The acoustic classication of English vowels Teacher: G. Tukhlieva

The acoustic classication of English vowels

Teacher: G.Tukhlieva

Student: M. Ergasheva

Phonetics

Articulatory phonetic

Acoustic phonetic

Auditary phonetic

Branches of phonetics

• Articulatory phonetics -is the study of the production of the speech sounds.
• Acoustic phonetics - is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds.
• Auditory phonetics - is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.

Acoustic phonetics

This branch of phoneticsis concerned with the properties of sound waves.

It studies the physical of properties of speech sounds as transmitted between the mouth and ear.

• Each vowel has its own acoustic spectrum, it's own format structure.The frequently of the formats and their position in the spectrum distinguish one vowel from another. The acoustic characteristics of vowels are based on their articulatory distinguishs.

• Thus, F1 is conditioned by the vertical position of the tongue. When the tongue is high in the mouth, F1 is low and vice versa. E.g. /i:/ and /u:/ have F1 in the region of 280-300 cps, whereas /ɑ:/ and /ɔ/ have F1 in the region of 600-800 cps. The second formant (F2) is conditioned by the horizontal position of the tongue and by the position of the lips. F2 is high in the case of a front vowel and it is low in the case of a back vowel. Thus /i:/ has F2 at about 2500 cps, where as /u:/ has F2 at about 900cps. F2 of rounded vowels is lower than of unrounded vowels, e.g. F2 of /ʌ/ is 1320 cps whereas F2 of /u / is 940 cps.

• If the second formant is high, as for /i:, e/, the vowels are of a clear or acute timbre. If it is low, so that both F1 and F2 are in the low section of the spectrum (as for /u:, u, ɔ:/, a vowel has a dark or grave timbre. Front vowels are acute, back vowels are grave. F2 is lower in rounded vowels (as ɔ, ɔ:, u, u:) than it is in unrounded vowels (as i:, I, e, æ, ʌ, ɑ:). Acoustically, rounded vowels are opposed to unrounded as flat to plain.
• Thus, from the point of view of their acoustic characteristics, the vowel /e/, for instance, is described as acute, compact, and plain. The vowel /ɔ/ is compact, grave and flat, and /u:/ is diffuse, grave and flat.