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Roundedness

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This article is about roundedness in vowels. For roundedness in consonants, seeLabialization.For other uses, seeroundness (disambiguation).
This article is about labial rounding. For internal rounding, seesulcalization.
This article containsphonetic transcriptionsin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.For the distinction between[ ],/ /and ⟨⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Inphonetics,vowel roundednessis the amount of rounding in thelipsduring the articulation of avowel.It islabializationof a vowel. When aroundedvowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, andunroundedvowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages,front vowelstend to be unrounded, andback vowelstend to be rounded. However, some languages, such asFrench,GermanandIcelandic,distinguish rounded and unrounded front vowels of the sameheight(degree of openness), andVietnamesedistinguishes rounded and unrounded back vowels of the same height.Alekanohas only unrounded vowels.[1]In theInternational Phonetic Alphabetvowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each pair of vowels. There are also diacritics,U+0339◌̹COMBINING RIGHT HALF RING BELOWandU+031C◌̜COMBINING LEFT HALF RING BELOW,to indicate greater and lesser degrees of rounding, respectively. Thus[o̜]has less rounding than cardinal[o],and[o̹]has more (closer to the rounding of cardinal[u]). These diacritics can also be used with unrounded vowels:[ɛ̜]is more spread than cardinal[ɛ],and[ɯ̹]is less spread than cardinal[ɯ].[2]

Types of rounding[edit]

Example 1
Protruded rounding
Compressed rounding
Example 2
Protruded rounding
Compressed rounding

There are two types of vowel rounding:protrusionandcompression.[3][4][5]In protruded rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together and the lips protrude like a tube, with their inner surface visible. In compressed rounding, the corners of the mouth are drawn together, but the lips are also drawn together horizontally ( "compressed" ) and do not protrude, with only their outer surface visible. That is, in protruded vowels the inner surfaces of the lips form the opening (thus the alternate termendolabial), whereas in compressed vowels it is the margins of the lips which form the opening (thusexolabial).Catford (1982,p. 172) observes that back and central rounded vowels, such as German/o/and/u/,are typically protruded, whereas front rounded vowels such as German/ø/and/y/are typically compressed. Back or central compressed vowels and front protruded vowels are uncommon,[6]and a contrast between the two types has been found to be phonemic in only one instance.[7]

There are no dedicated IPA diacritics to represent the distinction, but the superscript IPA letter ⟨◌ᵝ⟩ or ⟨◌ᶹ⟩ can be used for compression[8]and ⟨◌ʷ⟩ for protrusion. Compressed vowels may be pronounced either with the corners of the mouth drawn in, by some definitions rounded, or with the corners spread and, by the same definitions, unrounded. The distinction may be transcribed ⟨ʉᵝ uᵝ⟩ vs ⟨ɨᵝ ɯᵝ⟩ (or ⟨ʉᶹ uᶹ⟩ vs ⟨ɨᶹ ɯᶹ⟩).[9]

The distinction between protruded[u]and compressed[y]holds for thesemivowels[w]and[ɥ]as well as labialization. InAkan,for example, the[ɥ]is compressed, as arelabio-palatalizedconsonants as inTwi[tɕᶣi̘]"Twi" andadwuma[adʑᶣu̘ma]"work", whereas[w]and simply labialized consonants are protruded.[10]In Japanese, the/w/is compressed rather than protruded, paralleling the Japanese/u/.The distinction applies marginally to other consonants. InSouthern Teke,the sole language reported to have a phonemic/ɱ/,the labiodental sound is "accompanied by strong protrusion of both lips",[11]whereas the[ɱ]found as anallophoneof/m/before/f,v/in languages such as English is not protruded, as the lip contacts the teeth along its upper or outer edge. Also, in at least one account ofspeech acquisition,a child's pronunciation ofclowninvolves a lateral[f]with the upper teeth contacting the upper-outer edge of the lip, but incrown,a non-lateral[f]is pronounced with the teeth contacting the inner surface of the protruded lower lip.[12]

Some vowels transcribed with rounded IPA letters may not be rounded at all. An example is/ɒ/,the vowel oflot,which inReceived Pronunciationhas very little if any rounding of the lips. The "throaty" sound of the vowel is instead accomplished withsulcalization,a furrowing of the back of the tongue also found in/ɜː/,the vowel ofnurse.[13]

It is possible to mimic the acoustic effect of rounded vowels by narrowing the cheeks, so-called "cheek rounding", which is inherent in back protruded (but not front compressed) vowels. The technique is used by ventriloquists to mask the visible rounding of back vowels like[u].[14]It is not clear if it is used by languages with rounded vowels that do not use visible rounding.

