VOWEL VARIETIES OF SOME SPECIFIC ENGLISH DIALECTS
A PAPER
BY
ABUL MUAMAR REG. NO. 062202026
DIPLOMA III ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM FACULTY OF LETTERS
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA MEDAN
Approved by Supervisor,
Dra. Hartisari, M.A NIP. 132306871
Submitted to Faculty of Letters University of Sumatera Utara in partial fulfillment of the requirements for DIPLOMA (D-III) in English.
Approved by
Head of Department,
Dra. Syahyar Hanum, D.P.F.E NIP. 130702287
Approved by the Diploma III of English Department
Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara
Accepted by the Board of examiners in partial fulfillment of the requirements for DIPLOMA (D-III) of English Department, Faculty of Letters,
University of Sumatera Utara
The Examination is held on the...
Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara
Dean,
………
Drs. Syaifuddin, M.A., Ph.D. NIP 132098331
Board of examiner and reader:
Examiner : Dra. Hartisari, M.A
AUTHOR'S DECLARATION
I am, ABUL MUAMAR declare that I am the sole author of this paper. Except where the reference is made in the text of this paper, this paper contains no materials published elsewhere or extracted in whole or I part of from a paper by which I have qualified for or awarded another degree.
No other's person work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of this paper. This paper has not been submitted for the award of another degree in any tertiary education.
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COPYRIGHT DECLARATION
Name : ABUL MUAMAR
Title of Paper : Vowel Varieties of Some Specific English Dialects Qualification : D-III / Ahli Madya
Study Program : English
I am willing that my paper should be available for reproduction at the discretion of the Librarian of the Diploma III English Department Faculty of Letters USU on the understanding that users are made aware of their obligation under law of the Republic of Indonesia.
ABSTRACT
Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, orang tidak pernah lepas dari bahasa untuk mengucapkan sesuatu atau saling berkomunikasi. Di dalam bahasa, terdapat perbedaan- perbedaan yang berupa variasi. Salah satu perbedaan yang ada yaitu perbedaan pada cara pengucapan yang tidak menimbulkan perbedaan arti. Perbedaan seperti itu disebut perbedaan dialek atau aksen. Lebih lanjut, di dalam setiap dialek terdapat komponen- komponen yang membedakan dialek- dialek tersebut satu sama lain. Salah satu perbedaan yang paling berpengaruh yaitu terletak pada perbedaan bunyi vokal dari dialek-dialek tersebut. Hal ini, tentu saja, juga terdapat di dalam bahasa Inggris, bahasa yang di banyak bagian benua di dunia.
Kertas karya ini mendiskripsikan mengenai dialek- dialek, yang dikhususkan pada perbedaannya yang ditinjau dari segi vokalnya. Penulis membahas ini dengan tujuan agar pembaca dapat mengetahui bagaimana suatu bahasa (bahasa Inggris) dipakai di daerah- daerah atau negara- negara yang berbeda.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I do thank to Allah SWT for giving me the strenghts and health to work and complete this paper.
I am grateful to the Dean of Faculty of Letters, Drs. Syaifuddin, M.A,Ph.D, the head of Diploma III English Study Program, Dra. Syahyar Hanum, D.P.F.E, my supervisor, Dra. Hartisari, M.A, for her critics and time, and my reader, Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum. Then, I am indebted to all the lecturers who has taught me many things and given knowledge so I can be able to finish this paper.
The deepest thanks are dedicated to my lovely grandma, Mrs. Ronie and my aunts, Miss Marliah, Mrs. Siswansih, and Miss Hartini who have patiently and kindly taken care of me and given me a love, moral, financial, and support since my mother passed away. I also thank my cousin, Abdi Gunawan, my sister, Nurul Qamaria for their support and love.
Then, I never forget to thank to my friends, Afriani, that always gives supports and loves to me, Nanta, Ilham, Fadly, Wawan, Fahriza, Ansor, and the others that are so kind to me. And I specially thank to Handayani. It was so beautiful doing this paper with you. Your reminder, your support, and everything will not be erased from my memory.
And the last, I realize that this paper is still far away from being perfect. Therefore, I would be glad to receive any constructive suggestion for the better paper in the future.
