Modifications of english vowels in connected speech

          Analyzing these sentences we should draw attention to the underlined words. As “do” is unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast, sound [u] is reduced. As “you” is unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast, we have the neutral sound [ə] and not [ju:] or [ju]. The diphthongue [εu] is shortened to sound [ɔ] in the word “know”. The words I’m are unstressed, so diphthongue [ai] is reduced to [ə]. Word combination “Do you” pronounced so rapidly that they become [djə].

          Darryl: You know, I don't think I can help you. This is one of the most

alive spirits I've ever been around. She's not goin' anywhere.

          [jə ̗nɔ| ai dɔn ink ai kæn ̖help ju|| ðis wʌn əv ð mεus ‘əlaiv spirits aiv evə ̖bi:n əraund|| ʃiz ‘nɒt gεuiŋ ̖əniwə||]

          Analyzing these sentences we should draw attention to the underlined words. As “you” is unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast, we have the neutral sound [ə] and not [ju:] or [ju]. The diphthongue [εu] is shortened to sound [ɔ] in the word “know”. Then another word “you” took quantitative changes and sound [u:] is shortened to [u]. The second sentence pronounced so fast that the article “the” takes zero reduction. The sound [i:] in the pronoun “she” is also shortened to [i]. The diphthongue [εə] in “anywhere” is reduced to simple [ə].

          David: What do you mean?

          [wɒt də jə ̗mi:n]

     As “do” and “you” are unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast, sound [u] is reduced to the neutral sound [ə].

          Darryl: I agree with her, dude. She's not dead. But you... You gotta deal with this... 'Cause seriously, that's like the darkest aura I've ever seen. Suckin' the life right outta you. It's killin' you, man. You have to let her go, dude.

          [ai əgri wit ̖hε: ̗djud|| ʃiz nɒt ̖ded|| bət̗ʃu|| ju gɔdə di:l ̖wit ðis|| ɔ:z ̖sirəsli ðæt laik ðə da:kəst ɔrə aiv ev ̖si:n|| sʌkiŋ ðə laif raid audə ̖ju|| its kiliŋ ̖ju: ̗mæn|| jə hɒv tə let ε: ̖gεu| ̗dju:d||]

          Analyzing these sentences we should draw attention to the underlined words.In the word “dude”, when it appears for the first time, sound [u:] is shortened to [u].”She” is unstressd so the sound [i:] is also shortened. “But” and “you” are joint and vowels in them reduced. As “you” is unstressed here it becomes [ju]. The words “gotta”, “cause” and “outta” are pronounced relaxed and the are parts of informal speech (dialect). The dipthongues [iə] in the word “seriously” are reduced to [ə]. The sound [ɔ:] in the word “aura” is shortened.The word “ever” is in unstressed positon, so the final sound is not pronounced. The word “her” undergoes elision and the sound [h] is dropped.

          David: How can I, when she won't leave?

          [hau kæn ̗ai| wεn ʃi ̖wεunt ̗li:v]

The pronoun she is in unstressed position so the vowel [i:] is shortened to [i].

     Darryl: Not your spirit girl. I'm talkin' 'bout the other one. The one you're keepin' in here. That's what's really haunting you, isn't it?

          [nɒt jε: ‘spirit ̖gε:l|| m tɔkiŋ baut ðə ‘ʌðə ̖wʌn|| ðə ‘wʌn jε: ki:piŋ in ̖hir|| ‘ðæts wɒts rili hɔntiŋ ju| ̗iznit||]

          Here we see zero reduction in the “I’m” word combination and the word “about”. The sound [ju:] in “you” is shortened.

          David: I don't want to talk about that.

          [ai ̖dɔn wɔnə tɔk əbaut ðət]

The word combination “want to” is pronounced informally. The sound [æ] is reduced to [ə] in the words “about” and “that” as they stay in unstressed position.

          Elizabeth: I get it. You were dumped. Probably for some guy who doesn't have a couch fused to his butt.

         [ai ̖ged it| ju: wε ̖dʌmpd|| prɒli fə sʌm ̗gai hu dʌznt həv ə kεutʃ fju:zd tə hiz ̖bət||]

“Probably” undertakes elision so one syllable is dropped. “Have” is unstressed that [æ] is reduced to [ə]. “For” and “to” are unstressed either and qualitative reduction affect them.

          David: Shut up

          [ʃʌdəp]

          The sound [ʌ] is reduced to [ə]

          Elizabeth: You can dish it out but you can't take it? You bring Father Flanagan and the whole Luck Club to get rid of me. But I talk about you getting dumped once...

          [ju kæn diʃ it aut bt jə cænt ̗teik it|| jə briŋ fɒðə ̖flɒnəgən ənd ðə hεul lʌk klʌb tə ged rid ̖əv mi|| bʌt ai tɔk jə getiŋ dʌmpd ̗wʌns]

          Analyzing these sentences we should draw attention to the underlined words.In the word “but” [ʌ] is dropped, As “you” is unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast, we have the neutral sound [ə] and not [ju:] or [ju]. In the word “Flanagan” all vowels in unstressed syllables lost their quality. In the word “me” [i:] is shortened to [i].

          David: You don't know what the hell you're talking about. Shut the hell up!

          [jə dʌnεu wɔt ðə hel a: jə tɔkiŋ baut|| ʃʌt ðə hel ʌp||]

          Analyzing these sentences we should draw attention to the underlined words. , As “you” is unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast, we have the neutral sound [ə] and not [ju:] or [ju]. “Don’t know” is pronounced relaxed. There’s zero reduction in the word “about”.

