CONCLUSION - Short vs. Long Vowel Sounds (English & Spanish)

        First of all it is necessary to state that we call long or short vowel to the ones that has merely quality of production and articulation. These names have nothing to do with the amount or period of time they last within a word. This rule applies to the majority of romantic languages. So in English as in Spanish we have many vowels that could be consider long or short depending on the context or in the way they are being produced.

            After analyzing the whole content, I can infer just one thing: vowels in Spanish have just one way of production, one spelling and the same articulators always they are emitted. In English, in the other hand, we have the same vowels but they require many ways of production, spelling and the articulators vary according to the used lexical combination we are applying. In English we can find many accents that usually changes or omits the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds. So it is quite more difficult than in Spanish; this language just leads with the five vowels and their only one way to pronounce them and almost always, they cannot be omitted to get communicated. So in conclusion, vowels in Spanish are neither long nor short and it is important to remark that in Spanish we donot have schwa sound as a vowel or even as a recognized sound.

Here I am leaving another video of the professor JenniferESL about production of vowel sounds in English to reinforce the acquired facts we already have in mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMM_hwyHxaI

Now, here I am posting a link of a video that explains how to produce vowels in Spanish. It is leaded by a native speaker who makes reference to the consistence of Spanish way to produce sounds and to the uniformity of Spanish pronunciation. He explains how to take advantage of the clear and sharp way of production of Spanish vowel sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR4tBcOP79M

CHAPTER 4.1 - Plosives

English has six plosive consonants (p, t, k, b, d, g) that have different places of articulation. Examining their manner of articulation there is a description of how they are produced. P and b are bilabial because they are created pressing the lips together; t and d are alveolar because to produce it we need to press the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge; k and g are velar because we need to touch our hard palate with the back of our tongue.

“All six plosives can occur at initial, medial or final position” (Roach, 2009). In initial positions we can listen an audible plosion of sound due to the strong quality of the plosive at this state. Plosives require of aspiration that is commonly described as the period in speech when the air escapes through the vocal folds through in the post-release phase. Medial and final positions are marked by a dependable factor that indicates the strength of the preceded or the following syllables to make the plosive accented or not.

I have found a very useful video to complete what we already know about stops or plosives. It is a video about glottal stops leaded by the recognized professor called JenniferESL (online name) 

http://wn.com/voiceless_stop 

CHAPTER 3.2 - Diphthongs and Triphthongs

BBC pronunciation runs a big quantity of diphthongs described as sounds which entail a movement or glide from one vowel to other one. Diphthongs are considered alike to long vowels when talking about length. Diphthongs have a main characteristic: their first part is much longer and stronger than the second par, for example in the word “eye”. In total, there are eight diphthongs, three of them are centring (their trajectory goes from close and open positions to the central part of the oral cavity), the other three are closing (their trajectory goes from the central part of the oral cavity to close) and two of them glide towards U and the tongue moves through the roof of the mouth to produce the sounds.

Triphthongs are the most complex English sounds to produce and to recognize. “A triphthong is glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption” (Roach, 2009). They are composed unsing the five closing diphthongs and adding the schwua sound at the end.

CHAPTER 3.1 - Long Vowels

         In this chapter the five long vowels were introduced. “The five long vowels are different from the six short vowels, not only in length but also in quality” (Roach, 2009). For example, after comparing some similar pairs of long and short vowels such I with i:, or U with u:, I felt their difference in quality resulting from modifications in tongue shape and position.

         Long vowels sound like the names of the letters that represent them: a /eɪ/, e/i/, i /ɑɪ/, o /oʊ/, and u/ju/. The long a sounds in the word cake. The long e sounds in the word keep. The long i sounds in the word bike. The long o sounds in the word home. The long u sounds in the word cute.

         The term Long vowel does not mean that the sound lasts for a longer period of time than other vowel sounds. It's very important to realize that, in English, the term long vowel is a name given to the sounds a, e, i, o, and u. It is not in any way related to the amount of time each vowel is pronounced within a word.

In here I leave the video that perfectly explains why each long vowel sound has additional spellings and some other websites to complete our knowledge:

http://wn.com/long_e_and_short_e_sounds_in_American_English_Pronunciation

http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/grade_k_1/long_vowel_grk1_nav.htm

CHAPTER 2 - The Production of Speech Sounds

      This chapter mentioned the importance of identifying and describing the phonemes of English. The analysis of how they are produced let me realize about the brilliant stuff we have on our vocal tract and on our oral cavity.

         I could identify the anatomical parts of each one of the components and articulators above the larynx that allows us to emit sounds and whole utterances. The seven articulators (larynx, velum, hard palate, alveolar ridge, tongue, upper-lower teeth and lips) were described in detail, so I got a clear idea about their functions and basic movements to produce sounds. 

In the contrast between vowel and consonant sound production, I have learned that vowel sound are emitted with no obstruction of the flow of air from the larynx to the lips and that consonant sounds are sometimes consider as vowel ones depending on the way they are produced in many languages.

“The most important difference between vowel and consonant is not the way that they are made, but their different distributions” (Roach, 2009)

          The cardinal vowel framework was so useful to guide us in pronunciation as a map serves to any person to cover and get known a determined area. It helps us to find places of articulation that we never thought to use appropriately.  

English short vowels were an important issue on this chapter. I got aware that they are six and they are just relatively short because they can have diverse measurement in diverse situations.

There are many sources on the net we can use to teach English short vowel sounds and teacher aids to get students aware about the correct pronunciation of them, as well.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6179118_teach-short-vowel-sounds-words.html

http://www.ezschool.com/Tutorials/Vowels/Intro.html

CHAPTER 1 - Introduction

      The introductory chapter was a guide to start working. For example, this chapter explained this is a course designed to be studied from the beginning to the end, and not a reference book (the last one explains isolated topics).

      I could understand that the imperative goal of this course was to explain how English is pronounced in the accent generally chosen as the ordinary for people learning the features of spoken English.

      The Introduction of this course explains and informs about the academic relative advanced level in which the topic is presented. The author Peter Roach makes special emphasis on illuminating that it is usual to present this information in the context of a broad scheme about speech sounds and how they are used in language and in real situations.

     The nature of phonetics and phonology with one or two basic ideas need were introduced at this stage just to get familiarized with the further topics that came in a chain model, so it was essential to catch effectively the basis given on this initial part.

     Peter Roach describes the endorsement of using the BBC pronunciation rather than RP is not totally accepted due to comprehensible reluctant citizens from many parts of Europe that do not recognize BBC pronunciation as the standard one for countries such Scotland and Wales; even though the BBC one represents an exceptional Pronunciation Research Unit to guide on the pronunciation of hard words and utterances.

According to this chapter, the structure of the course includes:

·         Notes on problems and further reading to look for more sources to read and to investigate if necessary.

·         Notes for teachers with useful and opened ideas to teach interesting and fresh content for scholars.

·         Written exercises to assure and reinforce the learned material, it includes answers to avoid analysis breakdowns in class.

·         Course website that provides further exercises, articles and many tools for learners who do not have access to the net.

·         International Phonetic Association (IPA) chart to increase students skills to manage the whole course using adequate material to reach total acquirement on phonology tasks.


Here I place some of the most useful webpages to get familiarized with phonology content as this chapter engaged us:

http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/PhonProcess/learning.html

http://www.brighthub.com/education/languages/articles/76062.aspx

http://www.idealcurriculum.com/phonological-awareness.html