Medan, June 2009 The writer,
Abul Muamar Reg.No. 062202026
TABLE OF THE CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION COPYRIGHT DECLARATION
ABSTRACT ... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... iv
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the Study ... 1
1.2. Scope of the Study... 2
1.3. Objective of the Study ... 4
1.4. Significance of the Study ... 4
1.5. Method of the Study ... 4
2. THE DIALECT 2.1. Definition of Dialect ... 5
2.2. The Distinction between Dialect and Language ... 6
2.3. The Distinction between Dialect and Accent ... 8
2.4. Mutual Intelligibility ... 9
3. THE ENGLISH VOWELS 3.1. The Description of Vowels ... 11
Diphthong ... 15
3.3. Cardinal Vowels by Daniel Jones ... 17
3.4. Vowels of RP (Received Pronunciation) ... 19
A Short Description of each of RP vowels ... 21
a. Monophthong ... 21
b. Diphthong ... 26
3.5. Vowels Variety in Some specific English Dialects ... 29
a. Australia ( Aboriginal English ) ... 29
b. African American Vernacular English ( Ebonics ) ... 30
c. Cameron English ( Kamtok ) ... 31
d. Papua New Guinea ( Tok Pisin ) ... 32
e. Hawai’i Creole English ... 33
f. Sierra Leone ( Krio ) ... 34
g. Divergences between British and American English in Words... 34
4. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1. Conclusions ... 35
4.2. Suggestions ... 36
ABSTRACT
Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, orang tidak pernah lepas dari bahasa untuk mengucapkan sesuatu atau saling berkomunikasi. Di dalam bahasa, terdapat perbedaan- perbedaan yang berupa variasi. Salah satu perbedaan yang ada yaitu perbedaan pada cara pengucapan yang tidak menimbulkan perbedaan arti. Perbedaan seperti itu disebut perbedaan dialek atau aksen. Lebih lanjut, di dalam setiap dialek terdapat komponen- komponen yang membedakan dialek- dialek tersebut satu sama lain. Salah satu perbedaan yang paling berpengaruh yaitu terletak pada perbedaan bunyi vokal dari dialek-dialek tersebut. Hal ini, tentu saja, juga terdapat di dalam bahasa Inggris, bahasa yang di banyak bagian benua di dunia.
Kertas karya ini mendiskripsikan mengenai dialek- dialek, yang dikhususkan pada perbedaannya yang ditinjau dari segi vokalnya. Penulis membahas ini dengan tujuan agar pembaca dapat mengetahui bagaimana suatu bahasa (bahasa Inggris) dipakai di daerah- daerah atau negara- negara yang berbeda.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
In daily speaking, people may say “He is Scottish, I can hardly understand what he says”, or “Her accent is so strong”, or “Their dialect is very much different from ours”. Those statements show that there are some mistakes of the use of the language or some misunderstandings for the three different terms in language, i.e. language, dialect, and accent.
Furthermore, why do Scottish deny the fact that the language they use is one of English dialects and they claim that it is Scott’s language? Similarly, in Indonesia, there is a linguist believes that actually there is no a single Bataknese language, but languages of Bataknese. There are some linguist say that a dialect in certain area is a language. And the most happening is that people from a place or area state the language they use is a language, not just a dialect.
Dialect, a word that comes from Greek dialektos was once used as something that is related with its language. There were many small distinctions of the language used among the people. However, they never thought that they have different languages (Meillet, 1967:69). The differences did not prevent them to feel that they have one language. So, it can be described that the main characteristic of dialect is Differences in a unity, and a unity in differences.
similar than a form of another utterance in the same language, and second, dialect is not supposed to take every kind of utterance of a language (Meillet 1967:69). Then, in its generation, eventually, some of the dialects that have the same degree are accepted as a formal language by all area using that dialect. Thus, for example, it is often heard that the speech of African or South American tribes referred to as dialects; or English farm-worker of minimal education may be described as speaking a dialect; the educated person, on the other hand, would be said to speak a language.
Any two people will not pronounce a sound exactly alike. This is caused by the different dialect between them. Professional linguists who specialize in dialectology use various criteria of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical expression to make a distinction between one dialect and another dialect. It is noticed that some speakers use words that other speakers do not use, or use words with different meanings. Differences of vocabulary could lead to misunderstandings, but misunderstandings arise among people who know each other well, who live together (Charles W. Kreidler: 1997).
significant difference of vowels between them. For example, ‘I am going today’, an Australian may pronounce [aim gɔiŋ tədai], and it sounds like ‘I am going to die‘. Canadians pronounce it with [am gɔiŋ tədei]. So, it is such kind of dialect. It doesn’t change any meaning; it is just different in pronunciation. Vowels are usually being voiced, and the etymology of word might lead every one to believe this must be so. Although a vowel may be taken to be voiced, there are also voiceless vowels in many languages. In some languages, voiceless vowels occur following a corresponding voiced vowel. And beside the voiceless vowels, there are also vowels which have a number of such vowels, and the quality of the vowels is continually changing. The technical term for that kind of vowel is a ‘diphthong’. There is a lot more in learning vowels. One thing that will be discussed is about its variety in some specific English dialect.
