Articulatory peculiarities of vowels in the English and Ukrainian languages

1.Articulatory peculiarities of vowels in the English and Ukrainian languages

The articulatory features that distinguish different vowel sounds are said to determine the vowel's quality. Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels in terms of the common features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundedness (lip position). There are however still more possible features of vowel quality, such as the velum position (nasality), type of vocal fold vibration (phonation), and tongue root position.

1.1 Articulation peculiarities of English language vowels. Their positional changes and reduction.

From phonological point of view we should consider such principle as the position of the tongue. It is characterized from two aspects, that is the horizontal and vertical movement.

According to the horizontal movement English vowels are divided into five classes (Russian scholars):

British phoneticians do not single out the classes of front-retracted and back-advanced vowels. So both [i:] and [i] vowels are classed as front, and both [к:] and [if ] vowels are classed as back. The latter point of view doesn't seem to be consistent enough, because vowels in these two pairs differ in quality due to the raised part of the tongue.

The other articulatory characteristic of vowels as to the tongue position is its vertical movement. British scholars distinguish three classes of vowels: high (or close), mid (or half-open), and low (or open) vowels. Russian phoneticians made the classification more detailed distinguishing two subclasses in each class that is broad and narrow variations of the three vertical position of the tongue. Thus the following six groups of vowels are distinguished:

Another feature of English vowels which is sometimes included into the principles of classification is lip rounding. Traditionally three lip position are distinguished: spread, neutral and rounded.

English vowel sounds have another property, which is traditionally termed checkness. This guality depends on the character of the articulation from a vowel to a consonant. As a result all English short vowels are checked when stressed. The degree of checkness may vary and depends on the following consonant. Before fortis voiceless consonant it is are tense while historically shot vowels are lax. There're no tense vowels in Russian.

Summarizing we could say that phonological analysis of articulatory features of English vowels allows to consider functionally relevant the following two characteristics:

a) stability of articulation, *

b) tongue position.

Stability of articulation specifies the actual position of the articulating organ in the process of the articulation of a vowel. There are two possible varieties:

a) the tongue position is stable;

b) it changes.

In the first case the articulated vowel is relatively pure in the second case a vowel consists of two clearly perceptible elements. There exist in addition a third variety, an intermediate case, when the change in the tongue position is fairly weak. So according to this principle the English vowels are subdivided into: monophthongs, diphthongs, diphthongoids.

The English monophthongs are traditionally divided into varieties according to their length:

Vowel length or quantity has been the point of disagreement for a long time . When sounds are used in connected speech they cannot help being influenced by one another. Duration is one of the characteristics of a vowel wich depends on the following factors:

1) its own length,

2) the accent of the syllable in which it occurs,

3) phonetic context,

4) the position of the sound in the syllable,

5) the position of the sound in the rhythmic structure,

6) the position of the sound in a tone group,

7) the position of the sound in a phrase,

8) the position of the sound in an utterance,

9) the type of pronunciation,

10) the style of the type of pronunciation.

Tenseness is one more articulatory characteristic. It characterizes the state of the organs of speech at the moment of production of a vowel. Historically long vowels 

Lip Position

In articulating vowels lips can be:

• neutral (in the [æ], [a], [a:], [e:], [ә] monophthongs and the [ai], [au], [eә] diphthongs’ 1st elements)
• spread (in [e], [i:], [i] and [ei], [iә])
• rounded (in [u:], [u], [o:], [o] and [uә], [әu], [oi]).

English rounded vowels feature a flat lip shape.

Beginning

In word beginnings English vowels feature a loose start and weak articulation without a glottal stop. The glottal stop is a glottal plosion like a slight cough created in closing and quickly opening the vocal cords.

Positional Length

In word stress, vowel length can change especially in long monophthongs and diphthongs. Positional vowel length depends on some factors.

The same sound is pronounced longest at word ends, shortens before voiced consonants and shortens most before voiceless consonants. But its quality stays the same as in “knee-need-niece” [ni:-ni:d-ni:s], “pie-pine-pipe” [pai-pain-paip]. In short vowels, positional length changes are deepest in [æ] prolonged before voiced consonants especially [b], [d], [g].

The same vowel sounds longer when stressed as in “Carl” [ka:l] – “carnation” [ka:'nei∫n].

Vowel length also depends on a stressed syllable tone. A low fall tone syllable sounds shorter while a low rise prolongs it as in “May” [˛mei]-[¸mei]. Stressed vowels in words pronounced with a complex tone ending (like a fall-rise) sound longer – [ˇmei].

Neutral Vowel

The [ә] monophthong is a neutral vowel of unclear quality, quite different from the rest vowel timbres. It’s pronounced only in unstressed syllables and differs as to word position. At the beginning it’s not prolonged. In words with the ending “r” (-er, -or, -ar, -ure) it sounds longer like [a] than at the beginning.

Reduction

English help (auxiliary) words are usually unstressed. However sometimes help words may keep their full-sound articulation, thus pronounced in its strong form – in isolation and logical/rhythmic emphasis with phrase stress. Unstressed position changes English vowel quality in help words by shortening.

This reduction (vowel shortening) may be

• qualitative (weakening a vowel, changing its quality and neutralizing it)
• quantitative (reducing a vowel)
• zero (removing a vowel, sometimes a consonant).

Reduced forms are called weak.

• strong forms (as in “she” [∫i:], “you” [ju:], “at” [æt]. “Have you read it?” ['hæv ju· ¸red it])
• weak forms (as in “she” [∫i·, ∫i], “you” [ju·, ju], “at” [әt], “I’ve read it” [aiv ˛red it].

