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”