Vowels are speech sounds pronounced so there are no “obstacles” to airstream (unlike the way consonants are pronounced, for example). This post lists English vowels (21 in this case, although some sources list 22), both monophthongs and diphthongs. They are grouped into the long and short ones. There is also a vowel diagram showing vowels at their approximate positions.
The vowels sounds of the English language are listed below. The newer IPA notation was used.
The English vowels with examples (O’Connor, first edition 1973) IPA (O'Connor) Examples 1 i: see, unique, feel 2 ɪ wit, mystic, little 3 e set, meant, bet 4 æ pat, cash, bad 5 ɑ: half, part, father 6 ɒ not, what, cost 7 ɔ: port, caught, all 8 ʊ wood, could, put 9 u: you, music, rude 10 ʌ bus, come, but 11 ɜ: beard, word, fur 12 ə alone, butter 13 eɪ lady, make 14 əʊ go, home 15 aɪ my, time 16 ɑʊ now, round 17 ɔɪ boy, noise 18 ɪə here, beard 19 ɛə fair, scarce 20 ɔə more, board 21 ʊə pure, your
Gimson (Introduction 90) sorts English vowels into three groups: short, long “relatively pure” and long “diphthongal glides, with prominent 1st element”.
Short and long monophthongs in English short ɪ e æ ɒ ʊ ʌ ə long i: u: ɑ: ɔ: ɜ:
Vowel diagram is used to provide details about the sounds involved. The phoneme /i:/ often has the quality of a diphthong (O’Connor 154), which depends on the accent. The arrow on the diagram marks the approximate final location of the sound in diphthongal realisation. The phoneme /ɪ/ is short and monophthongal. The phoneme /e/ is “in RP … generally realised … as a short, front vowel between cardinals [e] and [ɛ]” (O’Connor 156), while /æ/ is also a short vowel, but between cardinal [ɛ] and [a], it is usually realised as a monophthong.
RP English vowels in vowel chart. The image is based on the overview given by O’Connor in his Phonetics (see Books & References).
The phoneme /ʌ/ is a “short almost open central vowel”, while /ɑ:/ is an “open, rather back vowel” (O’Connor 157-8). The phoneme /ɒ/ is pronounced by speakers of RP as “a short, back, open or almost open vowel” (158). In a word such as caught there is the phoneme /ɔ:/. In the diagram /ɔ:/ it is just below the cardinal vowel [o]. The dashed line pointing towards the more central position illustrates the fact that many speakers do not make a distinction between a monophthong /ɔ:/ and a diphthong /ɔə/. In such cases, the speakers “nevertheless use a diphthong [ɔə] … before pause” (160). The consequence is that “both saw and sore are pronounced [sɔə] and both caught and court are pronounced [kɔ:t]” (160).
The phoneme /ʊ/ is somewhat more centralised than cardinal [o], and it shows a relatively constant pronunciation in dialects (162), unlike most of other vowels. About /u:/ O’Connor notes that it “most often has a diphthongal realisation … but it may be given a monophthongal pronunciation slightly lower and more central than cardinal [u]” (162). The diphthongal property of the vowel is indicted by an arrow in the graph. The phoneme /ɜ:/ is “typically a long, mid, central vowel”, but in rhotic accents (American English, for example) this vowel is in the sequence /ər/ (163) replaced by the retroflex [ɹ], i.e. bird (163). The phoneme /ə/ has “two major allophones in RP, one central and half-close which occurs in non-final positions…, and one central and about half open which occurs before pause …” (the example for the first variant is about, and for the second sailor) (164).
In the next post: diphthongs…
The vowel chart with English monophthongs and diphthongs in SVG format
Vowels are speech sounds (1) during whose production “the tongue is held at such a distance from the roof of the mouth that there is no perceptible frictional noise” and “a resonance chamber is formed which modifies the quality of tone” (Jones, Pronunciation 12). Gimson defines vowels (2) as a “category of sounds … normally made with a voiced egressive air-stream, without any closure or narrowing such as would result in the noise component characteristic of many consonantal sounds” (Introduction 35).
Fant gave a list of several correlates in speech sound classification (Speech pp. 153-155). What follows is a compiled overview of properties a sound should have, according to Fant, to be classified as a vowel. The first condition is that a vowel must have sound energy visible in sound spectrum, and that the source of the acoustic energy originates from the vocal folds vibration. A vowel should also have “vowelike correlate” in speech production, which means an unobstructed pass of airstream. Waveform analysis of a “vowelike sound” implies that “at last F1 and F2 [are] detectable”, while F3 should be visible if F1/F2 are not at their lower ends (156). To classify a vowel as a diphthong, the speech sound must satisfy the “glide” correlate, which in the production context means “moderate speed within a segment”, seen as a “relatively slow [spectrum change] rate but faster than for mere combination of two vowels” (156). The picture below shows a spectrogram of a diphthong, satisfying Fant’s requirements for the classification.