Regarding that the study of the dialect has a great difficulty, in this paper, I would describe dialect focused on the vowels. I wrote this because this is my main interest along my time studying English and I want to share what I have acquired all this time. This paper is dedicated to students whose field of study includes linguistics or English.
1.2. Scope of the Study
1.3. Objective of the Study
The objectives of this paper are:
• To explain the meaning of dialect
• To describe the differences of vowels in different dialect
• To introduce the English vowels and the varieties ( The Keywords and the Symbols)
• To add knowledge about the dialect and the vowel of English
1.4. Significance of the Study
I hope this paper should be useful especially for students of English to help them understanding how English, especially the vowels, spoken under many different dialect. Realizing that everyone is of different dialect, English that is spoken is normally different each other. So, by this paper, I could learn, at least, how different English dialects through the vowels side. Beside, I hope that after understanding the English vowels, English learners will have more knowledge of English vowels and have better pronunciation.
1.5. Method of the Study
CHAPTER 2
THE DIALECT
2.1. The Definition of Dialect
that any one dialect is in any way linguistically superior to any other (J.K. Chambers and Peter Trudgill, 1980). It is clear that the definition of dialect depends on a number of criteria, some overlapping, and inconsistency.
2.2. The Distinction between Dialect and Language
In many situations, dialect is sufficient to describe various forms within the same language. Dialect refers to strictly speaking, to differences between kinds of language which have different vocabulary and grammar as well as pronunciation (K.M. Petyt : 1980) . How different is the dialect from language? The problem is that of deciding how different two forms can be before they are held to be different languages rather than dialects. When dealing with related languages (for example, English and German), it is reasonable to maintain that the distinction between dialect and language is a ‘quantitative’ matter. For example, Liverpudlian and Cockney are different in many ways, but not sufficiently different to be called different languages, but they are different dialects. On the other hand, English and German, though they were originally the same language and though they have some similarities in sound pattern, grammar, vocabulary etc, can not be called as dialects of saying them ‘Germanic’, they are too different.
language’. There are different forms between people in Bradford and people nearby rural area around Haworth, England. In Bradford, she is pronounced as [ʃ i:] and house is pronounced [ aʊs], while in Haworth, they are [ʃu:] and [Өa:s]. Then it is distinguished a virtually infinite number of ‘different forms’ of any language, depending on what linguistic features that is focused on, and in how much detail ( J.K. Chambers and Peter Trudgill : 1980 ). To take a further example, in British English, some groups of people pronounce look with a long vowel, while others with a short. But among the long-vowel forms we can certainly distinguish [lu:k] from [lɪə k] – and among those with [u:]-like vowels we could distinguish [lu:k], [liu:k], [liuk], [lʊu:k] etc. And the various groups who say [lʊu:k] will differ among themselves in the way thay pronounce other words; and so on.
This process leads to the speech of smaller and smaller groups, until it ultimately reaches the speech of an individual. This is called the idiolect, and in fact each idiolect differs in some details from every other. But somewhere it is called that a halt to this concentration on differences, and decide that among a certain group there is an important degree of linguistic unity – that its members speak the same dialect. This term then implies both difference (from other groups speaking the same language) and unity (with other individuals).
2.3. The Distinction between Dialect and Accent
‘accent’ is not obvious as might at first appear. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. For example, an eye witness referred on a private television to his having ‘a local dialect or accent’. But many people would probably feel that ‘accent’ is a little more restricted term than ‘dialect’; in fact they would almost certainly accept a distinction made by linguists. ‘Accent’ refers to the way in which a speaker pronounces, and therefore refers to variety which is different from other varieties. On the other hand, ‘dialect’ refers to varieties which are grammatically different from other varieties (K.M Petyt). So if two speakers say, respectively, I gone there yesterday, and another speaker says I went there
yesterday, we can say that they are speaking different dialects.
It can be concluded that all matter of pronunciation are matters of accent, whereas grammar and vocabulary must be also involved before we speak of dialect. The distinction between dialect and accent is just like the distinction between Standard English and RP (Received Pronunciation). Standard English involves vocabulary, grammar, some phonology. RP is a prestige way of speaking, based on the same upper-class dialect. RP now typifies the speech of educated people. RP has been the form of English taught to foreigners wherever British influences have been strong. For that all, less than 5 percent of the English population speak it. So, the dialect could as the Standard English and accent stands as the RP.
surprising to find that the major thrust toward studying dialects systematically begins only in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Dialect is closely related to the vowels in English. Speakers of English may have differences in specific words. It can be seen easily, for example, people commonly failed to cite half, won’t, tomato correctly. What is probably failed to recognize is that the differences are almost always in vowels. When considering English vowels, it will be found that different dialects differ one and another. But it is also possible that speakers of a language do not all make the same vowel differences. Language is always changing and a change may happen in some places, or among some groups of people, but may not happen everywhere (Charles W. Kreidler).
