge, through, aluminum, blue, bruise, lieutenant. |
Upsilon: [ʊ]
This can be heard here:
| ʊ Upsilon |
The vowel [ʊ] is heard in the word “good,” from the lexical set foot; it’s a checked vowel. Its symbol is the “upsilon” [ˈʊpsɪlɒn], which is a turned omega, and looks a lot like a horseshoe. This modified U can be connected to the spellings of words like: bull, bullet, bulletin, bush, bushel, butcher, cushion, full, handful, pudding, pull, pulley, pulled, push, puss, put. It also appears in other spellings and is often represented by “oo”. |
| Draw the Upsilon like the rounded part of a u, making sure to use the serifs (the little hooks) on the two ends. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: foot
Alternates: In accents (usually non-English) that lack the goose-foot distinction, [ʊ] can be substituted for goose words. |
|
| Spellings: | wolf, into (w.f. before a vowel), hook, would, put. |
U-Glide / Liquid U: [ju]
This can be heard here:
| ju U-Glide or Liquid U |
The vowel [ju], which is English’s only rising diphthong (meaning the second element is more important that the first), is heard in the letter “U” or the words “you/ewe, music”. It’s a free vowel and is represented by the lexical set gooseⒷ. It’s represented by two symbols: yod, the “J” symbol, followed by /u/. Note that this sound is optional in some words, particularly when the preceding consonant is articulated on the alveolar ridge, namely [t, d, s, z, l, ɹ]. Depending on your accent or dialect, you might say [djuk] when playing an aristocrat, or [duk] when speaking of John Wayne. |
| Note that in earlier editions of this workbook, I advocated using a softened version of [ju], transcribed as [ɪu] , for this diphthong when it appeared within a word, as in [tɪun]. I no longer think this is a necessary differentiation; you may occasionally encounter it in old materials I’ll share with you in later classes. | |
| Draw each part of the diphthong in the same manner that you have drawn them to this point. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: goose Ⓑ (technically, [ju] is a subset of goose in Wells’ lexical sets.)
Alternates: There are no alternates for Liquid-U |
|
| Spellings: | beautiful, feud, queue, few, ewe, view, abuse, hue, you, Yukon |
| Note that the following u–spellings, which appear in unstressed syllables, are all pronounced [jʊ] or [jə]; they’re part of the lexical set foot Ⓑ—Word List |
| accurate, arguable, argument, (however: argue, arguing [ju]), binoculars, bureau, executive, executor, (however: execute and execution [ju]) manufacture, masculine, occupy, occupation, occupational, particular. |
| Speaking North American Naturally, David Smukler |
Vowel Exercise 5a
Vowel Exercise 5b
Audio Quiz 9
Practice Speaking & Hearing: Nonsense Words 8
This group of 24 nonsense words mixes the kinds of consonants or consonant clusters that begin and end words. Try speaking them aloud. These words use either [i], [ɪ], [i̽], [ə], [ʌ], [ɚ], [ɝ], [ɪɚ], [u], [ʊ], [ju].
They can be heard here:
| θuf | zʊŋθ | ʍitɚ | kwʊp | hudst | ɡwʌŋd |
| juˈʒudɫ̩ | ɡjupɫ̩ | kwɪˈmɪɚ | ɡlɪθ | θɪɡɫ̩d | klupɫ̩z |
| pʊŋz | kɹipt | hub | twudɫ̩z | twɝdɫ̩z | judɚn |
| ɡwɝdɫ̩ | ʃɪntʃt | kɹɪpti̽ | ʍʌθ | kliθ | tʃɝmps |
Read and Write from IPA 7
Transcription Into IPA 8
Correct the Transcription 7
Diphthong Upsilon + Schwa [ʊɚ]
This can be heard here:
| ʊɚ Diphthong Upsilon + Schwa |
The centring diphthong [ʊɚ]is heard in the word “poor,” from the lexical set cure. It appears to be a lexical set in decline, and many people merge it with tother sets at this point. It is comprised of the symbols upsilon [ʊ] and schwa [ɚ/ə]. In most dialects with rhoticity, it is made with R-colouring at the end, but there are some dialects that omit this (and so you would use [ʊə]to describe that sound). This diphthong is often represented by the spelling “oor”, or you can try to connect the symbol to the the spellings of words like: sure, assure, as long as you don’t pronounce them as [ʃɝ]and[əˈʃɝ]. It also appears in a few other spellings than “oor”(see below).
