House of Schwə

Levelling or Smothing It's a phonological process produced in rapid coloquial speech and due to economy of effort. This process takes place at word boundary, mopheme boundary or within the same syllable when front and back diphthons are followed by a schwa / ə/ (1) .  These diphthongs are levelled because the second vocallic element (/ ɪ/ or / ʊ/)  is elided (2) and to compensate the loss the first vocallic element is lengthened (3) . 2 syllables are reduced to only one. This is a form of reduction or compression. (1) [fa ɪ ə] ▼ (2) [fa ɪ ə]  [fa ə] ▼ (3) [f ɑ : ə] These are the 5 cases in which this process can take place:     /a ɪ/ + / ə/ = [ ɑ : ə]     / e ɪ/+   / ə/ = [e: ə] /ɔ ɪ/+  / ə/ =  [ ɔ: ə]  /ə ʊ / +  / ə/  = [ ɜ: ə ]  / a ʊ / + / ə/ = [ ɑ : ə]   Let's see the cases one by one  [ ɑ : ə] (  /a ɪ/ + / ə/) whitin the same syllable layer  [l ɑ : ə]   fire  [f ɑ : ə]  diet [d ɑ : ə]  wire  [l ɑ : ə]   society  [s əs ɑ : əti]  tyr

Pre-fortis clipping Una de las cosas más importante a tomar en cuenta a la hora de pronunciar correctamente las vocales es su longitud. Como ya aprendimos anteriormente sabemos que existen vocales largas,  que en fonética son marcados por un colon despues del símbolo correspondiente (/ɑː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, etc.), y las vocales cortas  (/ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ə/, etc.). Por supuesto no debemos de olvidarnos de la  /æ/ que aunque este incluído en el grupo de vocales cortas, es la más larga de este grupo. Pero esto no es todo lo que debemos tener en cuenta ya que el fenómeno denominado pre-fortis clipping puede cambiar estas nociones que conocemos bastante. El proceso de pre-fortis clipping surge por el hecho de que las vocales largas son  fuertemente influenciadas por la voz de la consonante que las sigue (o por la ausencia de esta dicha consonante).  El término fortis es equivalente a sin voz y clipping se refiere a cortar o reducir. Lo que está expresión nos quiere decir es que cuando una vocal

 Eight english diphthongs: WHAT IS A DIPHTHONG? A diphthong is a sequence of two vocalic elements that form a glide within the same syllable. They may be said to have a first element (STARTING POINT)  and a second element (THE POINT IN THE DIRECTION OF WHICH THE GLIDE IS MADE) PHONETIC FEATURES    In order to describe English diphthongs from the ARTICULATORY point of view we must take into consideration:   1. The vowel towards  which the glide is made:   FRONT diphthongs because the glide is made towards the front vowel.    BACK diphthongs because the glide is made towards the back vowel.    CENTRING diphthongs because the glide is made towards the central vowel.  2. The direction of the glide towards a CLOSER tongue position or CENTRING position: • CLOSING diphthongs: the glide is made towards a closer tongue  position. • CENTRING diphthongs: the glide is made towards a central position.     3. The LENGTH of the glide:   WIDE diphthongs be

ESTABLISHED PROGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION OF VOICE Due to economy of effort all sounds are affected by their environment to some extent. This economy of effort may occur at the vocal bands or result from the accomodation between two articulations. This phonological process is known as ASSIMILATION . Most nouns add an orthographic s/es to make their plural form: book-books , dog-dogs , church-churches . However, the pronunciation of the plural morpheme varies according to the noun to which it is added. The general rule is that the plural morpheme must agree in voicing with the last sound of the noun.    book/bʊk/   books/bʊks   dog/dɒg   dogs/dɒgz Assimilation is a phonological process due to economy of effort “by which sounds are influenced by neighbouring sounds and come to share some or all of their phonetic characteristics.” ORTIZ LIRA, H. y Diana FINCH (1982). In the case of the realisation of the plural among others, the process is also establis

CONSONANTS  From the phonetic point of view, consonants are easy to describe in terms of articulation as we can feel the contacts and movements involved in their production. Consonants are produced by interfering in some way with a body of moving air, i.e. by narrowing or closing the oral cavity. Phonetics Features of consonants In order to describe consonantas we must provide answer to the following questions: Do the vocal folds vibrate or not? ( It is the consonant voice or voiceless) Is it produce with great breath force and muscular energy?( It is forty) Or is it produced with a small degree of breath force and muscular energy? ( It is lenis) Is the soft palate/ velum raised or is it lowered? Is the consonant oral or nasal? At what point(s)and between what organs does the closure or narrowing- stricture take place?What is its point/place of articulation? ( It is the consonant bilabial, bilabial-velar, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, palato-al