2.4. Mutual Intelligibility
What next are the criteria for deciding that linguistic differences should count as differences of dialect or of language? Many people hold the essential criterion to be that of mutual intelligibility: dialects are different but mutually intelligible of speech. So if two speakers, though there are some differences in their speech, can understand each other, they are using different dialects, while if two speakers cannot understand each other, they are speaking different languages. At first sight, it seems to accord with what we intuitively feel to be the distinction between dialect and language ( Keraf Gorys : 1983 ).
understand German. It may be due to more specifically linguistic factors. Mutual intelligibility will also depend, it appears, on other factors such as listeners’ degree of exposure to the other language, their degree of education and their willingness to understand ( Ayahtrohaedi :1995 ). It seems that people sometimes do not understand because they do not want to at some level of consciousness.
CHAPTER 3
THE VOWEL INVENTORIES OF SPECIFIC ENGLISH
DIALECTS
The vowels in English have many varieties. Vowels are symbolized in different ways by many authors. The most important way is the quality – determined mostly by the position of the tongue in the mouth, higher or lower, more forward or more back. It is often known that vowels are defined as voiced sounds when they are spoken. There are many varieties of vowels, namely voiceless vowels, diphthongs, etc.
Practical experiences in learning vowels teach every body that in learning vowels, it is necessary to direct attention more particularly to the acoustic qualities sounds. This means that it needs more than just ‘simple imitation’ in learning it. It is needed to know about the organs involved in the production of vowels.
3.1. The Description of Vowels
ears are keen enough, they may be able to acquire the foreign vowels in this way without a trouble.
So, how to describe the English vowels? What reference can describe it? One answer is that the English vowels may be described with the reference to the vowels of our mother tongue. Even an author of a book cannot base his description of foreign vowels on the vowels occurring in the readers’ pronunciation of their mother tongue because not all of the readers have the same pronunciation and they are of different nationality. For example, if any description of English vowels is compared with the French vowel, for example, in word
bonne, without further explanation, it will be interpreted in different ways by
different French readers.
For me, there is only one way of making written description of vowels which is intelligible to a large range of readers of different nationalities. That is by describing the sounds with reference ‘Cardinal vowels’ by a great phonetician, Daniel Jones. Cardinal vowels are a set of fixed vowel-sounds having known acoustic qualities and known tongue and lip positions. It has been found that a scale of eight cardinal vowels forms a convenient basis for describing the vowels of any language. Cardinal vowels are represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by letters i, e, ɛ, a, ɑ, ɔ, o, u.
Sethi and P.V. Dhamija from Prentice Hall of India have a description for the identification of vowels:
1) the position of the soft palate – whether it is raised to produce oral vowels, or lowered to produced nasalized vowels;
2) the shape assumed by the lips – spread, neutral, or rounded; and
3) the shape assumed by the tongue – which part of it is raised and how high. From the description, only the shape assumed by the lips can be observed by the eye. The position of the soft palate can be only determined by the ears. While the shapes assumed by the tongue, only certain extreme positions can be felt. For instance, in the production of the vowel in the word key, it can be felt that the front of the tongue is being raised very high towards the hard palate.
From the three factors, the first one, the position of the soft palate, can not be stated every time. It can be felt that when the soft palate raises, the nasal cavity is shut off. So the vowel produced is orals, not nasals.
The second, the lips can assume a number of shapes. It can spread, for example, in the English word bead. It can be neutral, for example, bird. And it can be opened, for example, mark.
shape is determined by two factors: the position of the tongue, and the height of the tongue.
a) The position of the tongue
The parts of the tongue which are mainly raised in producing the vowels are the front, the back, and the part where the front and the back are supposed to meet, the center. The vowels produced when each of these parts is raised are called the front vowels (Examples in words: seat, set, sit, and sat) , the back
vowels (Examples in words: laugh, caught, pool, and dot), and the central vowels
(Examples of central vowels are in words curl, girl, and in the second syllable in
doctor, for instance).
b) The height of the tongue
Any part of the tongue can only be raised at a certain point. The part of the tongue is raised to produce vowels. Similarly, any part of the tongue can be lowered too. The vowels produced when any part of the tongue is raised are called
close vowels, and the vowels produced by any lowered part of the tongue are
called open vowels. The words sit and suit are examples of close vowels. To produce them, the tongue is raised up to nearly highest point. While to produce the vowel in the word cart, the back tongue is at the lowest point which is possible for production of the vowel, therefore, the vowel in cart is an open vowel.
that do not change are called monophthong. Day and Eye are two examples of diphthong. A diphthong may be described and identified in terms of its beginning and ending points. Thus, the diphthong in the word noise starts a half-open back
rounded position.