Spectrogram of diphthong /ɑɪ/ as spoken in word "dies" by a female Received Pronunciation speker
We will give one more description of vowels (3), as described by Laver, who says that two of the distinctions for classifying speech sounds are place of articulation and degree of stricture, both related to the medial phase of a segment. Place of articulation refers to “the location of the articulatory zone in which the active articulator is closest to the passive articulator during the medial phase of a segment” (166). Degree of stricture identifies the degree of closure between the two articulators in the medial phase. Thus, he defines vowels as a group of sounds articulated in places of neutral articulation (167), when “the potential active articulators … lie in their neutral anatomical position” (166) opposite their passive articulators. In discussion about degree of stricture Laver says that in resonants “the stricture is one of open approximation” (168), allowing unrestrained pass of energy from the vocal folds.
***
1 They are also discussed in terms of being “purely linguistic units, counters which do a certain job, irrespective of how they sound” (O’Connor, Phonetics, 199) but that is a more phonological approach.
2 Gimson refers to vowels in the introductory chapters as “the vowel type” of sounds, “described in mainly auditory terms” (Introduction, 35). When discussing the vowel versus the consonant distinction he notes: “It will be found that the phonemes of a language usually fall into two classes, those which a typically central (or nuclear) in the syllable and those which are non-central (or marginal). The term ‘vowel’ can then be applied to those phonemes having the former function and ‘consonant’ to those having the latter.” (53).
3 Laver (pp. 167-172) gives a detailed description of several articulation aspects.
This post is based on a draft for one of the introductory chapters in my paper. For cited works please visit the page Books & References.
For some types of translations translation memory (TM) and fuzzy matching are not very useful, but this does not mean that a CAT application itself is useless. On the contrary, you can work more efficiently with the selective use of the powerful glossary function in Wordfast Classic (WFC).
The author of this text has translated many pieces of news. Such content is usually unique and it is not possible to use TM to a satisfying degree: most of the sentences do not repeat. The use of TM is fairly limited. TM here functions as a reference, except in rare cases when background information is appended to a piece (two or three brief paragraphs that repeat occasionally).
TM Compensation, Fast Shortcuts
It seems that WFC if not so useful. After all, if the TM is of limited use, the CAT is helpless, just like a translator. Luckily, this is not true. The WFC has well organized glossaries, which are easy to use due to the shortcuts. That significantly compensates for the restricted usefulness of the translation memory. After putting the cursor in front of a source word (or selecting multiple words) and pressing CTRL + ALT + T once, and then repeating this in the translation segment, the entry window pops up and, after saving, the word/phrase is ready for use. When WFC recognises the term it highlights it, and then the translator can select it by pressing CTRL + ALT + LEFT/RIGHT ARROW, and place it into the target segment with CTRL + ALT + DOWN ARROW.
Overuse of the Glossary, What to Put in It
Here comes a very important question: what to put in the glossary to speed up the translation? Some translators stick to the meticulously selected words they look up in dictionaries, or they load glossaries provided by a translation agency. Of course, we can do this as well. The WFC allows four glossaries at the same time, so there is room for the glossaries acquired beforehand.
We are going to broaden the “range” of glossary and include not only unknown terms, but specifically – phrases and sentence parts/clauses. And here lies the combined power of the WFC shortcuts and glossaries. Have a look at some of the entries in our sample glossary (EN-SR):
company's representative – predstavnik kompanije democratic institutions – demokratske institucije of democratic institutions – demokratskih institucija with democratic institutions – sa demokratskim institucijama in Romania – u Rumuniji in September – u septembru in several – u nekoliko Ministry of Infrastructure – Ministarstvo za infrastrukturu on a political level – na političkom nivou to do all that was required – uraditi sve što je potrebno Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – Internet korporacija za dodeljene brojeve i imena European Investment Bank – Evropska investiciona banka European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – Evropska banka za rekonstrukciju i razvoj
As you can see, nothing particularly unknown is listed above. However, there are two interesting things about the examples. Firstly, it is easy to insert the glossary items in the translation by using shortcuts, so lengthy items are no more a problem. Secondly, by providing several examples of the same phrase, it is possible to cover most cases of a particular phrase. For example “democratic institutions” can be in the nominative case, but “of democratic institution” is in the genitive case. This use is now beyond the management of terminology and closer to the TM use. One might wonder what happens with synonyms. If WFC finds multiple entries for a glossary item, it will display all corresponding meanings from which you can choose by using a small popup window.
THE FINAL NOTE – SPEED
We can expand the meaning of the glossary, understood as a “termbase”, to the notion of “versatile text holder”. Thus, we can include not only unknown terms, but common ones as well. If “known” phrases are lengthy and in different cases in the target translation, this will speed up the translation. However, creating the glossary requires time. Although the inclusion of new items is very simple, it breaks the continuity in work – and could, in fact, prolong the finishing of the translation. From my experience adding items to such “extended glossaries” is best done sparingly during the translation, and in details after the work is finished.
This text was initially published on ProZ.com Translation Article Knowledgebase (and written for it).