Reduction degree and its form choice depend on speech tempo and style.

“There Is/Are” Pronunciation

In “there is/are”  sentences stress typically falls on a following thing existing somewhere. The introductory “there” is unstressed, usually reduced with the neutral vowel – [ðә] or [ðeә] in slow speech. The full form features the linking [r] – “there is” [ðeriz], “there are” [ðerә]. In the singular reduced form [r] disappears – “there’s” [ðәz]. The plural reduced form sounds the same with its full form – “there’re” [ðerә]. 
 
 
 
 

CLASSIFICATION OF THE VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE HORIZONTAL POSITION OF THE TONGUE

 
 
 

CLASSIFICATION OF THE VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE VERTICAL POSITION OF THE TONGUE

 
 

Labialization of English and Ukrainian vowels 

 
 
 

Typological features of the vowel system in English and Ukrainian 
 

 
 
 

1.2. Articulatory peculiarities of vowels in the Ukrainian languages

Ukrainian has 10 vowels, 6 “hard” vowels, and 4 “soft” vowels that are formed by adding a “y” sound to the beginning of one of the regular vowels. 

The six basic hard vowels are  А, Е, И, І, О, У.  Although five of them look like standard English letters, they differ greatly from English both in pronunciation, and in the fact that each vowel makes only one sound.  There are no long and short vowels in Ukrainian. 

These vowels are pronounced as follows:

А    like the “a” in the American pronunciation of “car” or the “o” in “on” or “hot”

Е    like the short “e” in the American pronunciation of “let”

И    like the short “i”  in “kill” or “live”

І      like the long “e” in  “keep”

О    like the short “o”  in “torte” or the “a” in “call”

У    like the “oo” in “cool” or the “u” in “yule”

There are, additionally, four soft vowels.  These are essentially dipthongs, shorthand for the combination of Й, a consonant with the “y” sound found in “yellow,” with one of the hard vowels. There are no equivalent letters to these in English, but the sound are fairly common

Й + А  =  Я

Й + Е  =  Є

Й + І   =  Ї

Й + У  =  Ю

The sounds these letters make is fairly straightforward, and Ukrainian is essentially a phonetic language:

Я      like the “ya” in “yard”

Є      like the “ye” in “yellow”

Ї        like “yee” or the “yie” in “yield”

Ю     like “you”

The other two consonants don’t have a soft letter equivalent, although the diphthong for “o”  exists in the Ukrainian language.  Instead of being a single letter, it is written out.  At the beginning of a word, the Й letter is used, as here:

Йo    like the “yo” in “York”

Йи    like the “yi” in “yippie”  (rare local usage)

When it occurs in the middle of words,  the sound «Йо» is often written differently, with a м’який знак (soft sign) instead of a «Й».

ьо    like the “yo” sound in “gnocchi”

Two different classification of vowels can be made: a historical perspective and a modern perspective. From a historical perspective, the Ukrainian vowels can be divided into two categories:

Hard vowels (in Cyrillic: а, и (from Common Slavic *ы), о, and у or transliterated as a, y (from Common Slavic *y), o, and u; )

Soft vowels (in Cyrillic: е, і and и (from Common Slavic *и) or transliterated as e, i and y (from Common Slavic *i)). The iotified vowels are considered to be soft vowels

From a modern perspective, the Ukrainian vowels can be divided into two categories:

Hard Vowels (In Cyrillic: а, е, и, і, о, and у or transliterated as a, e, y, i, o, and u). This category as can be seen from the table is different from the historical hard category

Iotified Vowel (In Cyrillic: я, є, ї, and ю or transliterated as ja, je, ji, and ju). To this category can also be added the combination of letters йо (transliterated as jo)

There is a set of isom and allomorph features in the contrasted languages. Allomorph features   are traced in the difference of vowel quantity To isom. ones belong familiar monophthongs and factors that predetermined their systemic organization.. E and U are contrasted on the basis of common principles or factors: 1) stability of articulation There are 6 vowels (monophthongs) in U /а, о, у, и, і, е/and 20 vowels in E (12 of them are monophthongs /I, i: e, ǝ, ʌ, a:, u, u:, æ, o, o:, ɜ:/, two of them are diphthongoids /i:/, /u:/ and 8 diphthongs). Here such group oppositions as mon-s ::diphth-s, diph-s :: diphths.

2) tongue position : to allomorph features belong: absence of central, back advanced and front retracted Vs (according to the horizontal movement of the tongue) and no differentiation between narrow and broad Vs according to the vertical movement. English /e/ is mid, narrow, U-n /e/ is open, low, front, E /o/ is low, U is mid. According to the horizontal movement in U there are such oppositions as front::back, in E front::front retracted, central::back::back-advanced. 3) lip position. U /у/, \о\ and E /o, o:, u, u:/ are labialized, though, according to the research of pr.Wells /y(ȕ)/ and /u/ have lost their labialization.4) vowel length. It isn`t distinct in U.  In E there exists an opposition between long and short monophth-s.  5) Nazalization is traced in E: /m, n, ŋ/. In U acc.to Sokolova there are only slightly nasialised sounds as in пані, гнані, тонна. 6) distribution of V: if a stressed vowel is is followed by a strong voiceless C, this vowel is checked. If a vowel is followed by a weak voiceless C it is free. In E long Vs appear in open syllables, and /ǝ/ in an unstressed position.