Jj is for Jottings 101.  Vowel Shapes.

 

When I say “vowel shapes”, I am referring to the shape made by the mouth when saying a particular vowel.  We have talked earlier about discriminating between vowels and vowel discrimination activities, but I didn’t mention vowel shapes because we were talking about auditory discrimination.  The visual aspects were not necessary in that context.

VOWEL SHAPES ARE NOT SET IN CONCRETE.

In point of fact, there are no hard and fast vowel shapes, but there are general trends which are useful to know about. “Why on earth would that be useful?” I hear you asking.  Well, most of us could go happily through our entire lives without knowing about vowel shapes, but it becomes important during speech therapy for sounds and in singing. It is also useful in the area of literacy, in particular when learning phonics (sound-letter links).  Anyway, we all speak, so it is handy to know a little more about what are doing unconsciously all the time.

HOW VOWELS ARE PRODUCED.

It is fairly easy to understand how we produce some consonants since they are quite visible or have obvious points of contact between different parts of the mouth (articulators).  Other consonants would need some explanation and feeling around in the mouth, looking in a mirror etc.  The vowels are a bit of a mystery, because there is no contact between the articulators and therefore no obstruction to the sound coming from the larynx. So there is nothing particularly visible to go by.

Vowel sounds are made principally by the position of the tongue in the mouth.  Very simply, it is a matter of the height of the tongue in the mouth and how front or back the tongue is.  There is also the third element of lip rounding – how pushed out the lips are, such as in the /oo/ sound in “boot”.  This is where the issue of vowel shapes comes into the picture.  The lip aspect is less important: I can say all vowels clearly with absolutely minimal lip movement, but that’s neither normal nor desirable.  But it does prove that tongue position is the most important aspect of vowel production.

A USEFUL QUOTE FOR VOWEL SHAPES.

When I was a student, one of my friends had been an elocution teacher in England.  (She used to swear – occasionally – with the most delightful plummy English accent, so that it didn’t sound like swearing at all!)  She taught me a very useful saying: “Who would know aught of art must work and then take his ease”.  (“aught” = “anything”)  While it doesn’t cover ALL the vowels, it includes most of them.  More importantly, it goes through in succession from high back vowels down to more neutral vowels in the middle of the mouth.  Then it turns the corner at about “must” and works its way back upwards, ending with the high front vowels.  It forms a big U shape from the back of the mouth to the front. Funnily enough, this sentence doesn’t include the neutral vowel schwa; “art” and “must” are the most neutral here.

You will find when you say this sentence that your lip shape will change with the U curve.  You will begin with your lips pushed forwards for the high back vowels.  Your lips will become more neutral in the middle when your tongue is low in the centre of your mouth. As you head back upwards in the front of the mouth your lips will be spread towards a smiley position.

NOW YOU HAVE THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION….

Next time, we will talk about how vowel shape can affect consonant production in speech therapy.  We will also discuss how vowel shapes can help with learning sound-letter links.

 

 

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