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are sounds made by gliding from one vowel position to another. Diphthongs are represented phonetically by sequence of two letters. It can be simply said that diphthongs occur when there are two vowels exist together. The first vowel shows the starting point and the second one indicates the direction of movement. For example, diphthong ei in the word day, e is the starting vowel, and it glides to i. According to RP (Received Pronunciation), there are eight diphthongs. They are divided into closing diphthongs, centering diphthongs, and rising diphthongs.
Diphthong is not the same thing as a sequence of two monophthongs. For example, in the soil, there is a diphthong, while in the word sawing, there is a sequence of monophthongs.
3.2. The general inventory of English vowels
ur, er, or, зr, ar, ɔr, air, aur. They are designated in twenty-four key words made
by Charles W. Kreidler. The twenty - four key words are devided into checked vowels, free vowels, and R-vowels.
Six key words that the vowels refer to checked vowels:
Vowels: Keywords:
/
ɪ
/
STICK
/u/ BOOT
/Λ/
NUT
/ε/
STEP /æ/ LACK/
ɒ
/
LOCKKey words for the free vowels are: Vowels: Keywords:
/ii/
FREE/uu/ TRUE
/ei/
DAY/ou/
TOE/
ɔ
/
LAW/ai/
PIE/au/
NOW/oi/
TOYAnd the key words for the R-vowels are:
/ir/
EAR/ur/ TOUR
/er/
CHAIR/or/
DOOR/зr/
FUR/ar/
STAR/
ɔ
r/
WAR/air/
FIRE/aur/
SOUR3.3. The Cardinal Vowels by Daniel Jones
with the lips stretched and the front of the tongue in the highest and most possible forward position. If the tongue is any higher, there will be friction resulting from the flow air between tongue and palate. Cardinal vowel [a], is produced with the lips stretched and the tongue front in the lowest and most forward position possible.
Cardinal vowel [ɑ], is produced with the tongue flat, the lowest, farthest back position the tongue can have in the mouth. Cardinal vowel [u], is made with lips rounded and the dorsum in the highest and the farthest back position possible. Vowels i, e, ɛ , and a are unrounded ( lips stretched to some extent ), ɑ is unrounded but lips are not stretched, and ɔ, o, and u are rounded. The cardinal
vowel [u] is not really as high as [i]; the shape of the mouth prohibits our raising the tongue as high as in back as in front; consequently, the distance between ɑ, ɔ ,
o
,
and u is not as great as the distance between i, e, ɛ, and a.It can not be equated the cardinal vowels with vowels in English words because there are differences between speakers of English (including different dialect).
Examples of words to recognize the eight cardinal vowels: [i] : tree, freak treat
[e] : the first vowel of date, make, day
[
ɛ
] : step[
ɔ
] : law, caught ( keep short ) [o] : the first vowel of go [u] : true (keep short)3.4. Vowels of RP ( Received Pronunciation )
There are twenty vowels in RP. They occur in the initials, medial, and final positions. A blank space in each list of position shows that a vowel does not occur in that position. The phonetic symbols used for the vowels are those of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, third edition (revised and updated).
Vowel Position
Monophthongs Initial Medial Final
i:
east been keyɪ
it hit dutye
end meltæ
and land
ɑ
:
arm harm carɒ
on cotɔ
: all caught sawʊ put
Λ up cup
ɜ:
earn learn sirə
ago police tailorDiphthongs
ei
eight straight strayəʊ
oat joke lowai
ice mice mya
ʊ out loud howɔɪ
oil soil toyɪə
ear beard cleare_ air shared bare
ʊə cured poor
Generally speaking, a vowel is longer when it is followed by a voiced consonant or when it occurs finally in a word than when followed by voiceless consonant. For example, the vowel /u:/ like in word persued or persue is longer than /u:/ in word suit, the vowel /ei/ in made and may is longer than /ei/ in word
make. Furthermore, a distinction in the relative length of a vowel can be made. A
vowel is slightly longer when it occurs finally in a word than when it is followed by even a voiced consonant. Thus, from the above examples, the vowel /u:/ in sue is longer than /u:/ in sued; the vowel /ei/ in may is longer than /ei/ in made; and so on. So, the length is one dimension along which the varieties of a vowel may occur.
Outside the length, there is another dimension which varies the vowel, it is the relative height of the tongue. A vowel is usually lower when it occurs finally in a word than otherwise. For example, the word-final vowel /ə/ like in word data
/’deɪtə/ is lower than in datum /’deɪtəm/.
The varieties of vowels from the dimension of length and height of the tongue are its positional varieties in that they are determined by the position of that vowel in certain word.