          Darryl: Sorry for your loss, bro. A word to the wise, girl. Show some respect for the dead.

          [sɒri fə jε: lɒs brεu|| ə wε:d tu ðə waiz gε:l|| ʃεu sʌm rəspect fə ðə ded]

The instressed [i] in the word “respect” reduces to [ə].

          Elizabeth: David? I'm sorry. It occurred to me now that I... probably don't know you all that well. I got this place for the roof. I was gonna do a whole garden out here... eventually, I think. Now I'm babbling. I... I'm really sorry. Most people who deal with loss really find it helpful to talk about things.

          [Deivid|| əm sɒri|| it ɔkε:d tə mi nau ðət ai|| prɒbəbli dɔnt nεu ju əl ðət wel|| ai gɒt ðis pleis fə ðə ruf|| ai wz gɔnə də ə hεul ga:dn out hiə|| əventʃəli| ai θink|| nau əm ba:bliŋ|| ai|| aim rili sɒri|| mεust pipl hu dil wið lɒs rili fain it helpfəl tə tɔk əbaut θiŋz||]

          In the word combination “I’m” [ai] is reduced to a schwa. [i:] in “me” is shortened to [i]. “that” isn’t stressed in both sentences, [æ] is replaced by [ə]. The sound [ɔ] is dropped in the word “was”. The quality of the sound [u] in “do” is reduced to [ə]. The sound [i] is not stressed in the word “eventually” and it is replaced by [ə] so it is in “helpful”. There is the sound [ə] in the word “about” instead of [æ] because the sound [æ] is unstressed.

          David: I don't want to talk about it!

          [ai dɔnt wɔnə tɔk æbaut it]

          Analyzing this sentence we should draw attention to the underlined word. “Want to” is pronounced relaxed and undergoes some changes.

          Elizabeth: Anger works too. Who was he talking about?

          [æŋgə wε:ks tu|| hu wɔz hi tɔkiŋ æbaut||]

          As «too» is unstressed here, we have short sound [u] and not long [u:]. “Who” is also unstressed and we have short sound [u] instead of long [u:]. The sound [i:] in “he” is also shortened to [i]

          David: Laura. Her name was Laura.

          [lɔrə|| hε: neim wz lɔrə]

          The sound [ɔ] in the word “was” undertakes zero reduction, so we miss this sound.

          Elizabeth: Who’s Laura?

          [huz lɔrə]

          “Who’s” is unstressed here, so we have short [u] and not the long [u:]

          David: She was my wife.

           [ʃi wz mai waif]

           Analyzing this sentence we should draw attention to the underlined words. As “she” is unstressed here we short sound [i] and not [i:]. As “was” is unstressed here and speech tempo is rather fast the sound [ɔ] is dropped.

           
 
 
 

CONCLUSION

               Vowel quality and quantity are two main constituents of the English vowels. The quality of a vowel is known to be determined by the size, volume, and shape of the mouth resonator, which are modified by the movement of active speech organs, that is the tongue and the lips. So vowel quality could be thought of as a bundle of definite articulatory characteristics which are sometimes intricately interconnected and interdependent.

     A vowel like any sound has physical duration – time which is required for its production (articulation). When sounds are used in connected speech they cannot help being influenced by one another. Duration is one of the characteristics of a vowel which is modified by and depends on the following factors: its own length, the type of syllable, the number of syllables in the word, the position of the word in the sentence, the place of a terminal tone, the position of the sentence in the text and some others.

     But the problem is whether variations of quantity are meaningful (relevant).

     Although we isolated vowel quality and vowel length, it was done only for the sake of analysis with the purpose of describing the vocalic system of the English language. They are closely connected (e.g. the lengthening of a vowel makes the organs of speech tenser at the moment of production, etc).

     Vowel reduction is one of the factors that condition the defining of the phonemic status of vowel sounds in a stretch of speech. The modifications of vowels in a chain are traced in the following directions: they are either quantitative or qualitative or both. These changes of vowels in a speech continuum are determined by a number of factors such as the position of the vowel in the word, accentual structure, tempo of speech, rhythm, etc.

     The decrease of the vowel quantity or in their words the shortening of the vowel length is known as a quantitative modification of vowels, which may be illustrated as follows:

1. The shortening of the vowel length occurs in unstressed positions, e.g. blackboard [ɔ:], sorrow [ɜʊ] (reduction). In these cases reduction affects both the length of the unstressed vowels and their quality.
2. The length of a vowel depends on its position in a word. It varies in different phonetic environments. English vowels are said to have positional length, as you probably remember from your practical course of phonetics, e.g. knee – need – neat (accommodation). The vowel [i:] is the longest in the final position, it is obviously shorter before the lenis voiced consonant [t].

     Qualitative modification of most vowels occurs in unstressed positions. Unstressed vowels lose their “colour”, their quality, which is illustrated by the examples below:

1. In unstressed syllables vowels of full value are usually subjected to qualitative changes, e.g. man [mæn] – sportsman ['spɔ:tsmən], conduct ['kɒndəkt] – conduct [kən'dʌkt]. In such cases the quality of the vowel is reduced to the neutral sound [ə].
2. Slight degree of nasalization marks vowels preceded or followed by the nasal consonants [n], [m], e.g. “never”, “no”, “then”, “men” (accommodation).

     We would like to conclude that certain interrelation which we observe between the full form of a word and its reduced forms is conditioned by the tempo, rhythm and style of speech.