Many speakers do not use this sound at all and use the sounds [ɔɚ] and [ɝ/ɚ] instead. In other words, they merge cure with force or nurse; non-rhotic speakers might have a merge with thought [ɔː] instead of force. Try saying all of the following words with the [ʊɚ] choice. |
| Draw an Upsilon followed by an R-coloured schwa. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: cure
Alternates: While nurse and force can be used for cure, it doesn’t go both ways. |
|
| Spellings: | sewer, moor, lure, tour |
| Word List |
Diphthong Exercise 6
Read and Write from IPA 8
Transcription Into IPA 9
Correct the Transcription 8
Ash: [æ]
This can be heard here:
| æ Ash |
The vowel [æ] is heard in the word “actors” and the lexical set trap. It is the near-open front unrounded vowel. This sound is very familiar, and comes easily to most North Americans. There is a tendency in some areas for this sound to be nasalized when preceeding a nasal consonant (i.e. /m, n, ŋ /), and may split off the so0called “tram” subset; more formally this is known as “Ash Tensing“. This subset features a diphthong in the range of [ɛ̃ə~ẽə~ɪ̃ə], with a nasalized vowel that we denote with the “nasalized” diacritic [ ̃]. In some accents this also happens in other settings (e.g. traditional New York City, before / -p, -t, -k, -ŋ/ and sometimes /-d/ that aren’t only before a nasal consonant, such as words like mad [meəd]. We want to be able to solidify this sound, without the onglide, so that it’s bright and consistent. |
| The print version of the ash (sometimes spelled <asc>) “digraph” or “ligature” is created by joining a type a and a lowercase e. However, when drawn by hand the symbol is made with one simple, flowing action, that looks somewhat like a highway overpass. Draw the first half of the symbol like you were drawing a backward 6, then complete the symbol with a lowercase e shape. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: trap
Alternates: As trap is merged with bath in many accents, that’s the most obvious one; as the nucleus of mouth, price, and (rarely) start. |
|
| Spellings: | add, plaid, meringue |
Audio Quiz 10
Practice Speaking & Hearing: Nonsense Words 9
This group of 24 nonsense words mixes the kinds of consonants or consonant clusters that begin and end words. Try speaking them aloud. These words use either [i], [i̽], [ɪ], [ə], [ʌ], [ɝ], [ɚ], [ɜ], [ɪɚ], [u], [ʊ], [ju], [jʊ], [ʊɚ], or [æ].
They can be heard here:
| stæps | ɡlutʃ | tʃʌŋ | bʊɚʃ | swʌdθs | fjʊmf |
| vɹibɫ̩d | ɝtʃt | ɹɪpts | sus | bɝdθs | ʃtɪŋθ |
| skɜmpt | kʊɚnz | θɹætʃt | ʃtætʃt | ðæθ | wɪɚkɫ̩z |
| jubz | mjudɫ̩z | ˈɝɡəpɫ̩z | plʊŋksi̽ | θjudn̩ | hʊɚt |
Read and Write from IPA 9
Transcription into IPA 10
Correct the Transcription 9
Diphthong Type A + Small Cap I: [aɪ]
This can be heard here:
| aɪ Diphthong Type A + Small Cap I |
The diphthong sound [aɪ] is heard in the word “fine” and in the lexical set price. [aɪ] is the first falling diphthong that we’ve encountered, where the the nucleus [a] offglides to [ɪ]. You might think of the word “aisle” for a spelling approximation of this diphthong’s transcription. As the sound is formed, the tongue (and jaw, possibly) rises to make the second part of the diphthong. Many people mistake this second sound for [i] when beginning their exploration of phonetics—this is another exaggerated “dictionary pronunciation” that we keep in our minds. Though there are regional variations of English where people do go that far, for most of us, this error occurs only when we exaggerate our own pronunciation and over-articulate as we struggle to hear the two sounds of the diphthong. Some phonologists argue that this dictionary pronunciation is the underlying mental model we have for this phoneme, which they write as /aj/, using the strong glide yod /j/ for the offglide. Their point is reinforced when considering price before a vowel, in a phrase like lie awake /laj ͜ əˈweɪk/, where the yod helps to transition from one vowel to the next. |
| For most Canadians and some Americans, there is a difference between the way this diphthong is said when it is followed by a voiced consonant as opposed to the way it is spoken before a voiceless consonant (compare bide and bite). The former is slower, and very much the sound described here, while the latter, in many parts of North America at least and most of Canada especially, tends to be raised and centralized somewhat, so it sounds more like [əɪ] or even [əi]. Linguists call this phenomenon Canadian Raising, even when you hear it in parts of the US. | |
| The first part of the symbol is known as a Type A, [a] to differentiate it from a symbol that looks more like a cursive, hand-written A, the Script A, [ɑ]. Draw the Type A in either of two ways: 1. start at the top and draw down to the point where the “belly” of the A sticks out. Draw the belly as a single loop, returning back to the point where you first began to draw it. Then finish the stem of the A by drawing down vertically. 2. Draw the entire stem, and then add the belly to it. Avoid drawing the Type A symbol like the number 2. Once you’ve drawn the Type A, add a Small Cap I to it. This is the first time we’ve drawn the [a]. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: price | |
| Spellings: | aye, either*, eye, alibi, die, guy, cry, dye. |
Type A: [a]
This can be heard here:
| a Type A |