A Short Description of Each of the Vowels of RP a. Monophthongs
Of the 12 monophthongs, four are front vowels: /i:, i, e, æ/, five are back
Front Vowels / i:, i, e, æ /
Examples for front vowels are:
/i:/ : seat /i/: sit /e/: set /æ/: sat
Description of / i: /
/i:/ is a long front vowel. When producing it, the lips are spread, and the front of the tongue is raised just below the close position. More detailed examples of /i:/ are:
initial medial final
eat /i:t/ sheet /ʃi:t/ sea /si:/ east /i:st/ please /pli:s/ tree /tri:/ Description of /i/
/i/ is short front vowel. To produce /i/, the rear part of the front of the tongue is raised just above the half close position, the lips are loosely spread, but the tongue is lax.
initial medial final
if /if/ mix /miks/ volley /vɒli/
Description of /e/
are loosely spread and a little wider apart than for /i/, and the tongue is not as lax as for /i/. The vowels /e/ occurs in initial and medial position.
Initial medial
End /end/ friend /frend/ Description of /æ/
/æ/ is produced by raising the front of the tongue to a little below the half position, the lips are in a neutral position and the mouth is more open than for /e/. Like /e/, it also occurs only in initial and medial position. Here are the examples:
Initial medial
Add /æd/ sad /sæd/
Back vowel: /
ɑ
:,
ɒ
,ɔ
: ,
ʊ, u: / Examples of back vowels are: /ɑ
: / as cart
/
ɒ
/ as in cot /ɔ
: / as in caught
/ ʊ/ as in full /u:/ as in fool
Description of /
ɑ
: /
Initial medial final
Arm /ɑ:rm/ charm /tʃ ɑ:rm/ car /kɑ:(r)/ Description of /
ɒ
/During the articulation of this vowel, the back of the tongue is raised slightly above the open position; the jaws are widely open and the lips are slightly rounded. It is a short vowel. It occurs only in the initial and medial position:
Initial medial
Obvious /ɒbvɪ əs/ probable /prɒbəbl/ Description of /
ɔ:
//ɔ:/ is a long vowel. In producing it, the back of the tongue is raised between the half-open and half-close position, the lips are considerably more rounded than for /ɒ/.
Initial medial final
Aweful /ɔ:fl/ sword /swɔ:d/ tore /tɔ:/ Description of /ʊ/
Description of / u: /
To produce /u:/, the back of the tongue is raised to very near the close position; the lips are closely rounded and the tongue in tense. It is long vowel. /u:/ occurs in all position except before /ŋ/:
Initial medial final
Ooze /u:z/ student /stju:dnt/ sue /su:/
Central vowels : / ʌ
,
ɜ
:,
ə
/Description of /ʌ/
To articulate the vowel /ʌ/, the center of the tongue is raised to a point nearly half-way between open and half-open position, with the lips neutrally open and with a considerable separation of the jaws. It is a short vowel. It occurs in the initial and medial positions only:
initial medial
Under /ʌndə(r)/ suffer /sʌfə(r)/ Description of /
ɜ
:/To produce the vowel /ɜ:/, the center of the tongue is raise between half-close and half-open and the lips are in the neutral position. It is a long vowel. It occurs in all the three position, but it does not occur before /ŋ/.
Initial medial final
Description of /ə/
The vowel /ə/ has at least two positions– the non-final and the final position. The non-final one is articulated exactly the same way and at more or less the same place as vowel /ɜ:/. In that position, it differs from /ɜ:/ mainly in respect of length, /ə/ is being a short vowel. Whereas the final one, is produced with the center of the tongue raised just below the half-way position. The lips are in the neutral position in both positions. It occurs in all the three positions:
Initial Medial final
Alert /əlɜ :t/ towards /təwɔ :dz/ rector /rektə(r)/
b. Diphthongs
• Of the eight diphthongs, 5 are closing diphthongs: /ei, ai, ɔɪ, aʊ, əʊ / and the rests are centering diphthongs: / iə, eə, ʊə /. From the 5 closing diphthongs, three glide towards [ɪ] : / eɪ, aɪ /, and two glide towards [ʊ] : / aʊ,əʊ /. And the 3 centering diphthongs glide towards [ə].
