the vowels and their variety

18 Pages·2016·0.86 MB·English

International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature
Vol. 3, Issue 6, June 2016 IF- 3.558 ISSN: (2394-1642)
© Associated Asia Research Foundation (AARF) Publication
Website: www.aarf.asia Email : [email protected] , [email protected]

THE VOWELS AND THEIR VARIETY
(A Special Approach to the Diphthongs and Multiphthongs) 1
1Dr. Bisweswar Kundu,
Asst. Teacher (Retd.), Manikpara High School (H.S.), Paschim Medinipur,
West Bengal, India.

ABSTRACT
Vowels and Consonants are the two pillars in the structure of world languages. At the time of
our conversation when air comes out easily without any obstruction a vowel sound is created.
But when we articulate a consonant an obstruction comes in the path of the air flow. Such
obstruction is wanting during the utterance of a vowel sound, there is lack of such pressure,
the sound is simply shaped by the position of the tongue and the other vocal organs. My
paper promises to present different types of vowels on seven several stand points. I have also
created three new Terms for English Vowels named ABDICATING VOWEL, BAA-BOOTEE
VOWEL and FLOODING OR INUNDATING VOWEL. My further aim is to focus a new light
on the Vowel Combinations including the design of a Diphthong or a Triphthong which is
the basis of the Multiphthongs too. As the term „thong‟ means sound and it is taken as the
indication of phonetic vowel sound, we may ignore the theory of single syllable in a
Diphthong or Triphthong, in the matter of combination of consecutive multiple vowel sounds.
Hence classification may be developed into Quadriphthong or Tetraphthong [of 4 vowels],
Pentaphthong [of 5], Hexaphthong [of 6], Septaphthong [of 7] and so forth in a word of
several syllables. Excepting Octaphthong, Enniaphthong, Decaphthong and Entecaphthong
as found in Sanskrit one instance of Dodecaphthong (combination of twelve vowel sounds) is
seen in a complete single-word-pronunciation in English language so far found out, e.g.
utterance of the six vowel letters together: AEIOUY/eI.i:.aI.əʊ.ju:.waI/. In this context it may
be added that terms PNTAPHTHONG to DODECAPHTHONG are not heard or seen before.

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KEY WORDS:
Abdicating-Vowel, Baa-bootee-Vowel, Flooding-Vowel, Diaresis, Multiphthongs,
Synizesis.
ABBREVIATION:
 EPD/Jones – CMBRIDGE English Pronouncing Dictionary, Jones Danial, ed. Roach
et al, Cambridge University Press, The South Asian edition 2006.
 Pr. T – Present Tense
 P. T. – Past Tense
 Sf/sf – Strong form
 Wf /wf – Weak for
Phon. symbols: ɪ/ι/i i: e æ ɔ: ʌ α: ɒ ʊ/u u: ɜ: ә eɪ aɪ ɔɪ әʊ aʊ ɪә eә ʊә ð Ŋ ʒ ∫
Diacritical Marks: A colon to denote an English long vowel; e.g. a:
 A superscript bar for a long vowel in Sanskrit and Bengali; e.g. ā
 A dot under a vowel denotes a close syllable, e.g. ị
 Nasal sign upon a vowel; e.g. ã
1. Introduction
The structure of world languages stands upon the two pillars — Vowel and Consonant.
During articulation when air comes out easily without any obstruction a vowel sound is
created. But when we articulate a consonant an obstruction comes in the path of the air flow.
Such obstruction is lacking during the utterance of a vowel sound, the sound is simply shaped
by the position of the tongue and the other vocal organs. The present paper promises to
present different types of vowels on seven several stand points. I have also created three new
Terms for English Vowels named ABDICATING VOWEL, BAA-BOOTEE VOWEL and
FLOODING OR INUNDATING VOWEL. My further aim is to focus a new light on the
Vowel Combinations including the design of a Diphthong or a Triphthong which is the basis
of the Multiphthongs too. As the term ‗thong‘ means sound and it is taken as the indication of
phonetic vowel sound, we may ignore the theory of single syllable in a Diphthong or
Triphthong, in the matter of combination of consecutive multiple vowel sounds. Hence
classification may be developed into Quadriphthong or Tetraphthong [of 4 vowels],

