Front, Back, Central Vowels, and Diphthongs

/i/

• high

• front

• tense

• unrounded

• Caesar, Phoenix, people, see, sea

/ɪ/

• High-mid

• Front

• Lax

• Unrounded

• pick, women, cyst

• “It will still chill on the window sill.”

/e/

• Mid

• Front

• Tense-longer

• Unrounded

• Monopthong is much less common than diphthong

• vacation, chaotic

/e͡ɪ/

• Mid

• Front

• Tense-long

• Unrounded

• Play, favor, agent, hey

• “The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.”

/ɛ/

• Low-mid

• Front

• Lax

• Unrounded

• Doesn’t occur at the end of a word in English

• again, any, friend, weather, Ed, fed, bread

/æ/

• Low

• Front

• Lax

• Unrounded

• trap, stand, Adam

• “The fantastic acrobats added trampolines to the act.”

/a/ Boston, dialectal

• Low

• Front

• Lax

• Unrounded

• Doesn’t really occur as a monophthong in American English

/u/

• High

• Back

• Tense-long

• Rounded

• rule, two, shoe

• Who knew you’d choose the chartreuse shoes?

/ʊ/

• High-mid

• Back

• Lax-short

• Rounded

• foot, could, pudding

• “He should’ve put up the hood, but it wouldn’t look good.”

/o/

• Mid

• Back

• Tense

• Rounded

• Notation, vocation

/oʊ/

• Long

• Mid

• Back

• Tense

• Rounded

• Most common; default

• row, though, over

• Joe rows the boat slowly.”

/ɔ/

• Low-mid

• Back

• Tense

• Rounded

• Open

• saw, draw

• “awwwww”

/ɑ/

• Low

• Back

• Tense

• Unrounded

• Very Open

• “hot, stomp

• “Ahhhhhh”

/ə/ - schwa

• Mid

• Central

• Lax, very short

• Unrounded

• Most neutral of all vowels

• Only occurs in unstressed syllables

/ʌ/

• Low-mid

• Back-central

• Lax

• Unrounded

• Stressed counterpart to schwa

• Ex. cup, rough, one

• Pucker up for buttercups.

/ɝ/

• Mid-central

• Rounded

• Tense

• Occurs in stressed syllables

/ɚ/

• Mid-central

• Rounded

• Lax

• Occurs in unstressed syllables

/a͡ɪ/

• Onglide: low-back vowel

• Offglide: mid-high front vowel

• Unrounded

• Tongue moves upward and forward

• buy, aisle, hi

/ɔ͡ɪ/

• Onglide: mid-low back vowel

• Offglide: mid-high front vowel

• Begins with a little rounding, ends with none

• Tongue moves upward and forward

• boy, oil, soy

/a͡ʊ/

• Onglide: low back vowel

• Offglide: mid-high back vowel

• Begins nonround, ends with rounding

• Tongue moves upward and a little forward

• owl, how, ow

Vowel reduction paradigm

• a vowel changes in quality and gets shorter, quieter, and lower pitched

• happens with unstressed syllables

• Tongue stays central