Closing Diphthongs
a) Gliding to [ɪ]
1. / eɪ /. The glides starts from a point just below the half-close front
tongue is accompanied by a slight closing movement of the lower jaw and the lips are spread. / eɪ / occurs in all the three positions:
initial medial final
Ache /eɪk/ take /teɪk/ pray /preɪ/
2. / aɪ /. For /aɪ/, the glide begins at a point slightly behind the front open position. The movement of the tongue is accompanied by an appreciable closing movement of the lower jaw. The lips are in a neutral position at the start, but gradually change to a loosely spread position. It occurs in all the three positions.
initial medial final
Ice /aɪs/ rice /raɪs/ rye /raɪ/
3. /
ɔɪ
/Beginning at a point between the back half-open and open positions is the glide for the /ɔɪ /. The jaw movement is not as considerable as for the diphthong /ai/. The lips are open rounded at the beginning, changing to neutral position towards the end. It occurs in all positions:
initial medial final
Oil /ɔɪ l/ appointment /əppɔɪnmnt/ enjoy /ɪndӡɔ ɪ /
1. / aʊ /
The glide begins at a point between the back and front open positions. The starting point may be almost half-way between he back and the front. Lips are neutral at the beginning of the glide and become rounded towards the end..
initial medial final
Owl /aʊl/ bounce /baʊns/ plough /plaʊ/
2. / əʊ /
The glide for / əʊ / begins at a central position almost midway between half-close and half-open, and moves in the direction of / ʊ /. The jaw movement is very slight; the lips are neutral at the beginning of the glide, become rounded towards the end.
initial medial final
Oat /əʊt/ boats /bəʊt/ borrow /bɒrrəʊ/
Centring Diphthongs ( gliding to [ ə ] ) 1) / ɪə /
The glide for / ɪə / begins at approximately the half-close centralized front vowel / ɪ / and moves in the direction of the opener variety of vowel / ə /.
initial medial final
2. / eə /
The glide for / eə / begins in the front, above the half-open position. The lips are neutrally open throughout.
Initial medial final
Airy /eəi/ shared /ʃeə(r)d/ flair /fleə/
3.5. Vowel Variety in Some Specific English Dialects a. Australia ( Aboriginal English )
The sound system of Aboriginal English has been influenced by the traditional languages, as well as the different kinds of British and Irish English brought to Australia.
One of the most distinctive features of the Aboriginal English sound system is found in the many words which start with a vowel, where the standard English translation starts with 'h', for example:
Standard English: Henry’s hat Aboriginal English: Enry’s hat
the early non-Aboriginal Australians (especially Cockney convicts), and it also coincides with some other nonstandard varieties of English. But it is a mistake to assume that the pronunciation of words without 'h' is 'uneducated' English. It is just as much a part of the Aboriginal accent, as the 'sophisticated and charming' vowel pronunciations of French speakers of English are part of the French accent. It should be respected as part of the Aboriginal accent, and recognized as a feature of which many Aboriginal people are proud.
While this feature of Aboriginal English pronunciation is shared with a number of other non-standard English varieties, there is a related characteristic of Aboriginal English pronunciation which is much less commonly found in non-Aboriginal varieties of English: namely the addition of the h sound to English words which start in a vowel, as in:
Standard English: Uncle Sam Aboriginal English: Huncle Sam
This tendency to overcompensate in using the 'h' sound at the beginning of a word is an example of a general linguistic pattern, technically known as 'hypercorrection'. Different examples of hypercorrection can be found in diverse language situations throughout the world.
the nasal consonant and nasalize the vowel. This nasalization is written with a tilde ( ~ ) above the vowel. So 'man' becomes mã.
Nasals consonants and front vowels:
In many varieties of English, including standard varieties, the vowels i in pin and e in pen sound different in all words. In AAVE, these sounds are merged
before a nasal (like n or m). So in AAVE pin and pen are pronounced with the same vowel. Most Southern US varieties of English merge these vowels too, so this is only a distinctive feature of AAVE in the northern United States.
Diphthongs:
Some vowels like those in night and my or about and cow are called "diphthongs". This means that when the vowel is pronounced, the tongue starts at one place in the mouth and moves as the vowel is being pronounced. In AAVE the vowel in 'night' or in 'my' is often not a diphthong. So when pronouncing the words with this diphthong, AAVE speakers (and speakers of Southern varieties as well) do not move the tongue to the front top position. So 'my' is pronounced ma as in he's over at ma sister's house.
c. Cameron English ( Kamtok )
symbols are hard to produce over the web.)
Many speakers do not differentiate the vowels in the English words "cot", "court" and "cut", pronouncing all these words as koht.
