Vowel series

Here is the vowel tension charts of vowel sets that I recently derived.

Source document: Vowel Tension Paths (Google Docs)

This is my second Vowel Model hypothesis, which has problems. View the others via the buttons below.

Vowel Model v1

Vowel Model v2 (this page)

Vowel Model v3 (latest)

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Vowel Model version 2

This is my second Vowel Model hypothesis, which has problems. View the others via the buttons above.

Vowel Model v3 is currently the most stable and symmetrical.

A series: aɪ – ɑː – ʌ – ə

This is A like in star, far, bar, car.

Standard: aɪ – ɑː – ʌ – ə

CUBE: ɑj – ɑː – ʌ – ə

Rhotic: ɑj – ɑɹ – ʌ – ə

diphthong	long, tense ah	short, relaxed uh
kite /kɑjt/	cart – /kɑːt/	cut /kʌt/

• /ɑː/ is tense & long

• /ʌ/ is relaxed & short

Standard	aɪ	a	ʌ	ə
CUBE	ɑj	ɑː	ʌ	ə
Rhotic	ɑj	ɑɹ	ʌ	ə
difference	glide	tense, longer	relaxed, shorter
example	kite	cart	cut

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E series: ɛj – ɛə – ɛ – ə

This is E like in bed, ten, spell.

Standard: ɛj – ɛə – ɛ – ə

CUBE: ɛj – ɛə – ɛ – ə

Rhotic: ɛj – ɛɚ – ɛ – ə

diphthong	long, tense eh	short, relaxed e
bait /bɛjt/	bear /bɛə/	bed /bɛd/

• /ɛə/ is tense & long

• /ɛ/ is relaxed & short

Note that there is a characteristic difference here between the British Englishes and the American Englishes: the diphthong /ɛə/ is a closing diphthong in British English, while it’s an opening diphthong /eə/ in American English.

Real speech:

Many accents simplify the /ɛə/ diphthong into a simple long vowel, /ɛː/ or /eː/. In a Rhotic accent, this may manifest as /ɛ˞ ː/ or /e˞ ː/. This is the same effect as with /ɪə/ becoming long, /ɪː/ (see Diphthongs).

bait /bɛjt/ – bear /bɛː/ – bed /bɛd/

standard		ɛɪ	ɛə/eə	ɛ	ə/ɚ
modern	stressed	ɛj	ɛə	ɛ	ə/ɚ
	strong	ɛj	ɛː	ɛ	ə/ɚ
	weak	ej	eː	e	ə/ɚ
difference		glide	tense, longer	relaxed, shorter
example		they	there	then

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I series: iː – ɪ – ə

This is i like in big, trick, spin.

CUBE: ɪj – ɪ – ə

long, tense ee (also a diphthong)	short, relaxed ih
seat /sɪjt/	sit /sɪt/

• /ɪj/ is tense & long

• /ɪ/ is relaxed & short

standard	iː	ɪ	ə
modern	ɪj	ɪ	ə
difference	tense, longer	relaxed, shorter
example	seat	sit

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O series: oj – oː – ɔ – ə

This is O like in top, stop, pond.

Standard: ɔɪ – ɔː – ɒ – ə

CUBE: oj – oː – ɔ – ə

Rhotic: oj – oɹ – ɔ – ə

diphthong	long, tense aw	short, relaxed o
boy /boj/	bought /boːt/	robot /ɹɜʉ.bɔt/

• /oː/ is tense & long

• /ɔ/ is relaxed & short

standard	ɔɪ	ɔː	ɒ	ə
modern	oj	oː	ɔ	ə
difference	glide	tense, longer	relaxed, shorter
example	boy	bought	robot

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U series: uː – ʊ – ə

This is U like /uː/, /uw/, /ɵʉ/.

The sound of its name, "U" is "you", /juː/.

Ironically, the letter U by itself never makes this sound in English.

The letter U makes /ʊ,ɵ/ and /ʌ/.

Paired with E, it produces its namesake sound, /juː/.

The pure /uː/ sound comes from oo, ou, ough.

Standard: uː – ʊ – ə

CUBE: ʉw – ɵ – ə

Better: ɵʉ – ɵ – ə

long, tense oo (also is a diphthong)	short, relaxed ooh
food /fɵʉd/	good /gɵd/

• /ɵʉ/ is tense & long

• /ɵ/ is relaxed & short

-ure produces /ɵɹ/ in Rhotic accents, and long/tense /ɵː/ in non-Rhotic accents:

• pure, cure, injure, jury, adventure, sure

standard	uː	ʊ	ə
modern	uw	ɵ	ə
difference	tense, longer	relaxed, shorter
example	food	good

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Ə series: a – ɜː – ə

Here I’ve merged the orphaned sets of a–aw and ɜː–ə.

I’m not sure if it’s valid but it does work spatially on the graph. They could be related also in that stressed ER is /ɜː/, and unstressed ER and unstressed A are both /ə/.

• ɜː is a tense, elongated schwa.

• a is a tense but short sound, the default value of ⟨a⟩. ⟨a⟩ is the first to become the schwa /ə/ sound.

In Rhotic accents, stressed ER is /ɜ˞ ː/ or /ɚː/, unstressed ER is /ɚ/ and unstressed A is /ə/.

There is some asymmetry compared to the other vowel sets, in that the vowel at the mid-point along the path is long instead of the vowel at the end point… But this may be to distinguish it from the schwa position, as it’s really similar, and is even identical in many accents.

In summary these vowels may not really bear a true relationship. However, all the other vowels are connected via this relationship, and the two sounds that I've put into this set are both orphaned. So it works even just as a way to store them apart from the other vowels.

short, wide a	long, tense er	short, relaxed schwa
sat /sat/	certain /ˈsɜː.tʰən/	a: about /əˈbaʉt/ er: hunger /ˈhʌŋ.ɡə/

standard	aʊ	æ	ɜː	ə
modern	aw	a	ɜː	ə
difference	glide	tense, shorter	tense, longer
example	sound	sat	certain	a: about /əˈbaʉt/ er: hunger /ˈhʌŋ.ɡə/

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