The vowel [a], known as the open front unrounded vowel, is one of the most challenging sounds to teach to North Americans. For example, it is heard in some pronunciations of the word “command” or “bath,” in some accents. But for many of us, the words suggested here are normally spoken with [æ], and for some who do use this sound, they may not recognize that their sound is indeed [a]. To test this out, speak the word “bat” [bæt], immediately followed by the word “bath” [baθ]. Do you hear a difference in the vowel sounds of the two words? As we saw above, the [a] appears as the first sound in the diphthong [aɪ]. If you struggle with the sound on its own, try feeling the shape your mouth makes to begin the [aɪ] diphthong, and then try using that initial shape to make words with [a]. The [aɪ] diphthong of price in a Southern US accent is typically pronounced as [a], as in “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Also, start in a Boston accent is also pronounced [a], “Park the car in Harvard Yard.” |
| As we saw in [aɪ], draw the Type A in either of two ways: 1. start at the top and draw down to the point where the “belly” of the A sticks out. Draw the belly as a single loop, returning back to the point where you first began to draw it. Then finish the stem of the A by drawing down vertically. 2. Draw the entire stem, and then add the belly to it. Avoid drawing the Type A symbol like the number 2. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: bath
Alternates: In some varieties, the trap lexical set uses this (e.g. Irish English); [a] is very versatile and can be used as the nucleus of price, mouth, start, face and (rarely) choice; it can also be used in lot, thought, cloth, strut, or palm. |
|
| Spellings: | The [a] vowel, as a single vowel sound, is only used when followed by: |
| <f> as in after, craft, calf, chaff, half, laughter, paragraph | |
| <th> [θ] as in bath, path, wrath | |
| <ns> as in chance, dance | |
| <nt> as in aunt, grant, shan’t | |
| <nd> as in command, slander | |
| <s> as in ask, class, fast, last, glass, grasp, grass, vast | |
| and when used with “craft” endings. | |
| from David Smukler’s Speaking North American Naturally | |
| n.b. you might not use this sound in these words in your own accent! However, this sound is used in stage dialects, most notably an Irish accent, so it is definitely worth learning. |
trap vs. bath and the Ask List
By exploring the vowel sound [a], we’re also exploring two lexical sets that for some accents are merged, while in other accents they are not. In North America, both trap and bath are merged into one big group, while in a Standard British Accent, aka Received Pronunciation (RP), those sets are pronounced differently (bath in RP is pronounced with the vowel heard in words like father, or spa—it is merged with the palm lexical set.) Part of your task while you’re exploring the [a] vowel is to begin to differentiate trap words from bath words. If they are merged for you, it can be difficult, or even impossible, to guess which set a word lies in, and the only hope for you is to look it up. I have provided a list of the bath words, available at the end of the workbook, so you can look them up. The list is also known in theatre circles as the “Ask List,” a name that was given to it by the 20th-century speech teacher Edith Skinner.
Vowel Exercise 7a
Vowel Exercise 7b
Audio Quiz 11
Read and Write from IPA 10
Transcription into IPA 11
Correct the Transcription 10
Diphthong Type A + Upsilon: [aʊ]
This can be heard here:
| aʊ Diphthong Type A + Upsilon |
The diphthong [aʊ], whose sound is familiar to most North American speakers, begins with the Type A sound and quickly closes to the slightly rounded Upsilon sound. It appears in the word “sound” and the lexical set mouth, and is spelled with “ou” or “ow” in the words out and now. The German word “frau” might help you to connect the sound to the word, if you speak it with an American accent (the German accented version is closer to [ɑʊ]). As you speak the sound, you will feel your lips round into the second half of the diphthong, and you may feel the tongue sliding back as your mouth closes. |
| Canadians typically “raise” the beginning of this diphthong when it is followed by a voiceless consonant, [əʊ]. Compare bout and bow (of a boat), clout and cloud, lout and loud, douse and dowse, mouth and mouth (v.), and the two different pronunciations of “blouse” (with [s] or [z] endings). Learn to make them with either the [aʊ] or [əʊ] pronunciations. | |
| Draw a Type A /a/ followed by an Upsilon /ʊ/. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: mouth | |
| Spellings: | Curacao, bough, foul, hound, thou, how, crown, fowl, town. |
Diphthong Exercise 8
Script A: [ɑ]
This can be heard here:
| ɑ Script A |
The sound [ɑ], is the most open, fully back vowel sound in any language. In English, it isn’t as far back as it might be in some languages, but it is still the most open sound of our speech and ir associated with the palm lexical set. The lips are relaxed and the jaw is dropped. For many North Americans, this sound is used in the place of other sounds that you will be learning later. Here we will focus on words that use this sound in all dialect variants. For example, the sound appears in the word “aria”, and you might imagine singing an aria on the sound [ɑ] to remember it. |
| Draw the Script A by making an oval with a tail on the right side. It’s called the Script A because that is the form of the letter that most people use when the learn to “print” the alphabet in script form.
