VOWEL AND CONSONANT LENGTH
2.I Vowel
length
Vowel length is the perceived duration
of a vowel sound.In some languages of the world, including several dialects of the English language, we
can change the meaning of a word
by "extending" the vowels.
Long vowels pronounced
in Australian English
for three pairs of vowels is stressed, the
/ ɪ / and / i /, / ʌ / and / a /, / ʊ / and / u /. We can, if we wish, to use symbols / ɪ / and / ɪ :/, / ʌ / and / ʌ :/, / ʊ / and / ʊ :/ to show more clearly the difference.
Example :
“pit” /pɪt/ “peat” /pɪ:t/ dibanding /pit/
“putt” /pʌt/ “part” /pʌ:t/ dibanding
/pat/
“put” /pʊt/ “port” /pʊ:t/ dibanding
/put/
a. Vowel length affected by ending
voiced consonants
There are two consonant,they are voiced
consonant and voicless consonants.
Voiced consonants are b,d,v,l,r,z,j and
voiced consonants are p,t,k,s,sh,ch,th. All the English occur slightly longer
before voiced consonants than before voiceless ones,and also at the end of
words, as shown in the following examples :
“beat” /bit/ [bit]
“bead” /bid/ [bi:d]
“bit” /bit/ [bit]
”bid” /bɪd/ [bɪ:d]
”loot” /lut/ [lut]
”lewd” /lud/ [lu:t]
b. Vowel length caused double same
vowel in the end
When a word has two of the same vowels in a row
(called a double vowel), pronounce them as one vowel, using the long sound.
This rule does not apply when 'O' is the double vowel, as shown in the
following example :
“bee” [bi:]
Because
the vowels with longer duration are predictable, vowel length in English is
nonphonemic.
In
another languages,however, vowel length is nonpredictable and whether a vowel
is long or short in duration can distinguish meanings. Consider the following
minimal pairs in japannese.
Biru ”doing” tsuji ”proper name”
Bi:ru ”beer” tsu:ji ”moving the bowels”
When teaching at university in japan, one of the
authors of this book inadvertanly pronounced Ms. Tsuji name as Tsu:ji-san. The
effect of this error quickly taught him to respect vowel length in Japanese.
2.2 Consonants
Length
Consonant length also is contrastive in japanese. A consonant can be extended by extending the
termination: a long t [tt] can be generated by holding the tongue against the
alveolar region twice the length of t [t]. Minimal pairs below illustrates the
fact that also includes phonemic consonant length in Japanese.
shite “doing” saki “ahead”
shitte “knowing” sakki “before”
