 Good morning. Are you all right? Lovely. Let us continue with our discussion of vowel sounds. We have been talking about since last week, we have been talking about production of speech sounds and we have seen that there are two kinds of speech sounds, major broad classes. One is the class called vowel sounds and the other is the consonant sounds. We saw that vowel sounds are those sounds that are, can you please repeat with me, that are voiced, that are oral and that are free, without, that are produced without obstruction. Let me repeat myself. Vowel sounds are those sounds, vowels are voiced, what else? Oral and unobstructed, great. In all languages of the world, no matter what language you speak, vowel sounds are voiced and unobstructed. Close your eyes and answer me, define. In all languages, vowel sounds are number one, a, voiced, b, oral and c, unobstructed, correct? Then the second question is, if all vowel sounds are like that, how do we distinguish between one and another? How are we, in other words, able to produce different kinds of vowel sounds? Some languages have 14, some languages have 16, a language like British English, standard British English has 20 vowel sounds. How do we produce these different vowel sounds? And last week, we were talking about it and we saw that these vowel sounds differ because of the following, these three parameters. Either they are produced from the front of the mouth or they are produced from the back of the mouth, back of the tongue or either in the production of these vowel sounds, the jaws are closed or jaws are open and there can be in between positions. There can be half open, half closed, central, you know, there can be other distinctions and there is a third parameter. What is the third parameter? Some vowels are produced with lips, rounded and some others are produced with lips, unrounded or spread or flat. I will repeat myself. The question is, how are we able to produce different kinds of vowel sounds? We have recognized that all vowel sounds are voiced, oral, unobstructed. These are common characteristics. Then, how do we distinguish one from another? Then, these are the parameters along which vowel sounds differ from, you know, one another. One differs from another. What are the parameters? Either they are produced from the front of the tongue or from the, please close your eyes and tell me, or from the back of the tongue. Either they are produced with jaws closed or jaws open or they are produced with lips rounded or unrounded. Once again, how do we distinguish between or among different vowel sounds? Please tell me, a, close your eyes and tell me, a, either they are produced from the front of the tongue or from the back of the tongue. Number one, number two, in the production of them, either jaws are closed or jaws are open. Third, in the production of them, either lips are rounded or lips are unrounded. These are the three basic parameters along which we describe different vowel sounds. Any questions, any problems about this? Any questions? Please, I have also given you references to some books. Look at those books. There is plenty of material on the net. You can see any of these things or you can talk to me. Let us be clear. How do we describe the vowel sounds of different languages or how do we describe different vowel sounds? That is what we are going to talk about today. Description of different vowel sounds. How do we say a is different from a? What are the phonetic characteristics of a, which distinguishes a from a? A from a, a from i, i from o, o from a, you know. How do we distinguish? That is what we are going to attempt today. You will have to write, think, talk. Please participate. Are you alright? Yes or no please? Are you comfortable? I hope you have had a nice weekend and you are charged to undergo even boring classes like phonetics and linguistics. Shall we continue? Only five people are serious. Shall we continue? Before we go into the description of these vowel sounds, I will like to tell you a word or two about the international phonetic alphabet. The way we write, you saw while we were talking about design features of language, that natural languages are primarily vocal, not written. Do you agree? Is it the case that anyone was born writing and learned talking afterwards? What do you say? What do you say? No, obviously not. You know, we were not, not really. That is, you know, in a certain sense, they learned making sign language, but that is their expression as well. But even before that, they observe shape of lips, production of sounds. They cannot hear because they are deaf, but then they mark the shape of lips. So, first, all of us, you know, in a certain sense, learned and you are quite right. You know, those who are, you know, deaf neither speak nor write in that sense. They have, they do not have that kind of a script. They have a sign language which also differs. For example, American sign language is different from Indian sign language. There are some differences. Not in that sense, actually deaf people. So, we are saying the same thing. All of us first learned to speak in whatever manner and writing systems, alphabet come later. Now, alphabet, you know, writing systems differ greatly. In India itself, we have as many different kinds