Unrounded, compressed and protruded vowels
Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Semivowel jɥɥʷ j̈ɥ̈ẅ[15] ɰɰᶹ/wᵝw
Close iyyʷ ɨÿʉ[16] ɯɯᶹ/uᵝu
Near-close ɪʏʏʷ ɪ̈ʏ̈ʊ̈ ɯ̽ɯ̽ᶹ/ʊᵝʊ
Close-mid eøøʷ ɘø̈ɵ ɤɤᶹ/oᵝo
Mid e̞ø̞ø̞ʷ əø̞̈ɵ̞ ɤ̞ɤ̞ᶹ/o̞ᵝo̞
Open-mid ɛœœʷ ɜœ̈ɞ ʌʌᶹ/ɔᵝɔ

Of the open-mid vowels,[œʷ]occurs in Swedish and Norwegian. Central[œ̈]and back[ʌᶹ]have not been reported to occur in any language.

Spread and neutral[edit]

The lip position of unrounded vowels may be classified into two groups:spreadandneutral.Front vowels are usually pronounced with the lips spread, and the spreading becomes more significant as the height of the vowel increases.[17]Open vowels are often neutral, i.e. neither rounded nor spread, because the open jaw allows for limited rounding or spreading of the lips.[18]This is reflected in the IPA's definition of thecardinal[a],which is unrounded yet not spread either.[19]

Roundedness and labialization[edit]

Protruded rounding is the vocalic equivalent of consonantallabialization.Thus, rounded vowels and labialized consonants affect one another byphonetic assimilation:Rounded vowels labialize consonants, and labialized consonants round vowels.

In many languages, such effects are minor phonetic detail, but in others, they become significant. For example, inStandard Chinese,the vowel/ɔ/is pronounced[u̯ɔ]after labial consonants,[citation needed]an allophonic effect that is so important that it is encoded inpinyintransliteration: alveolar/tu̯ɔ˥/[twó](Nhiều;duō) 'many' vs. labial/pu̯ɔ˥/[pwó](Sóng;bō) 'wave'. InVietnamese,the opposite assimilation takes place: velar codas/k/and/ŋ/are pronounced as labialized[kʷ]and[ŋʷ]or evenlabial-velar[kp]and[ŋm],after the rounded vowels/u/and/o/.[citation needed]

In theNorthwest Caucasian languagesof the Caucasus and theSepik languagesofPapua New Guinea,historically rounded vowels have become unrounded, with the rounding being taken up by the consonant. Thus, Sepik[ku]and[ko]are phonemically/kwɨ/and/kwə/.[citation needed]

In the extinctUbykh,[ku]and[ko]were phonemically/kʷə/and/kʷa/.[citation needed]A few ancientIndo-European languageslikeLatinhad labiovelar consonants.[20]

Phonemic roundedness in English[edit]

Vowel pairs differentiated by roundedness can be found in someBritishdialects (such as theCardiff dialect,GeordieandPort Talbot English) as well as in GeneralSouth African English.They involve a contrastive pair ofclose-mid vowels,with the unrounded vowel being eitherSQUARE/ɛər/or a monophthongalFACE/eɪ/and the rounded counterpart beingNURSE/ɜːr/.Contrasts based on roundedness are rarely categorical in English and they may be enhanced by additional differences in height, backness or diphthongization.[21][22][23][24]

FACE,SQUAREandNURSEin some dialects
Accent Vowel Notes
FACE SQUARE NURSE
Cardiff[25] [ei] [eː] [øː] SQUAREmay be open-mid[ɛː].[26]
GeneralSAE[23] [eɪ] [eː] [øː]
Geordie[24] [eː] [ɛː] [øː] FACEmay be diphthongal[ɪə~eɪ],whereas
NURSEmay be back[ɔː]or unrounded[ɪː~ɜː].[24][27]
Port Talbot[22] [eː] [ɛː] [øː] The accent does not feature thepane–pain merger.[28]

