Vowells

Vowells

/i/

• Production: being a long vowel, it almost sounds like a diphthong in RP. It is long enough to be one, but it does no actually glide into another vowel sound. The lips are only slightly spread
• Approximate Castilian Production: it is found in the Castilian /i/ accompanied by dental or palatal consonant (capilla, Castillo, siiiiiiiiii, chino)
• Most important spellings that represent /i:/:

o   Ee: see, feed, bee (/siː/, /fiːd/, /biː/

o   Ea: read eat

o   Ie: shield, field

o   E: scene

o   Eo: people

o   Ey: key

/I/

• When you say this vowel sound, the front of the tongue is raised towards the palate. In fact, the position of the whole tongue is relatively high in the mouth, making it a closed vowel. The lips are slightly spread.
• The Castilian production: in the first stages of learning English, Spanish speakers usually have difficulties in distinguishing /i/ and /i:/, since both varieties but don´t make any difference in meaning
• We can find an approximate production when Castilian /i/ is in unstressed position. Eg.g: ultimo, cursi, pitar
•  The Castilian vowel is more closed and tenser, nevertheless; as the English /i/ is more relaxed and lightly more centralized, some perceive it as /e/, especially in words like this: milk, fill, pen
• Most important spellings that represent /i/

o   Mainly “i” and “y” 

§  Rich, lady, body, milk

§  In unstressed position it may be represented by any vowel

·        Language: / ˈlæŋg.wɪʤ/

·        Wanted:  /ˈwɒntɪd / /ˈwa:ntɪd/ (NOTE: when the sound is voiceless you pronounce t, if the sound of the verb is voiced, you pronounce a d”) 

·        Money: /ˈmʌn.i /

·        Minute: / ˈmɪnɪt /

• Minimal pairs: we mean minimal pairs when there is a slight difference

Read   /riːd/	Rid    /rɪd/
Peach   /piːʧ/	Pitch    /pɪʧ/
Leap   /liːp/	Lip    /lɪp/
Feet   /fiːt/	Fit     /fɪt/
Bean   /biːn/	Bin    bɪn
Seen   /siːn/	Sin    /sɪn/
Beach   /biːʧ/	Bitch  /bɪʧ/
Sheep   /ʃiːp/	Ship  /ʃɪp/

/e/

• Aprroximate Castilian Production: the Castilian /e/ is usually more closed and tenser that the English equivalent. Nevertheless you can get a more open realization in the following cases:

§  when it is in contact with the vibrant / r /: cerro,reto. 

§  followed by / x / (jota)

§  diphthong / ei /

o   Most important spellings that represent /e/

§  E: bed, have, pen, sell.

§  Ea: head, dead

§  A: many, any

• Minimal pairs

/i/	/e/
Sit	Set
Bid	Bed
Rid	Red
Will	Well
Till	Tell
Fill	Fell
Built	Belt

/ae/

• Approximate Castilian Production: in Castilian there is not similar vowel, on the other hand it is in the speech of many Valencians
• A didactic resource to get an approach would be to pronounce the phoneme /e/ with a much bigger separation between the jaws.
• The most approximate sounds would be in syllables that had a palatal consonant. E.g.: chanza, ancha, llano, fallo
• Most important spellings that represent a mass, flash, match, lamp, hand.
• Minimal pairs

/ae/	/e/
Flash	Flesh
Mass	Mess
Rack	Wrech
Bad	Bed
Bag	Beg
Man	Men
Pat	Pet

/a:/

     Approximate Castilian Production: it does not exist in Spanish. This sound and /ae/ and /ʌ/ are a focus of confusion for beginners

-          Some Spanish people pronounce /g/ as a guttural instead of velar, especially between vowels, this /a/ is similar to the English corresponding. E.g.: haga, traga, saga

-          The important aspect is to give double quantity because it is a log vowel

-          Most important spellings that represent /a:/

o   a: aski, grass, car

o   ea, ear: clerk

o   al: half, calm

o   au: aunt, laugh

-          Minimal pairs

/ɒ/

• The organs of articulation maintain similar positions to the ones of /a:/
• The tongue and jaw are lowered as the back of the tongue is used to articulate this vowel
• The lips are slightly rounded: portal, cortar, cordial, loro
• Most important spellings that represent /ɒ/: 

o   o: not, box, dog

o   a: want, what, watch

o   au: because

o   ou: cough 

• Minimal pairs

/ɒ/	/ʌ/
Cop	Cup
Shot	Sht
Lock	Luck
Strong	Strung
Mock	Muck
Long	Lung
Gone	Gun

/ɔ:/

• The difference between / ɒ/ and / ɔ:/
• Most important spellings:

o   o: horse

o   oor: poor

o   ore: more

o   aw: saw, law

o   oar: board

o   ou: bought 

o   our: four

o   a: all

o   au: taught 

•  Minimal pairs:

/ ɔ:/	/ ɒ/
Caught	cot
Sport	Spot
Short	Shot
stalk	Stock

/ʊ/

• Approximate Castilian Production: the Spanish sound is produced at the back and it is tenser.  A similar sound can be heard when it is next to “r” and “l” hurto, pulso

• Articulation: the tongue and the jaw are raised as the back of the tongue is used to articulate this vowel. Hence it is a back, close (high) vowel. The lips are rounded
• Most important spellings:

o   u: full, put

o   oo: book, look

o   ou: could, should 

o   o: woman

/u:/

• Approximate Castilian production: it is more closed and tenser than the Spanish “u” ( apart from being longer)
• Prodution: this vowel is towards the back and is a close sound. The lips are only moderately rounded
• Most important spellings:

o   oo: spoon, shoot, troop, boom

o   ou: soup, route 

o   o: do 

o   u: June, flu 

• Minimal pairs

/u:/	/ ʊ/
Fool	Full
Luke	Look
Cooed	Could
Shoed	Should
Pool	Pull

/ʌ/

• Approximate Castilian Production: this phoneme that, together with /a:/ and /AE/ is a focus of confusion for Spanish speakers who can assimilate it to an “a” sound
• This sound seems to be more approximate to the Spanish “a” when it is accompanied by velar consonants: regate, coja, jaque
• Articulation: this is a central vowel, and one which is more open than mid-ranged. The lip position is a neutral one
• Most important spellings:

o   u: sun, run, fun

o   o: won, come, done

o   ou: country, southern, young

o   oo: blood, flood 

• Minimal pairs

/ʌ/	/ae/
Cup	Cap
But	Bat
Run	Ran
Some	Sam
Much	Match
Uncle	Ankle

/ʌ/	/e/
Money	Many
But	Bet
Won	when
Done	Den

/ə:/ - /ɜ:/

• Approximate Castilian production: there is no similar sound in Spanish
• This is a central vowel. The lips are not rounded
• A didactic procedure would be to produce a Spanish “e” and, little by little, to approximate it to an “o”, not reaching it.
• Most important spellings:

o   ir: first

o   er: serve

o   ear: earth

o   ur: nurse

o   or: word

o   our: journey

•           Minimal pairs:

/əː/	/e/
Bird	Bed
Learned	Lend
Turn	Have
Burn	Ben
world	Wed

/ə/

• The schwa is an unstressed central vowel and it is the most common vowel to appear in English
•           There is no similar sound in Spanish. We tend to assimilate it to an unstressed “e” when it is no final (another: əˈnʌðə) (otheranother: en la primera other se pronuncia la r porque se junta)
  -          Minimal pairs: there are no minimal pairs
•      Spellings: it has no regular character to represent it
•      As it never occurs in stressed position, there are no contrastive elements

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