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Pentaphthong [of 5], Hexaphthong [of 6], Septaphthong [of 7] and so forth in a word of
several syllables. Excepting Octaphthong, Enniaphthong, Decaphthong and Entecaphthong as
found in Sanskrit one instance of Dodecaphthong (combination of twelve vowel sounds) is
seen in a complete single-word-pronunciation in English language so far found out, e.g.
utterance of the six vowel letters together: AEIOUY/eI.i:.aI.әʊ.ju:.waI/. In this context it
may be added that the Terms PENTAPHTHONG to DODECAPHTHONG are not heard or
seen before.
2. The Traditional Concept of Vowels
In the English (< Roman) Alphabet there are only five Vowels – A E I O U, Dr. Daniel Jones,
presented the phonetic vowels in two sets. In the primary set eight phonetic vowels are placed
on a four front figure with a cardinal number against each from left side top to bottom, and
bottom to top at the right side and they are called Cardinal Vowels. Other eight phonetic
vowels are included in the Secondary set. They are being listed below.
Comparison with
The Primary Set (Combining Description and figure in Jones, ed.
BBC
Roach et. al., 2006, p. 78)[1]
a) Close Front Unrounded – i i: ɪ
b) Close-mid Front Unrounded – e e
c) Open-mid Front Unrounded – ε –
d) Open Front Unrounded – a a:
e) Open Back Unrounded – ɑ –
f) Open-mid Back Rounded – ɔ ɔ:
g) Close-mid Back Rounded – o –
h) Close Back Rounded – u u:, ʊ
The Secondary Set (Following the Description only, as no figure is there; EPD p. 78):
a) Close-mid Back Unrounded – ɣ –
b) Close Back Close Front Rounded – y –
c) Close-mid Front Rounded – ø –
d) Open-mid Front Rounded – æ æ
e) Open Front Rounded – œ –
f) Open Back Rounded – ɒ ɒ
g) Open-mid Back Rounded – ʌ ʌ
h) Unrounded – –
Ш

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These sixteen phonetic vowels proposed by Dr. Jones have been reduced to twelve by BBC
(vide Roach et al ed. Jones‘ EPD Intro. p. viii.) [2]
a. [i:] Close/ High Front Unrounded Long – e.g. scene, seen /si:n/
b. [i/ɪ] Near-close (High) Near Front Unrounded Short – e.g. fifty/fɪf.ti/
c. [u:] Close (High) Back Rounded Long – e.g. spoon/spu:n/
d. [u/ʊ] Near-Close Near-Back High Rounded Short – e.g. put/put/
e. [e] Close-mid Front Unrounded Short – e.g. bebb/beb/
f. [ә] Close-mid Central Rounded Short – aback/ә'bæk/
g. [ɜ:] Open-mid Central Unrounded Long – firm/fɜ:.m/
h. [ʌ] Open-mid Back Unrounded Short – e.g. son, sun/sʌn/
i. [ɔ:] Open-mid Back Rounded Long – e.g. Aalborg/'a:l.bɔ:g/
j. [ æ] Near-open Front Unrounded Short – e.g. ab/æb/
k. [a:] Open Back Unrounded Long – e.g. aardvark/'a:d.va:k/
l. [ɒ] Open back Rounded Short – e.g. swan/swɒn/

Fig. 1. BBC Eng. pure vowels as shown in Jones, EPD (Roch et al, 2006), Intro. P. viii.
[It is to be noted that ‗w‘ is not accepted as a symbol of phonetic vowel still it is represented
for a phonetic transcription by the linguists like Dr. Jones; e.g. why/hwaɪ/ ; Y/waɪ/ (Jones,
ed. Roch et al 2006, p. 560, p.568.].[3]
2. Vowel Sounds and Several Criteria for Their Characterization
a. Duration of articulation.

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b. The position of the tongue in the front, central (middle) or the back of the
mouth.
c. The position of the tongue along with the lower jaw in relation to the roof of
the mouth.
d. The shape of the lips for making the vowel sounds
e. Use of the Nasal Passage during articulation.
f. Capacity of creating a syllable.
g. Number of phonetic vowels in a syllable.
Let us now have a clear view of the varieties:
2. 1. Variety on the basis of Duration:
a) Short Vowels:
 ɪ/i – bib/bɪb/, sit/sɪt/.
 e – get/get/, pet/pet/, set/set/.
 æ – bat/bæt/, cat/kæt/, sat/sæt/.
 ʌ – buffoon/bʌf'u:n/, shut/∫ʌt/, sum/sʌm/ [Sf].
 ɒ – boss/bɒs/, sot/sɒt/.
 ʊ/u – book/bʊk/, soot/sʊt/, who/hʊ/ [Wf].
 ә – after/a:f.tәr/; buffoon/bə'fu:n/, some/səm/ [Wf].
b) Long Vowels:

 i: – bea, bee/bi:/
 a: – baa/ba:/; balm/ba:m/; bar/ba:r/.
 ɔ: – all/ɔ:l/; ball/bɔ:l/; call/kɔ::l/.
 u: – boo/bu:/; boob/bu:b/; booby/bu:bi/.
 ɜ: – bur/bɜ:r/; burk/bɜ:k/; firm/ɜ:rm/; sir/sɜ:r/; stir/stɜ:r/.
c) Flooding or inundating Vowel [prevailed in Istonian, termed as ‗extra-long‘ (Jones, ed.
Roch et al, 2006, EPD, p. 206, Information Panel.)[4]:

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Like in Sanskrit, a third type like Pluta-svara may be thought out for English also. During
crying, calling and singing, a vowel is lengthened more than two moras. This type may be
styled as ‘Flooding or Inundating vowel’ –
 i/i: – Hornby!/hɔ:n.bi…i…i…!, -m. bi…….!/
 e – hallo, hello/'he…e…el.әʊ/; eh/e… e…eh/
 æ – hallo, hallow/'hæ…æ…æ…l'әʊ /
 ʌ – hallo/'hʌ…ʌ…ʌ…l.әʊ/
 ʊ – hallo/h- l'әʊ… ʊ… ʊ/
 u/u: – who/hu:…u…u …/
 ә – hallo/hel'ə… ə… ә…əʊ/
 ɪ/i – hi/ha...a…a…ɪ/
2. 2. Variety on the basis of Position of the Tongue:
a) Front Vowels i:,ɪ, e, æ.
b) Central Vowels ә, ɜ:
c) Back Vowels: a:, ɒ, ʌ, ɔ:, u:, ʊ
2. 3. Variety on the basis of Position of the Tongue and Lower jaw:
a) Close/High Vowel: i:, ɪ, u:, ʊ.
b) Mid Vowel: e, ɔ:, ә, ɜ:.
c) Open/Low Vowel: æ, a:, ɒ, ʌ.
2. 4. Variety on the basis of the shape of the lips:
This variety depends on the roundness and the un-roundness of the Lips.
a) Rounded Vowels: ɒ, ɔ:, u:, ʊ/u, ә
b) Flat or Unrounded Vowels: i:, i/ɪ, e, ʌ, a:, æ, ɜ:.
2. 5. Variety on the basis of Use of the Nasal Passage during articulation
a) Normal: All vowels are generally pronounced in normal voice.
b) Nasalised: When they are pronounced with the association of nasal consonant then
the air stream comes out simultaneously through the mouth and nasal passage. A
person having a snubbed nose always utters nasal sounds. Vowels may also be

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nasalized purposefully by a speaker. Whatsoever, the meaning of the words in English
remains unchanged. Change in meaning is observed profusely in Bengali and in some
other languages. For instance, Beng. ka:da: = mud and kã:da: = to cry.
2. 6. Variety on the basis of Capacity of creating a syllable
a) a) Full Vowel: A vowel phonetically articulated from the very beginning up to the
end, with a same breath, may be called a Full Vowel. i:, i[ɪ], e, æ, a:, ɒ, ɔ:, u:, u[ʊ], ә,
ɜ:, ʌ, –– each of these is a Full Vowel when it makes an open syllable in a word.
b) b) Semi Vowel: ―A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but
non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel.‖ (“Vowel”, available at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel)5. Here it may be noted that W and Y both are treated as
Scribal semi vowel. Only W alone cannot create a syllable whereas Y does; e.g.
FLY/fl'aɪ/, ABBY/'æb.i/. Then why it is defined in this site-- ―…. non-syllabic
sound is called a semivowel.‖? Hence it is a fact that a Semi vowel cannot create a
syllable alone. It helps to articulate a close diphthong or triphthong. For instance, ‗w‘
in bow/bәʊ, baʊ/, ‗y‘ in bay/beɪ/ and in boy/bɔɪ/ may be called Alphabetical/Graphical
Semi Vowel; in transcription their corresponding Phonetic Semi Vowels are ‗u[ʊ]
and ‗i[ɪ]‘. The word-initial ‗y‘ is phonetically transcribed as /j/. ―… the /w/ and /j/
which are very similar to ‗close vowels‘ such as [u] and [i] but are produced as a rapid
glide, e.g. wet wet yet jet‖ Jones, ed. Roch et al,2006 p. 29]6. This comment makes
me to claim that the word-initial w/w/ and y/j/ should always be treated as
‗semivowels‘, and not a consonant, in Phonetics.
2. 7. Variety on the basis of number of vowel sounds in a syllable
a) Pure Vowels or Monophthong,
b) Diphthongs and
c) Multiphthongs.
Monophthong has a single aim of articulation, where as Diphthongs have two, and
Multiphthongs three or more; (specifically Triphthongs three, Tetrapthongs or
Quadriphthongs four, Pentaphthongs five, Hexaphthongs six and so forth according to the
features of a particular language