of scripts as we have languages. Telugu and Kannada, you know, if they are spoken to each other, all Kannada speakers, I guess, will understand. All Telugu speakers and all Telugu speakers will understand. All Kannada speakers, but scripts are different to a great extent, right? There are similarities. Similarly, for Malayalam and Tamil or in Devnagari and Bengali, Devnagari and Guru Mukhi, Punjabi or look at European languages or look at Arabic or look at Hebrew, you know. Hebrew is written from right to left. Urdu is written from Arabic is written from right to left. Persian is written from right to left. Roman, Latin, Greek is written from left to right. Writing systems differ. We use different kinds of symbols to express the same sound. Say, for example, look at this sound, look at this sound, ke. Now, you can in Roman alphabet, you use ke. In Devnagari, you use ke. In Telugu, is it correct? Yes. And there are, you know, so the question is how shall we talk about sounds? So, there is a group of, there is an international body called international, please write, international phonetic association. It is the international body of phoneticians. Those who study speech sounds of natural languages, it is called international phonetic association. International phonetic association, international phonetic association are in brief I, P, A. So, they agreed upon an alphabet, a system, a set of symbols which are used to indicate sounds, which are not peculiar to any language, which is international and which is indicate, which is used to indicate particular sound, which is produced in a particular manner. So, when we talk about speech sounds, we use those symbols just that in different sciences in trigonometry, you have one kind of set of symbols. In mathematics in algebra, you have another kind of symbols. So, in phonetics, we use symbols agreed upon by international phonetic association and this is called I, P, A system or international in other words it is called international phonetic alphabet system or I, P, A system, I, P, A system, international phonetic alphabet system or international phonetic alphabet. Now, in this language, this is not K, this is not K, what is this? This is, it means that it is produced in a particular manner from the back of the tongue, voiceless, etcetera, etcetera. This is, this is not A, what is this? This is R, not R, this is R, it is produced from the back of the tongue, it is produced with open mouth, it is produced without rounded lips. It does not mean A, it does not belong to English or Latin, it does not belong to X or Y. This symbol represents a sound, which is produced from the back of the tongue, which is produced without rounded lips in the production of which mouth is open, vocal cords vibrate, it is a free sound, unobstructed, oral, it is a vowel sound. Do you see the difference? It is not K, it is not A, this is, this is R, it has certain phonetic features, it is produced in a certain manner. So, in the description of speech sounds, we will be using international phonetic alphabet system. Am I clear to you? Yes or no, please? Yes. Right. I have given you a handout and it is there, you can download it on your computer if you like. Here is the link, here is the link. I will mail it to Mahesh and the entire class Mahesh. I will request Mahesh to copy it to the entire class. You can download it, you can have your own set. I have given you a handout printing this. If you have not got it, please take a copy from Mahesh, make his life as difficult as you can or pay him for it. Mahesh, for all the photocopies that this poor young man takes, these are the symbols. So, we have, this is the first symbols shown there is not P, it is always written within slanted bars. I did not put it to keep it simple, but I will be using this kind of slanted bars. So, the first symbol indicates there not P, but as in this word, that word, that word, as in pen or copy or happen. Similarly, the next symbol is it indicates Ba. As in, as in, everybody please, as in, back, baby, job. Next symbol is as in go slow and you know with rhythm. Next is, as in, next is, as in, next is, as in, as in, next is, as in, like that, you know, I have given you the entire set. I will mail it to you. You have the handout before you, please look at it. You have all this while talking about English sounds. You know, I have said phonetic symbols for English sound. A large number of these symbols can also be used to indicate speech sounds in other languages. There are one or two which differ and I will indicate that to you as we go along, right. You can go to Google and you can also say international phonetic alphabet or IPA symbols and you will get the entire chart. You can use some of them to describe sounds in Telugu. You can use some of them to describe sounds in other languages. It is easily available. Please download, please have it on your computer and use those symbols in assignments or in talking about speech sounds. Am I clear to you please? Everybody please, am I clear to you? Have a copy, right. Let us come back to the description of sounds. So, we describe different vowel sounds with the help of symbols from IPA system. What is IPA system? Give me the full name. International Phonetic Alphabet System. Who has designed this