Word! Shut. Up. This week, Phil and Eric explore the mid-central vowel space, including [ɘ, ɵ, ə, ɜ, ɞ, ɐ] and even discuss the (completely theoretical at this point) new symbol [a]. Yes, we do explore the strut and nurse lexical sets, too.

Show Notes:

Phonemes are “the idea of a sound”, the building blocks we have in our minds that help us construct words. One can say they are the smallest segment of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between words. Phones, on the other hand, is the physical and acoustic realization of that phoneme, “what comes out your mouth.” Different accents can have different phones to represent the same phoneme.

Allophones are variants of a phoneme, based on the context where the phoneme occurs. So there are different allophones of /t/ initially or following /s/: initial /t/ is aspirated [tʰ], while /t/ following /s/ is unaspirated [st=].

Examples of unstressed vs. stressed mid-vowels: about vs. love, probably [əˈbaʊt] vs. [lʌv], depending on your accent.

Vowel quality: “The articulatory features that distinguish different vowel sounds are said to determine the vowel's quality. Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels in terms of the common features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundedness (lip position). There are however still more possible features of vowel quality, such as the velum position (nasality), type of vocal fold vibration (phonation), and tongue root position.”—Wikipedia

Daniel Jones’ map of the Cardinal Vowels, compared to his realization of his RP vowels, marked in red.

The official IPA Vowel Chart, showing the central vowels down the centre line. The newly recommended symbol, small cap A would be placed in the middle between [a] and [ɑ].

Phil’s journey of the central vowels:

ə → ɨ

ɘ → ɤ

Eric’s close-mid exploration (Front-central-back): e → ɘ → ɤ

ə → ɜ

Phil’s open-mid exploration (Front-central-back): ɛ → ɜ → ʌ

Phil’s unrounding of the open-mid vowel (staying back): ɔ → ʌ

Phil’s comparison of the open-mid unrounded vowel with and without tongue root retraction: ʌ → ʌ̙ →ʌ →ʌ̙

[ Phil and Eric then get confused, or at least Eric confuses matters because he thinks Phil is discussing /ɐ/, while Phil means to discuss /a/. ]

Eric thinks that a (aka “type A” for Eric, “print A” for Phil) looks like a typewriter. The top part of it, the hook, looks like the carriage return, while the bowl of the glyph looks like the body of the character. Phil described the hook as like a partridge’s crest. ( I think he was think of the bird, not Danny...)

He thinks ɐ (aka “turned type/print A”) looks like an italic e with a little hook or crest on the upper left.

ə → ɜ → ɐ

Eric thinks of how to find ɐ as a backed version of æ

æ → ɐ

Another variable: lip rounding.

Unrounded vs. Rounded

(barred i) ɨ - ʉ (barred u)

(reversed e) ɘ - ɵ (Brigitte barred-O)

(schwa) ə - ə̹ (schwa with lip rounding)

ɜ - ɞ (“the sideways butt”)

(turned type