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3. Monophthong:
The term Monophthong is originally derived from Ancient Greek word phtheggomai
[θθεγγομαι] to mean ‗musical sound‘. Later on the term has developed from μονορ ‗single‘
and phthoggos [θηογγορ] i.e. phonetically phtongos [θηονγορ] from [θηον ‗tone/sound/voice‘
+ γορ ]. This is of three kinds: i) Pure Monophthong, ii) Monophthong of Diaresis or Hiatus
and iii) Monophthong of Synizesis. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monophthong) [7]
3. 1. Pure Monophthong
When a single vowel stands for a single sound having no gliding-ness it is called a Pure
Monophthong. In the words PHONETICAL MONOPHTHONG each vowel is articulated on
its own separate sound and no gliding element is present in the pronunciation of any vowel.
3. 2. Monophthong of Diaresis or Hiatus
While the continuous use of two or more vowels preserve their different identifications for
making separate syllables, each of them is called a Monophthong. Such examples are found
in the words – RE-ARRANGE/ri:ә'reindʒ/, RE-EXAMINE/ri:-ig'zæmin, -eg-/, RE-
IMBURSE/ri:im'bә:s/. These are the instances of diaresis (< from Ancient Greek διαιπεζιρ
„division‘) or hiatus (< Latin hI'a:tus ‗gaping‘) .(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus
(linguistics)[8]
3. 3. Monophthong of Synizesis
In some words they may merge into a single vowel sound to make a Monophthong. In the
words – HEAL/hi:l/; HEALTH/'helθ/; HEART/ha:t/. and HEARD/hɜ:d/, EA phonetically
are merged into /i:/, /e/, /a:/ and /ɜ:/ respectively to create only one syllable and this is why
each of the words is a concrete example of Monophthongal word and which is
phonologically termed as Synizesis. < ―Late Latin, from Greek synizēsis, from synizein to sit
down together, collapse, blend, from syn- + hizein to sit down; akin to Latin sidere to sit
down — more at SUBSIDE‖ (http://www.merriam-webster.com/diictionary:syn·i·ze·sis …)9.
3. 4. Monophthong of Baa-BooTee/ba:bu:ti:/ Vowels [My terminology]
The double vowels of same pronunciation AA, EE and OO are often used to spell the English
words and they are uttered as single long vowels as in the words – Baa/ba:/, Bee/bi:/,