system? The International Association of Phoneticians or International Phonetic Association, correct? Generally agreed upon. Not the best system. It is very Europe-centered, but you know it happens sometimes in the history of mankind that some nations or some groups of nations dominate the culture of some others, but by a large it is as representative as symbols you find in other sciences, right. Let us use them. Now, what are we talking about? We are talking about how different kinds of vowel sounds are produced and how we can describe them. Look at the situation. Please draw a trapezium like this. Do not write those symbols as I have written, but draw a large trapezium and you know put two lines in between horizontal from left to right and two lines in the center, a triangle in the center to indicate the entire area, correct? Draw a vowel trapezium something in this manner. I am sure you guys can do a better job. You know my drawing skills are pretty poor, but basically you know this is a vowel trapezium. I have not done it well. It should come further rightward. It should be further slanting as you see on the screen. I downloaded it from some website on the Google, but we will describe sounds with respect to. We describe all speech sounds, especially vowel sounds. We describe all vowel sounds with respect to, please mark my word with respect to their position on the vowel trapezium. Do you understand me? With respect to their position. Say for example, look at the top, you know look at this sound e. What is it? E as in English word key, cheese. Now, where is this? This is front of the mouth, correct? It is front. Is it closed or open? Close. You know jaws are closed. But this is open. This is fully open, right? Here jaws are open or closed? Closed. Is it front or back? Front. But look at this sound. E as in choose. Earlier thing was cheese, but now it is choose. Where is this produced from? It is produced from the back of the mouth, okay? Front. Sorry. Closed or open? Please make a mistake. Doesn't matter. Closed or open? Close. Obviously. Is it closed or open? Close. But look at this sound. Look at on the other hand this sound please. Here. This is a produce it. Now, let us describe the position. It is position of the world. Is it back or front? It is back. Of course. It is back of the tongue. Not front. Is it closed or open? It is open. The jaws are fully open. You know you cannot produce an a until you produce an English a is particularly long. You know more, much longer than a in our Indian languages. You know we are a gentile nation. We don't exaggerate anything. But you know in some European languages like English it is pretty exaggerated. So for example this sound is a. Sorry this sound is back of the tongue. This sound is produced from open. What is the third parameter for the description of all sounds? Front or back? Close or open? And third? Rounded or unrounded? Please write the third parameter. Okay. Three parameters. Now look at this sound here. E. Is it rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. Spread it and say E. Everybody please. E. Say please. E. Rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. Unrounded. But look at this sound. We say choose. We say ooo. Rounded or unrounded? Rounded. But look at this case. Rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. Spread. Okay. So this is the third parameter. So how shall we describe it? Let us write this sound E. Okay. Can I take it off? But you can. I want you to keep it on one page and use the other page to describe things as we have there. Let us say this is where we have E. Please write E. Okay. How shall we describe it? We will say this way. Correct? Right? As in let us say as in the particular word called cheese. Correct? You can have another word. You can say please. You can say peel. You can say deep. You can say keep. Lots of words which have this sound in English. In our languages also we have this sound. In Sanskrit if you say Dean that is poor. Okay. Then you can use that. Do you have this sound in Telugu? Anybody please? Okay. So you can say as in a particular word, particular language. Correct? I am using English because that seems to be the only common language among us. Everyone does not know Hindi. Everyone does not know Telugu. Everyone does not know Sanskrit. But in this class I guess everyone knows English. Okay. But you do not have to do that. You are not obliged to do that. You can actually, I will give you an assignment. Many people can also take it as for their term paper. But there will be a general assignment for all of us. Describe vowel sounds in your mother tongue. Okay. How shall we do that? I am heading towards that. So first use slanted bar. Write E. At the moment we are talking about English. I have not said otherwise I should have said as in English word cheese. What is the description? Number one. Is it front or back? Look at the, look at the vowel trapezium. Is it front or back? Front. So we will write front. Okay. Is it close or open? Everybody please. Is it close or open? Close. So we will write closed. Is it rounded or unrounded? Rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. So please write un. This is, this is the complete phonetic description of this vowel sound. This vowel sound