For
Linguistics
103, "Introduction to General Phonetics"
as taught by Bruce
Hayes (Department of
Linguistics, UCLA)
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.
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.
Front |
Front |
Central |
Central |
Back |
Back |
|
Upper high | ||||||
Lower high | ||||||
Upper mid | ||||||
Lower mid | ||||||
Upper low | ||||||
Lower low |
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
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 |
Front |
Central |
Central Rounded |
Back Unrounded |
Back Rounded |
|
Upper high |
294 |
283 |
293 |
333 |
329 |
295 |
Lower high |
360 |
401 |
334 |
|||
Upper mid |
434 |
462 |
415 |
519 |
605 |
406 |
Lower mid |
581 |
546 |
557 |
581 |
707 |
541 |
Upper low |
766 |
688 |
||||
Lower low |
806 |
572 |
784 |
781 |
652 |
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.
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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