ENGLISH VOWELS

組員 :鄭李淑珠 na1c0015楊小萱 na1c0027李嘉麟

TRANSCRIPTION AND PHONETIC DICTIONARIES

Transcription: There are many different transcription of the

vowels of English:Why: 1. Accents of English differ greatly in the

vowels they use. 2. There is no one right way of

transcribing even a single accent of English.

THE SET OF SYMBOLS USED DEPENDS ON THE REASON FOR MAKING THE TRANSCRIPTION.

For example: * Aiming to reduce English to the

smallest possible set of symbols: sheep; ship => [Gi:p]; [Gip] Luke; look => [lu:k]; [luk]

O: reducing the number of vowel symbols

X: only showing the differ in length , without in quality

* Noting both length and quality differences occur: sheep; ship => [Gi:p]； [GNp]

* Most phonetics instructors and this book prefer:

sheep; ship => [Gip]； [GNp]

Phonetic dictionaries:1. English Pronouncing Dictionary,

16th => EPD 16 (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2003) by Jones, Peter Roach, James

Hartman, Jane Setter * Both British and American

pronunciations ; and a CD

2. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary

2nd edition => LPD 2 ( Harlow, U.K.: Pearson, 2000) by John Wells both British and American pronunciations

Both EPD 16 and LPD 2 use [Gi:p];[GNp]only the vowel of bird is different:

LPD 2 [M˜] EPD 16 [Mr]

3. Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

by Clive Upton, William Kretzschmar and Rfal Konopka

It gives a wider range of both British and American pronunciations than EPD 16 & LPD 2, and it uses a larger set of symbols and a more allophonic transcription than the other two.

Each of the three dictionaries shows the pronunciations typically used by national newscasters:

Standard American Newscaster English

=> American English Standard BBC English => British EnglishCaribbeanBritish English [kWrN@biBn]American English [kB@rNbiBn]

VOWEL QUALITYProblems in describing vowels:1. The terms we are using are simply labels

that describe how vowels sound in relation to one another. They are not absolute descriptions of the position of the body of the tongue.

2. There are no distinct boundaries between one type of vowel and another.

had [W] he [i] [W–D–eN–i]

had – head – say - he he[i] had[W]

had [W] father [A]

Scottish English do not distinguish between the vowels in cam and calm. Speakers with these accents pronounce both had and father with a vowel about halfway between the usual Midwestern American pronunciation of these two vowels.

THE AUDITORY VOWEL SPACEThe positions of the vocal organs in the vowel and tongue moving cannot be said precisely, unless we use x-ray or MRI to monitor the tongue. Therefore, we often simply use labels for the auditory qualities of the different vowels.

heed

had

D headmid low front

father

who

The labels here describe the way one vowel sound relative to another, not the articulations. Linguists have used terms such as acute and grave instead of front and back in the description of vowels. But, for a variety of reasons, these terms did not become widely used.

AMERICAN AND BRITISH VOWELS

heed

hid

head

had

hay

father

author

good

food

balm

bomb

bought

bud