is E as in English word cheese. What is the phonetic description? It is produced from the front of the tongue. Jaws are closed and lips are unrounded. But look at the other sound. Okay. This, this colon mark, this colon mark indicates length, extra length. Okay. Some more time. It has taken without this, it has taken 300 nanoseconds. With this it takes 600 nanoseconds or 700 nanoseconds. Double duration. Extra length. That is why in our languages we have haraswa. What is the opposite of haraswa? Anybody please? Derg. Derg means long. Haraswa means short. You can, you know, you can wonder at the imagination and intelligence of those sages of thousands of years ago who did not have the advantage of a spectrogram, computers and yet they were able to describe minuscule differences between sounds. That is why they were called rushis, you know, seers or sages. So this indicates length. With this it is a long sound. Without this it is a short sound. Once again with this it is a long sound. Without this it is a short sound. Haraswa derg. Let us describe this as in chews. Indicate which part of the word by underlining. Chews. How shall we describe it? Is this sound produced from the front of the tongue or back of the tongue? Everybody please speak. Back of the tongue. Right? Not the front of the tongue. Back of the tongue. Jaws closed or open? Jaws are closed. Lips rounded or unrounded? Rounded. In this case. Okay. Rounded. We call this level in the literature of phonetics. This level is known as please write three term level. What is it known as? Three term level. What are the three terms? Front or back? Close or open? And rounded or unrounded? These are the three terms. So along these three terms on the axis of these three terms we describe vowel sounds. Let us look at other sounds in English and let us apply. Okay. Take this sound now. Take this sound. Do it on your notebook without my help. Okay. You can talk to two people, three people together. You can do it together. Okay. What did you decide this was? That particular sound here. This sound here. What is it? So first let us write the symbol. Do you have a length marker there? Yes. Put a length marker here. As in, give me an English word. Car. Because every bitek wants soon after we take a car. The job or car first? Car. Now give me the description please. This is back, open. Correct? You got it. You are phoneticians now. Let us describe all English sounds. And then you know we will have the homework. We will describe vowel sounds in Telugu. Correct? But before we do that, come here. This is e without length. This is a, it is hruswo in English word like you know chin or pin or till or dip, D-I-P dip. Not D-W-E-P but D-I-P dip. It is short. Okay. How shall we describe it? Come on, attempted description. Two of you, three of you together please. But first do it on your notebook and then tell me this sound. Do it on your notebook and then tell me. Then share with the rest of the class. Please. How do you describe it? This is e as in, no length marker here. No length marker here. Just say as in, dip or as in till, as in pin, as in bin, as in din, D-I-N. Okay. Now, is it front or back? Front, obviously. Close or open? Close. Is it as close as earlier sound P? No. Now we are bringing in variations. How close is it? Half close. You see, arbitrarily we have decided to call it half close. And this line is therefore half open. This is arbitrary but you know it helps scientists sometimes arbitrarily design, you know the names of symbols, etc., etc. Actually half close should have meant the same thing as half open. Okay. But in this case the association of, you know, phoneticians said no, half close is up, above and half open is way below. Okay. They could as well have called it open A, open B, open C, open D. If in that case it will be open A, this will be B, this will be C, and this will be D. So treat it as just another descriptive parameter. So now come back to it. E, how close? It is of course front. Is it close or open? Close. How close? Half close. Please write. Half closed. Okay. And this is what we are talking about and then rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. Lovely. Okay. Let us look at this sound. Let's look at this. A, how shall we describe it? A as in egg, as in debt, as in pet, as in bet, as in get, G-E-T, get. But not G-A-T-E. In English word G-E-T, get, as in get. Okay. How shall we describe it? Is it front or back? Front. Okay. Is it close or open? Half open. Is it rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. Lovely. You are funaticians now. Okay. Let's look at this sound. Let's make our lives a little more difficult. Look at this. This is a, this sound, this symbol. Can you see? Everybody please, can you see? Can you draw it? This symbol. It is drawn, you know. It is an inverted E. This is, what is this? This symbol is called? Okay. Can you describe it now? Let us give a phonetic description. A, as in, as in, give me an example, please. Not up. Okay. In Indian pronunciation of appear. In Indian pronunciation of appear. But in English pronunciation of as in away, as in, how do you pronounce it? Away. Or as in, what is this? This is a, are we together? Everybody please, are we together? Yeah. So, this is a, as in away, about, arrest, okay, attend