Vowels & Diphthongs.

VOWELS
AND
DIPHTHONG
S
Phonology lecturer : Mr. Nailul Authar
Members :
1. Saidatul Alfiyah
2. Ziyada Wulan Wulidha
3. Oktafia Dwi Susanti
4. Husniyah Mubarok
01
VOWELS
Definition
1. “Vowel is a speech sound in which the mouth is open and the tongue is
not touching the top of the mouth, the teeth, etc”. (Oxford Learner’s
Dictionary).
2. “Vowel is a speech sound produced by humans when the breath flows

out through the mouth without being blocked by the teeth, tongue, or
lips”. (Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary)
IPA SYMBOLS (International Phonetic Alphabet
)
Some of the following examples will
mostly serve as a way to get you
familiar with some of these IPA
symbols. But even the same symbol
can represent slightly different
vowels, since, as mentioned before,
vowels tend to lie on a spectrum.
It is best to use your ears to listen to how

English is spoken by different people,
and then compare that to the IPA
symbols.
Vowels are described by the IPA using the three dimensions of:
1 Closeness / Height
3 Rounding
2 Frontness
1. CLOSENESS / HEIGHT
• The closeness category refers to the position of the mandible (open or

close). While the height of a vowel refers to the vertical position of the
tongue towards the palatal area (low or high).
• Based on the “closeness”, there are five variations use to define vowels,
such as: open, open-mid, mid, close-mid, and close.
• Based on the „height‟, there are also five variations use to define vowels.
They are: high, mid-high, mid, mid-low, and low.
(Instead of using the height category, the vowel sounds in this discussion will
be described based on the closeness category).
CLOSENESS
OPEN OPEN-MID MID
Mid vowel is use a

Open vowels use a Open-mid vowels use a
middle position of the
depressedposition of the partiallydepressed
mandible with the
mandible with a low position of the mandible
tongue beinglocated in
position of the tongue with the tongue position
central position of the
being located half way
palatal area and the floor
between the palatal area
of the mouth.
and the floor of the
Try to pronounce: [ɑ:], [ɒ]
mouth
Try to pronounce: [ə]
Try to pronounce: [e], [ʌ],
[ɔ:], [ɜ:]
CLOSENESS
CLOSE CLOSE- MID
Close vowels use a closed mandible Closed-mid vowels use a closed

position and a high tongue mandible position with a
position. Thetongue actually tongue position that is
resting on the alveolar ridge. locatedhalf way between the
palatal area and the floor of
the mouth.
Try to pronounce: [i:], [i],
Try to pronounce: [ei], [əʊ]
[u:]
2. FRONTNESS
• Frontness refers to the horizontal position of the tongue in relation to

the front or back of the mouth.
• Generally, the three variations of frontness are front, central, and

back.
FRONTNESS
FRONT CENTRAL BACK

The central vowel is The Back vowels are
The front vowels are produced
produced when the produced when
by the placement of the tongue
tongue is resting in a theback part of the
tip in various positions from
neutral position in the tongue is moved up or
the upper incisors (thefront
oral cavity. down in the velar
cutting teeth) to the lower ones.
area.
Try to pronounce: [ə],
Try to pronounce: [i:], [i], [e],
[ɜ:] Try to pronounce: [ʌ],
[æ]
[ɑ: ], [ɒ], [ɔ:], [u:]
3. ROUNDING
• Rounding refers to the position of the lips during the production of

the vowel.
• The two lip positions are rounded and unrounded.

Rounded Unrounded
Unrounded vowels produced in the
Rounded vowels produced in the unrounded position require the lips to
rounded position require the lips to be be spread and the corners of the mouth
open and protruded to some degree. retracted to varying degrees.
Try to pronounce: [ɒ], [ɔ:], [u:], [ʊ] Try to pronounce: [i:], [i], [ɪ], [æ], [e],
CREDITS: This presentation template [ɑ:], [ʌ], [ɜ:], [ə]
was created by Slidesgo, including icons
Note: /ɒ/ is also used as an alteration by
by Flaticon, and infographics & images
some speakers whose speech is
by Freepik
characterized by little or no lip
rounding.
02
DIPHTHONGS
DEFINITION
“Diphthong is a vowel sound in which the tongue changes position to produce the
sound of two vowels”. (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
“Diphthong is a single sound produced when two vowels (one dominant in duration
and stress, and one reduced in duration and stress), are paired together in a sequence”.
(Linda I. House: Introductory Phonetics and Phonology)
• Diphthongs are not included on the IPA charts
because they are the result of the pairing two
pure vowels.
There are eight diphthongs commonly used in

English: /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /əʊ/, /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/,
and /ʊə/.
Chart Of English Diphthongs :
• It is important to note that the close combination of the two vowels causes each of
the vowels to lose its pure quality. For instance, the /ɪ/ in [aɪ] is quite different from
the /ɪ/ in [ɪt].
• In phonological patterns, diphthongs are labeled using a single “V” (not “VV”)
because they act as one sound.
• Although diphthongs are considered as the combination of two vowels, never put
“colon” ( : ) when combine and transcribe them in phonetic symbols.
• Because diphthongs are composed of vowels, they are also described using
the parameters of closeness (height), frontness, and rounding.
• The parameters are listed using vowel closeness (height), frontness, and
rounding of the first vowel and then followed by the second vowel.
• Thus, to make a sound parameter of /eɪ/ for example, wecan describe it

as:“/eɪ/ is an open-mid, front, unrounded vowel movingto near-close, near-
front, unrounded vowel ”.
REFERENC
ES
• Andriyani, Eka.2013.Vowels and Diphthongs.Slideshare. On 27th April 2021,
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/Andriyanieka12/4-vowels-diphthongs-18509137
• Lee,Chris.2017. Phonetics: Consonants, Vowels, Diphthongs, IPA Chart Definition and
Examples. English Teacher. On 27th April 2021,
https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/phonetics-consonants-vowels-diphthongs-ipa-chart/
Courtesy from YouTube :

• https://youtu.be/4guO2bAjE3E
• https://youtu.be/JwTDPu2TE6k
• https://youtu.be/_7awRe5kiDo
• https://youtu.be/d1HZPx8DuDw
THANKS
!
Do you have any
questions?
CREDITS: This presentation template
was created by Slidesgo, including icons
by Flaticon, and infographics & images
by Freepik
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VOWELS

2. “Vowel is a speech sound produced by humans when the breath flows

It is best to use your ears to listen to how

• The closeness category refers to the position of the mandible (open or

Mid vowel is use a

Close vowels use a closed mandible Closed-mid vowels use a closed

• Frontness refers to the horizontal position of the tongue in relation to

• Generally, the three variations of frontness are front, central, and

FRONT CENTRAL BACK

• Rounding refers to the position of the lips during the production of

• The two lip positions are rounded and unrounded.

There are eight diphthongs commonly used in

• Thus, to make a sound parameter of /eɪ/ for example, wecan describe it

Courtesy from YouTube :

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