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Boo/bu:/ and Bootee/bu:ti:/. I like these type of vowels/words to be named as BAA-BOOTEE
VOWELS/-WORDS including such others. Though these double vowels are seen to be
diphthongized or triphthongized in several words; for example bee/ bi:/ and beer /bɪәr/;
zoo/zu:/ and zoology /zu'ɒl.әdʒi, zәʊ-, Am. zou'a:.lә-/ and such others.
4. Vowel Combination
Use of consecutive two or more vowels is called Vowel Combination. Primarily this may be
of two types: Alphabetical/Graphical/Scribal Vowel Combination and Phonetical Vowel
Combination. The latter again, is twofold – Monophthongal and Gliding.
4. 1. Alphabetic/Graphic/Scribal Vowel Combination
When, in the spelling of a word, two or more vowels come consecutively it is called
Alphabetical Vowel Combination. This is of several types: Vowel Digraph, - Trigraph, and so
forth as per the number or of consecutive vowel letters in the spelling of a word.
a) Combination of similar double vowels – a) Monophthong – aa: baa/ba:, Am. bæ/; ee:
bee/bi:/; oo: boo/bu:/ b) Diphthong– uu: vacuum/'væk.ju:m, Am. 'væk.ju:әm/.
b) Combination of two of different type– ae [Æ/æ] is popularly known as scribal
diphthong, but in Phonetics /æ/ is realised as a symbol of short, front, unrounded open
(low), normal or -nasalised Monophthongal vowel. A pair of two vowels when
scribed jointly may be called a Scribal Diphthong though it may not be pronounced as
dipthong; e.g. Æsop/'i:.sɒp, Am. -sa:p, -sәp/ This dipthongal letter in vision has been
used as a phonetic symbol of mon. as in ab /æb/, cab /kæb/; o‘er/ɔ:әr, әʊәr [in the
contracted form of ‗over‘].
c) Another alphabetical diphthong is Œ/œ. (In modern use these are written separately
as Aesop, Oedipus). As a monophthong œ/oe creates words like
oecomenic/i:.kjʊ'men.ɪc/, oedima/ɪ'di:.mә/, Oedipal /'i:.dɪ.pәl/, Oenone /i'nәʊ.ni:/ etc.
Including these two graphical diphthongs frequently, and some other combinations of
same or variant vowels – aa, ae, ai, ao, au, aw, ay, ea, ee, ei, eo, eu, ew, ey, ia, ie,
io, iu, oa, oe, oi, oo, ou, ow, oy, ua, ue, ui, uo, uu, uy, wa, we, wi, wo etc.] generally,
are diphthongized phonetically [see below].
d) Combination of more than two alphabetic vowels results –Aeetes /i:'i:.ti:z/(two
Mon.). Aeacus /'i:.ə.kәs/ (Dip.)

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4. 2. Phonetical Vowel Combination
a) Monophthongal Vowel Combination:
Examples of Diaresis and Synizesis and Baa-bootee Vowels [presented on pp.7-8] are of
this type.
b) The Gliding/Diphthongic Vowel Combinations
The Gliding Vowel Combinations are of several types: Diphthong of two consecutive
vowels, Triphthong of three and so forth, according to the features of the different
languages of the world. (See below). The term Diphthong has been derived from late
Middle English diptongue > Middle French diphthongue, < Late Latin diphthongus <
Greek díphthongos [δίθθογγορ] literally, consisting of two sounds: di/δι/=‗double‘ +
phthóngos [< θθογγορ] = ‗voice, sound‘. When two or more vowels are pronounced in a
continuous and rapid gliding motion within a single syllable, they form a Diphthong; so
they are otherwise called Gliding Vowels; e.g. HEAR/hɪәr/. If they stay separate they are
simply two Monophthongs, as pointed out above; e.g. RE-ECHO/ri:'ek.әʊ/– here two
consecutive vowels ‗E‘ and ‗E‘ have phonetically two separate monophthongs and the
last vowel ‗O‘ is a diphthong. In the word CO-OPERATE/kәʊ'ɒp.Ә'r.eIt/, among the two
consecutive vowels ‗O‘ and ‗O‘, the first one is pronounced as a diphthong, whereas the
second one is a monophthong. Again the third vowel ‗E‘ is a mon. but the fourth one ‗A‘
is pronounced as a diphthong. In the word DE-ICE /di:.aɪs/ the first vowel ‗E‘ is a
monophthong but the second vowel ‗I‘ is diphthongized phonetically.
(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diphthong)10
Diphthongs can usually be seen as having two distinct parts — the Nucleus, and the Off-
glide. The nucleus of the diphthong is the vowel that is most stressed, and forms the center of
the sound, while the off-glide is the vowel which seems to flow into or off of the nucleus
vowel; e.g. In ‗ei [eɪ]‘, ‗e‘ is the Nucleus and ‗i[ɪ]‘ is the Off-glide. Here, I propose , since the
term ‗thong‘ means sound and it is taken as the indication of phonetic vowel sound, we may
ignore the theory of single syllable in a Diphthong or Triphthong, in a combination of
multiple vowel sounds. Hence classification may be developed into Quadriphthong or
Tetraphthong [of 4 vowels], Pentaphthong [of 5], Hexaphthong [of 6], Septaphthong [of 7]
and so forth in a word of several syllables.

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