Many speakers of Kamtok. (especially uneducated, rural speakers) use the sounds and sound patterns of their mother tongues.
d. Papua New Guinea ( The Tok Pisin )
The Tok Pisin vowels are a, e, i, o and u. In English, the letter for a vowel might have many different pronunciations -- for example, compare the sound of the "u" in "rule", "put", "but", and "fuse". But in Tok Pisin, each vowel has only one pronunciation, much like the "pure vowels" in languages such as Spanish.
a is pronounced similar to the "a" in the English word "father". e is ppronounced similar to the "e" in "vein".
i is pronounced similar to the "i" in "machine". o is pronounced similar to the "o" in "boat". u is pronounced similar to the "u" in "rule".
e. Hawai'i Creole English
For most speakers of Hawai‘i Creole the 'ee' sound in 'keen' and the 'i' sound in 'kit' are pronounced similarly, somewhere in between the way the two sounds are pronounced in most varieties of British and American English. The sound of the 'u' in 'put' or 'oo' in 'good' is pronounced similarly to the sound of the 'u' or in 'rule' or 'oo' in 'pool'.
Also, Hawai‘i Creole has what are sometimes called "pure" vowels, as found in languages such as Spanish and Hawaiian, whereas English vowels are typically stretched and changed somewhat. For example, the Hawaiian name Kekoa is usually pronounced as 'Kay-koh-wa' by English speakers.
One of the most striking characteristics of Hawai‘i Creole is in the intonation pattern or "melody" you can hear when people speak. One difference between Hawai‘i Creole and varieties of English is in the intonation of questions that can be answered "yes" or "no". In most varieties of American English, for example, the pattern is rising, ending at higher pitch or tone of voice. But in Hawai‘i Creole, the pattern is falling, dropping to lower pitch in the last syllable.
In addition, some Hawai‘i Creole words which come from English differ slightly in pronunciation because a different syllable is emphasized most, or stressed. In these examples, the stressed syllable is shown in capital letters: dikshaNEri 'dictionary', haraKEIN 'hurricane', aelkaHOL 'alcohol'.
Krio has 7 pure vowel system - i, e, E, a, O, o, u. (The symbol E is used here for the sound of 'e' in 'bet' and O is used for the sound of 'aw' in 'awful'.) It also has 3 diphthongs (combinations of vowels) -- ay, aw, Oy. Hence there is usually no distinction in the pronunciation of some minimal pairs of English words. For example: bit for beat/bit; pul for pool/pull; kOp for cup/cop.
In some words, different sounds are substituted.
ay becomes E, for examples: nEt - 'night'; fEt - 'fight'; rEs - 'rice'; blEn - 'blind'. Oy becomes wE, for examples : bwEl 'boil'; pwEl 'spoil'.
g. Divergences between RP ( British) and American English in Words
British US
ate /et/ /eit/
aluminium /æljʊ’miniəm/ /ə’lu:minəm/ cadre /kɑ:də(r)/ /kædrei/
CHAPTER 4
4.1. CONCLUSION
I conclude that dialect, shortly, is the way of speaking. Dialect could bring variation due to the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical expression; and those make the distinction between one dialect and another. Dialect is always different from language and accent. Dialects are a part of a language; language always involves at least one dialect. Dialect refers to the varieties which are grammatically different from other varieties; accent refers to the way in which people pronounces, and therefore refers to variety which is different from another variety.
In English, vowels have different varieties. There are many different varieties of English where the vowels are different. However, it is important to know the description of vowels and its symbols, especially which are used world wide. In the Receive Pronunciation ( RP ), we can see the symbols and how they are pronounced. Vowels are divided into monophthong, diphthong, and tripthong. There are twenty vowels in RP. Twelve are monophthongs ( pure vowels ), and the rests eight are diphthongs.
"melody" you can hear when people speak. And in Sierra Leone, there are7 pure vowel systems: - i, e, E, a, O, o, u.
4.2. SUGGESTIONS
In learning English phonetics, especially the vowels, it needs to learn the dialect. What is important to learn from dialect in respect of speaking is how we distinguish a dialect in some places, because, their grammar system might be different and of course there are many differences in vocabulary. One simple case may be the differences of vowels in different dialect. Whereas, in learning English vowels, there are two main cases that I can suggest to learn. First, is to recognize and memorize the vowels. The second is to be aware of the variety.
REFERENCES
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Ayahtrohaedi, 1985, Dialektologi, Jakarta : Gramedia Pustaka.
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Gimson, A.C and Ramsaran, S.M, 1982, An English Pronunciation Companion, London: Oxford University Press.
Hornby, A.S, 2000, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Sixth Edition, New York: Oxford University Press.
Jones, Daniel, 1962, An Outline of English Phonetics, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, Daniel, 1956, The Pronunciation of English, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.
Keraf, Gorys, 1983, Linguistik Bandingan Historis, Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Umum.
Kreidler, W. Charles, 1997, Describing Spoken English, New York & London: Routledge.
Mahsun, 1995, Dialektologi Diakronis: Sebuah Pengantar, Yogyakarta: Gajah Mada University Press.
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www. Google. com/ Language Variety. www. Wikipedia. com.