In addition, contemporary Standard Southern British English as well asWestern Pennsylvania EnglishcontrastSTRUTwithLOTmostly by rounding. An example of a minimal pairs isnutvs.not.The vowels are open-mid[ʌ,ɔ]in the former dialect and open[ɑ,ɒ]in the latter. In Western Pennsylvania English, theLOTclass also includes theTHOUGHTclass (seecot-caught merger) and thePALMone (seefather-bother merger). In addition,LOTmay be longer thanSTRUTdue to its being afree vowel:[ɒː].In SSBE, these are all distinct andLOTis a checked vowel. InScottish English,the two vowels tend to be realized as[ʌ]and[ɔ],respectively. The latter often includes theTHOUGHTclass as the cot-caught merger is common in Scotland. IfTHOUGHTis distinct, it is realized as[ɔ],whereasLOTis lowered to[ɒ]or raised to[o̞].This means that whilenought[nɔʔ]contrasts withnut[nʌʔ]by rounding,notmay have a different vowel[nɒʔ~no̞ʔ].In addition, all three vowels are short in Scotland (seeScottish vowel length rule), unless followed by a voiced fricative whereTHOUGHT(andLOT,if they are merged) is long, as in England.[29][30][31]

STRUT,LOTandTHOUGHTin some dialects
Accent Vowel Notes
STRUT LOT THOUGHT
Scottish English[29] [ʌ] [ɔ(ː)~ɒ~o̞] [ɔ(ː)] LOToften merges withTHOUGHT.
Standard Southern British English[31] [ʌ] [ɔ] [o̞ː]
Western Pennsylvania English[30] [ɑ] [ɒ(ː)] TheLOTclass also includesTHOUGHTandPALM.

General South African English is unique among accents of English in that it can feature up to three front rounded vowels, with two of them having unrounded counterparts.[23]

Long front vowels in General SAE[32]
Height Unr. vowel Rnd. vowel Notes
lexical set realization lexical set realization
Close FLEECE [iː] GOOSE [yː] GOOSEmay be central[ʉː].
Close-mid SQUARE [eː] NURSE [øː]
Open-mid (unpaired) GOAT [œː] GOATmay be diphthongal[œɤ̈].

The potential contrast between the close-mid[øː]and the open-mid[œː]is hard to perceive by outsiders, making utterances such asthe total onslaught[ðəˈtœːtl̩ˈɒnsloːt]sound almost likethe turtle onslaught[ðəˈtøːtl̩ˈɒnsloːt].[33]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Deibler (1992).
  2. ^'Further report on the 1989 Kiel Convention',Journal of the International Phonetic Association20:2 (December 1990), p. 23.
  3. ^Protrusion is also calledendolabial,lip-pouting,horizontal lip-rounding,outrounding,orinner rounding(Trask 1996,p. 180).
  4. ^Compression is also calledexolabial,pursed,vertical lip-rounding,inrounding,orouter rounding(Trask 1996,p. 252).
  5. ^Henry Sweetnoted in 1890 that "the term 'inner rounding' derives from the use of the inner surfaces of the lips; the synonymous 'outrounding' derives from the forward projection of the lips. Both terms are justifiable, but their coexistence is likely to lead to serious confusion." (Trask 1996,p. 180)
  6. ^Sweet (1877)noted that they are less distinctive from unrounded vowels than their counterparts.
  7. ^Japanesehas a back compressed[ɯᵝ]rather than protruded[u](Okada 1999,p. 118);Swedishalso has a back compressed[ɯᵝ]⟨o⟩as well as both front compressed[y]⟨u⟩and front protruded[yʷ]⟨y⟩(Engstrand 1999,p. 141); the front rounded vowels contrast inruta'window pane' andryta'roar' (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996,p. 292).
  8. ^E.g. ⟨ɨᵝ⟩ inFlemming (2002,p. 83); the IPAHandbookrecommends that ⟨ᶹ⟩ "might be used" for "a secondary reduction of the lip opening accompanied by neither protrusion nor velar constriction".
  9. ^Occasionally other symbols may be used, such as protruded⟨ỿ⟩([yʷ]) and compressed⟨ꝡ⟩([ɰᵝ]). To avoid the implication that the superscript represents an off-glide, it might be placed above the base letter: ⟨yᷱ, ɯᷩ⟩. Ladefoged & Maddieson use old IPA ⟨◌̫⟩ for protrusion (w-like labialization without velarization), whileKelly & Local (1989,p. 154) use w ⟨◌ᪿ⟩ for protrusion (e.g. ⟨øᪿ⟩) and a reversed w ⟨◌ᫀ⟩ for compression (e.g. ⟨uᫀ⟩). This recalls an old IPA convention of rounding an unrounded vowel letter likeiwith a subscript Omega, and unrounding a rounded letter likeuwith a turned Omega (Jespersen & Pedersen 1926: 19).
  10. ^Dolphyne (1988).
  11. ^Paulian (1975).
  12. ^Kelly & Local (1989),p. 41.
  13. ^Lass (1984),p. 124.
  14. ^Sweet (1877),pp. 14, 20.
  15. ^Pullum & Ladusaw (1996),p. 191.
  16. ^Both[ÿ]and[ü]have been mentioned at various times inInternational Phonetic Association (1999),without comment on the implied difference in rounding.
  17. ^Westerman & Ward (2015),p. 27.
  18. ^Robins (2014),p. 90.
  19. ^International Phonetic Association (1999),p. 13.
  20. ^Allen (1978).
  21. ^Collins & Mees (1990),pp. 88, 95.
  22. ^abConnolly (1990),pp. 122–123, 125.
  23. ^abcLass (2002).
  24. ^abcWatt & Allen (2003),p. 269.
  25. ^Collins & Mees (1990),pp. 88, 95–97.
  26. ^Collins & Mees (1990),p. 95.
  27. ^Wells (1982),p. 375.
  28. ^Connolly (1990),pp. 122–123.
  29. ^abWells (1982),pp. 399–403.
  30. ^abLabov, Ash & Boberg (2006),pp. 88–9.
  31. ^abCruttenden (2014),pp. 122, 126–128, 130.
  32. ^Lass (2002),pp. 116, 118–119.
  33. ^Lass (2002),p. 118.

