Review of vowels three factors for the description of English vowels

WORD STRESS & SENTENCE STRESS

REVIEW OF VOWELS

• Three factors for the description of English vowels
• I. The height of the body of the tongue –
• highest point of tongue (vertical axis);
• II. The front-back position of the tongue –
• highest point of tongue (horizontal axis);
• III. The degree of lip rounding - lip posture

• The height of the body of the tongue

THE FRONT-BACK POSITION OF THE TONGUE

DESCRIPTION OF THE VOWELS

• Front & Central Vowels
• /:/ high, front, unrounded vowel
• // lower high, front, unrounded vowel
• /e/ mid, front, unrounded vowel
• /æ/ low, front, unrounded vowel
• /:/ mid, central, unrounded vowel
• /ə/ mid, central, unrounded vowel

Back Vowels

• Back Vowels
• /:/ low, back, unrounded vowel
• // low, back, rounded vowel
• /:/ mid-low, back, rounded vowel
• /u/ lower high, back, rounded vowel
• /u:/ high, back, rounded vowel
• // lower mid, back, unrounded vowel

UNIT 8: WORD STRESS

• English is a stress timed language
• The English language is often referred to as stress-timed. Stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the time to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself.
• 1 2 3 4
• 1 and 2 and 3 and 4
• 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4
• 1 and then a 2 and then a 3 and then a 4

WORD STRESS

• A word stress means a prominent syllable

word	pattern
tea.cher	• .
beau.ti.ful	• . .
un.der.stand	. . •
con.ti.nue	. • .