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Dec 6, 2023 · The primary distinction between lax and tense vowels lies in their length and the tension of the muscles used in their production. Lax vowels are shorter and produced with relatively loose muscles in the vocal apparatus. In contrast, tense vowels are longer and require relatively tense muscles for their articulation.
For those not familiar with IPA, /i/ represents the “English e-letter-name” sound, not the “English I-letter-name” sound which IPA represents as /aɪ/. Let’s compare seen, sink, and sing. seen /siːn/ has a long (as in duration) /i/ sound (i.e. English E-letter-name sound). The two dots in IPA indicate this being long in duration.
The final piece of information that we use to classify vowels is a little trickier to explain. English makes a distinction between tense and lax vowels, which is a distinction that a lot of other languages don’t have. Tense vowels are made with greater tension in the muscles of the vocal tract than lax vowels.
- Catherine Anderson
- 2018
Other details and charts in the reading are there to help you understand this central information Goal: Know all of the symbols and descriptions for the vowels in Figure 2.11 (CL p 42) We will describe vowels using the following four. phonetic properties: height. backness. rounding. tense/lax.
What is the vowel quadrilateral and what is its importance in the study of phonetics? -Vowel quadrilateral: Tongue height can be divided into three dimensions: high, mid, and low. Tongue advancement is also divided into three dimensions: front, central and back. (see figure 4.1 pg. 55) Which vowels in English are tense?
Values of phonetic symbols are defined in terms of a variety of primarily articulatorily defined phonetic dimensions as in (2). A diphthong is a sequence of vowel-like elements – vowels and glides – in one syllable. The three most important properties for defining vowels are height, backness, and roundness.
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low lax æ ɑ(ː) Round(ed) vowels: u ʊ o ɔ In English the round vowels are all back and non-low. Tense vs. lax Conventionally a distinction is made between ‘tense’ and ‘lax’ vowels in English, at least for high and mid vowels. The tense vowels, when not part of a diphthong, are phonetically long.