References[edit]

  • Allen, W. Sidney (1978).Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin(2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-37936-9.
  • Catford, J. C(1982).Fundamental Problems in Phonetics.Indiana University Press.ISBN0-25320294-9.
  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990). "The Phonetics of Cardiff English". In Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.).English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change.Multilingual Matters Ltd. pp. 87–103.ISBN1-85359-032-0.
  • Connolly, John H. (1990). "Port Talbot English". In Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.).English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change.Multilingual Matters Ltd. pp. 121–129.ISBN1-85359-032-0.
  • Cruttenden, Alan (2014).Gimson's Pronunciation of English(8th ed.). Routledge.ISBN9781444183092.
  • Deibler, Ellis (1992)."Alekano Organised Phonology Data".
  • Dolphyne, Florence Abena(1988).The Akan (Twi-Fante) Language: Its Sound Systems and Tonal Structure.Ghana Universities Press.ISBN9964-3-0159-6.
  • Engstrand, Olle (1999). "Swedish".Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.Cambridge University Press. pp. 140–142.ISBN0-52163751-1.
  • Flemming, Edward S. (2002).Auditory Representations in Phonology.Routledge.ISBN0-81534041-9.
  • International Phonetic Association(1999).Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-52163751-1.
  • Kelly, John; Local, John (1989).Doing Phonology: Observing, Recording, Interpreting.Manchester University Press.ISBN0-7190-2894-9.
  • Labov, William;Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006).The Atlas of North American English.Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter. pp. 187–208.ISBN978-3-11-016746-7.
  • Ladefoged, Peter;Maddieson, Ian(1996).The Sounds of the World's Languages.Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN0-631-19815-6.
  • Lass, Roger (1984).Phonology: An Introduction to Basic Concepts.Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-28183-0.
  • Lass, Roger (2002). "South African English". In Mesthrie, Rajend (ed.).Language in South Africa.Cambridge University Press.ISBN9780521791052.
  • Okada, Hideo (1999). "Japanese".Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.Cambridge University Press. pp. 117–119.ISBN0-52163751-1.
  • Paulian, Christiane (1975). "Le Kukuya, langue teke du Congo: phonologie – classes nominales".Bibliothèque de la SELAF.49–50.
  • Pullum, Geoffrey K.;Ladusaw, William A. (1996).Phonetic Symbol Guide(2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.ISBN0-226-68536-5.
  • Robins, R. H. (2014).General Linguistics(4th ed.). Routledge.ISBN978-0-582-29144-7.
  • Sweet, Henry(1877).A Handbook of Phonetics.Clarendon Press.
  • Trask, R. L. (1996).A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology.Routledge.ISBN0-415-11260-5.
  • Watt, Dominic; Allen, William (2003)."Tyneside English".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.33(2): 267–271.doi:10.1017/S0025100303001397.S2CID195784010.
  • Wells, John C.(1982).Accents of English.Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466). Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759.ISBN0-52128540-2.
  • Westerman, D.; Ward, Ida C. (2015) [1933].Practical Phonetics for Students of African Languages.Routledge.ISBN978-1-138-92604-2.

External links[edit]

  • The dictionary definition ofendolabialat Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition ofexolabialat Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition ofunroundedat Wiktionary
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