There are two ways of shaping the Script A: one where the top of the symbol is flat, while the other is shaped more like a lowercase <d> except you start at the midline rather than the topline. |
|
| Lexical Set Keyword: palm
Alternates: In non-rhotic accents, such as many accents in the uK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, [ɑ] is associated with the start lexical set. In North America, many accents that merge lot, cloth, thought and/or palm use [ɑ] for one, some or all of these sets. In parts of the UK and elsewhere, palm is merged with bath. |
|
| Spellings: | balm, mirage, hurrah, sergeant, bourgeois, prom |
Vowel Exercise 9a
Vowel Exercise 9b
Audio Quiz 12
Practice Speaking & Hearing: Nonsense Words 10
This group of 24 nonsense words mixes the kinds of consonants or consonant clusters that begin and end words. Try speaking them aloud. These words use either [i], [i̽], [ɪ], [ə], [ʌ], [ɝ], [ɚ], [ɜ], [ɪɚ], [u], [ʊ], [ju], [jʊ], [ʊɚ], [æ], [aɪ], [a], [aʊ], or [ɑ].
They can be heard here:
| pəbˈdɝ | vudʒd | mɪntʃt | ðæmp | tuɚmpt | bɹɑs |
| ɑtʃədn̩ | blaʊmd | kamz | mjutʔn̩ | bɹaɪtɫ̩ | judɪn |
| swɪpɫz | kwæmz | ʃtɝbɫ̩d | pwʊns | ʍadɫ̩z | ʍænz |
| nʌd | swikɫ | ɡlɑdz | ʃtɪŋks | flaɪkt | ʍʌtθ |
Read and Write from IPA 11
Transcription into IPA 12
Fill in the Blanks 1
Diphthong Script A + Flying Schwa
This can be heard here:
| ɑɚ Diphthong Script A + Flying Schwa |
The diphthong [ɑɚ], which begins with [ɑ] and ends with [ɚ], is heard in the word “car,” and is associated with a rhotic version of the start lexical set. Like all the R-coloured diphthongs, this sound can be said without R-colouring, as it might be spoken in some parts of the Southern States of the US. As with all sounds featuring the flying schwa, we can either roll the tip up toward the gum ridge, or draw the tongue back. We want to do this in a subtle way, not harshly or with too much tension. |
| As you have done before, draw the Script A, followed by a Flying Schwa. | |
| Lexical Set Keyword: start | |
| Spellings: | bar, guard, heart, memoir |
Diphthong Exercise 10
Read and Write from IPA 12
Transcription into IPA 13
Fill in the Blanks 2
IPA Vowel Chart, Part 2
Here are the vowel symbols we’ve learned in Part 1 and 2, arranged on the chart, with those we met in the previous chapter in grey, and the new ones we’ve just learned in black:
[u] close back rounded vowel
[ʊ] near-close near-back rounded vowel
[æ] near-open front unrounded vowel
[a] open front unrounded vowel
[ɑ] open back unrounded vowel
You can see that the vowels [i, ɪ̽, ɪ, ə] are all on a diagonal line between the front-close position and the mid-central one. As well, [ə, ɜ, ɐ] are vertically stacked one upon the other. From schwa in the mid-centre, you merely open the vowel space a bit more for [ɜ] and a bit more again for [ɐ]. That’s done by either dropping the jaw or “cupping” the tongue downward away from the tongue’s “equator” position at schwa.
- MRI 2. Janet Beck. Back close rounded vowel (cardinal 8). Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=4&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=117 ↵
- MRI 2. Janet Beck. Back close rounded float vowel. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=4&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=650 ↵
- null ↵
- MRI 2. Janet Beck. Front open unrounded float vowel. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=4&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=721 ↵
- MRI 2. Janet Beck. Front open unrounded vowel (cardinal 4). Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=4&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=97 ↵
- MRI 2. Janet Beck. Back open unrounded vowel (cardinal 5). Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=4&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=593 ↵