Vowel Chart with Sound Files

For Linguistics 103, "Introduction to General Phonetics"

as taught by Bruce Hayes (Department of Linguistics, UCLA)


Purpose

This page demonstrates the IPA vowels as pronounced by Bruce Hayes.  A number of more experienced scholars have also recorded the IPA vowels, and I recommend consulting their work.  In particular, you can hear Peter Ladefoged's versions of the vowels here, and Ladefoged's renditions are compared with those of two other leading phoneticians here.  In addition, the use of the IPA vowel symbols in the description of real languages can be seen scattered through the IPA Handbook Archive, as well as Peter Ladefoged's archive.

The purpose of these particular renditions is simply to provide a help for my own students taking dictation exams from me.

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Getting Started

You can hear the vowels by clicking on the links below.  

Or, click here to obtain this chart in one zipped bundle.  Then you can do something else while it's downloading (about 465 K), instead of waiting for the files one by one.  Once you have the zipped file, put it in a folder, unzip it, and click on Index.htm.  

Please don't try the above if you're uneasy about computers--just go on to the next section.

If you have no Internet connection, or your connection is too slow, you can bring a blank recordable compact disk to my office hours and I will make a copy for you.

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The Vowels

Front
Unrounded

Front
Rounded

Central
Unrounded

Central
Rounded

Back
Unrounded

Back
Rounded

Upper high

Lower high

Upper mid

Lower mid

Upper low

Lower low

f

c

Other:

Central unrounded, between upper and lower mid:  (but traditionally used to designate stressless, reduced vowels.  At some point in the future I will try to add a recording of this vowel, which must be targeted halfway between and .

Comments

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Approximate formant frequencies of the above vowels (Hz)

These were computed at mid-vowel, using the formant tracker and LPC spectrum analysis capacity of Wavesurfer.

Front
Unrounded

Front
Rounded

Central
Unrounded

Central
Rounded
Back
Unrounded
Back
Rounded
Upper high

294
2343
3251

283
2170
2417

293
2186
2507

333
1482
2232

329
1806
2723

295
750
2342

Lower high

360
2187
2830

401
1833
2241

334
910
2300

Upper mid

434
2148
2763

462
1659
2127

415
1955
2421

519
1593
2187

605
1657
2596

406
727
2090

Lower mid

581
1840
2429

546
1604
2032

557
1696
2423

581
1439
2186

707
1354
2289

541
830
2221

Upper low

766
1782
2398

688
1446
2314

Lower low

806
1632
2684

572
1537
1802

784
1211
2702

781
1065
2158

652
843
2011

Below, the "peripheral" vowels of this set are plotted:

As can be seen, the basic arrangement seems right, though the spacing should be made more even for a number of vowels.  The non-peripheral vowels are more problematic (see this spreadsheet for why), and I hope to record more accurate versions when I have the time.

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If the sound files don't play

Download a free waveform player on the Web.  For Windows, I've had the best luck with the Windows Media Player, available here. I don't know much about Macs, but one possibility is WinAmp, available here.  For both Windows and Mac, there are many other players as well.

If all is going smoothly, the files will simply play when you click on them. But you may find that instead, your software for playing files will pop up on the screen. This will slow you down, but only by a little. Click the Play button on this software (it usually looks like the Play button on a tape recorder). If you can't locate an interface with a Play button on your computer screen, try minimizing the browser window (it might be lurking underneath).

Please contact me at if you're still having trouble with the sound files.

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