the initial sound. Right? Now, let's ask those questions. Is it front or back? Is it front or back? It is middle. It is central. Let's write. Central. Correct? Is it close or open? Now here comes, you know, here comes a challenge for science. Is it half open? There is another sound there. Is it half close? So, you know, what we do is, it is between half close and half open. But closer to, half close. Please write. Between half close and half open, but closer to, closer to, half close. Closer to, closer to, half close, half close. Is it rounded or unrounded? Unrounded, obviously. On the other hand, let us look at this sound, this symbol. This is a, as in girl, as in burn. Any English word which is, where a is followed by a, as in, come on, give me the word. As in earth, as in earth, as in, earn, as in, shirt, as in, dirt, as in, hurt. Any English word where a is followed by a, this a becomes long. It becomes a. Right? Now, how do we describe it? Let's describe this sound. This is, this is the symbol. Put a length marker. Put a length marker, please. As in, as in burn, earn, churn, learn, or as in hurt, dirt, shirt, as in earth, as in girth. The lots of English words. Is it front or back? Is it front or back? It is central. Is it front or back? Look at the vowel trapezium. Make it in your, where is it? Is it front or back? Is it front or is it back? Central, obviously. That question will be answered by saying it is central. So, right central. Is it open or closed? Between half closed and half open, but closer to? Half open. Half open. Please write. Between half closed and half open, but closer to? Half open. Rounded or unrounded? Rounded or unrounded? I want everybody to say, please. Rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. Unrounded. Okay. Let us take some, let us look at some of the other sounds. Let us look at this. Okay. Let us look at this. This is ooo. Round your lips and say ooo. Please. Ooo. As in English word, port, fort, okay. Forth, f-o, u-r-t-h. What is it? Forth. Court. What is the spelling? C-o-u-r-t. Please describe it. So, we are talking about, this is a symbol inverted. What is this? What is this sound? What sound is indicated by this symbol? Ooo. Round your lips and make it long, but not narrow rounding, broad round. Ooo. As in? As in court. As in fort. As in? Many other words. Forth. Okay. Many other words. All right. How do we describe it? Is it front or back? Please look at the vowel trapezium and tell me. Is it front or back? Back. Please write. Back. Is it open or closed? Is it open or closed? Please come on. Make a mistake. Doesn't matter. It is between, you know, it is actually half open, you know, or you can say closer to half open. Okay. It is half open. Right? Is it rounded or unrounded? Half open and rounded. Okay. On the other hand, take this sound. Ooo. This is Ooo. As in push, put, pull. Okay. Full. Okay. Please give me a description. Put this sound here. What will you say now? As in? As in? Pull. Full. Okay. Against pool and fool. Okay. Push. Push. Lots of words. Is it front or back? Everybody please, the class, entire class please. Are we together? Is it front or back? Back. Back. Okay. Is it open or closed? Half. It is half closed. Rounded or unrounded? Rounded. Please write. It's very simple. Back. Half closed and rounded. All right. Come to this here. Look at this sound. Okay. Can you draw the symbol correctly? It's very easy. Take an inverted E. Inverted E. Okay. And put a proper E back to back. This is as in, as in English words. Cat, back, lack, lack. Okay. Let's describe it as in, as in pat. How shall we describe it? Front or back? Please do risk. Front or back? Front. Close or open? Half open. Rounded or unrounded? Half open. Unrounded. Unrounded. Okay. Anybody please? Any doubts? Okay. Now I won't do it. I want you to do it. Look at this sound. This symbol. Please. Are you able to see the arrow? Yes or no? Please. Okay. Here. This. Are you able to see it? As in, this is the symbol. As in fun. As in fun. As in boss. As in bought. As in cut. You know. Open your mouth fully and close it quickly. Say boss. Please say it. Cut. Fun. Run. Run. Okay. This is the English sound. Okay. How do we describe it? Is it front or back? Here is it. Is it front or back? Central. Is it open or close? It is half open. But closer to open. Is it rounded or unrounded? Unrounded. In this manner we can describe all English vowel sounds. English vowel sounds. I am going to anyway mail it to, you know, this is how I have described it. Okay. I am going to mail it to Mahesh but there is an assignment for you. You know. Please do it. It's an optional assignment but you will learn a great deal. Can you look at the vowels of your mother tongue? Can you look at the vowels of Telugu and bring, at least bring me tomorrow six vowels kindly mail it to me so that I can project it here. And the deadline is before, you know, five o'clock today. Right? Or can I give you Dinesh's email ID? You can mail it to him. Mail it to me. Okay. Or mail it to Mahesh by five o'clock and Mahesh can give it to me. At least six Telugu vowels, six vowels from Malayalam Tamil, whatever your mother tongue, take any six vowels, describe them in this manner. Any questions please? Any questions? Thank you. Have a good day.