Vowels other considerations Diphthongs ATR Rhoticity Length Diphthongs

Vowels: other considerations • • Diphthongs ATR Rhoticity Length

Diphthongs • Two-vowel sequence [ai] [oi] [au] [ei] and [ou] [ij] and [uw]

Diphthongs • Make up one syllable – “naïve” and “knife” – “employ” and “employee”

Diphthongs

ATR • Advanced tongue root – Tongue root is more forward – Larynx is lowered pharynx is enlarged

ATR • ATR in Igbo • Examples from Akan (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996)

Rhoticity

Rhoticity • Rhoticized means “r-colored” – “bird” “park” “fur” “assert” • Different articulations – Tongue tip raised (like retroflex) – Tongue tip lowered with tongue body bunched up

Rhoticity • Six different English speakers showing the “bunched up” style (Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996)

Rhoticity

Length • Arabic, Vietnamese, Hindi, German… Mixe

Vowel inventory • Five- and seven-vowel systems are most common Spanish Yiddish Italian

Vowel inventory • Some languages have many more French (plus nasals) English (plus diphthongs)

Vowels and orthography • No vowel indication – Semitic languages • Auxiliary vowel indication – (the same) Semitic languages • Inherent vowel indication – Indian languages • Independent vowel indication – English

No or auxiliary vowel indication • Vn thgh ths sntnc hs n vwls y cn stll ndrstnd wht t sys

Inherent vowel indication • Each grapheme includes a vowel (usually schwa) • Gujarati