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Vowel Backness

Vowel backness

In phonetics, vowel backness is the position of the tongue relative to the back of the mouth in a vowel sound. The second formant of a vowel (F2) usually corresponds to vowel backness, with a lower F2 corresponding to a back vowel and a higher F2 corresponding to a front vowel. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies 5 different degrees of vowel backness, although no known language distinguishes all 5:
- front vowel
- near-front vowel
- central vowel
- near-back vowel
- back vowel

Phonetics

:This article is about linguistics. For the voicemail transcription service, see Phonetic (service) Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). It is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones) as well as those of non-speech sounds, and their production, audition and perception, as opposed to phonology, which operates at the level of sound systems and abstract sound units (such as phonemes and distinctive features). Phonetics deals with the sounds themselves rather than the contexts in which they are used in languages. Discussions of meaning (semantics) therefore do not enter at this level of linguistic analysis. While writing systems and alphabets are in many cases closely related to the sounds of speech, strictly speaking, phoneticians are more concerned with the sounds of speech than the symbols used to represent them. So close is the relationship between them however, that many dictionaries list the study of the symbols (more accurately semiotics) as a part of phonetic studies. On the other hand, logographic writing systems typically give much less phonetic information, but the information is not necessarily non-existent. For instance, in Chinese characters, a phonetic refers to the portion of the character that hints at its pronunciation, while the radical refers to the portion that serves as a semantic hint. Characters featuring the same phonetic typically have similar pronunciations, but by no means are the pronunciations predictably determined by the phonetic due to the fact that pronunciations diverged over many centuries while the characters remained the same. Not all Chinese characters are radical-phonetic compounds, but a good majority of them are. Phonetics has three main branches:
- articulatory phonetics, concerned with the positions and movements of the lips, tongue, vocal tract and folds and other speech organs in producing speech
- acoustic phonetics, concerned with the properties of the sound waves and how they are received by the inner ear
- auditory phonetics, concerned with speech perception, principally how the brain forms perceptual representations of the input it receives. There are over a hundred different phones recognized as distinctive by the International Phonetic Association (IPA) and transcribed in their International Phonetic Alphabet. Phonetics was studied as early as 2500 years ago in ancient India, where there existed numerous phonetically extremely accurate treatises on the orthoepy of Sanskrit and a Tamil grammar book Tolkāppiyam (c. fifth century BCE) that described the place and manner of articulation of consonants. Most Indian languages group and order their consonants based on place and methods of articulation.

External links and references

- [http://www2.unil.ch/ling/english/phonetique/table-eng.html On-line phonetics course]
- [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Summer_2004/ling001/lecture2.html The sounds and sound patterns of language] U Penn
- [http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/ UCLA lab data]
- [http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/ UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive]
- [http://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/phonetik/EGG/page1.htm EGG and Voice Quality] (electroglottography, phonation, etc.)
- [http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/handbook.htm IPA handbook]
- [http://www.ling.lu.se/research/speechtutorial/tutorial.html Speech Analysis Tutorial]

Bibliography

- Catford, J. C. (1977). Fundamental problems in phonetics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-32520-X.
- Clark, John; & Yallop, Colin. (1995). An introduction to phonetics and phonology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19452-5.
- Hardcastle, William J.; & Laver, John (Eds.). (1997). The handbook of phonetic sciences. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-6311-8848-7.
- Ladefoged, Peter. (1982). A course in phonetics (2nd ed.). London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Ladefoged, Peter. (2003). Phonetic data analysis: An introduction to fieldwork and instrumental techniques. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23269-9 (hbk); ISBN 0-631-23270-2 (pbk).
- Ladefoged, Peter; & Maddieson, Ian. (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19814-8 (hbk); ISBN 0-631-19815-6 (pbk).
- Maddieson, Ian. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge studies in speech science and communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Pike, Kenneth L. (1943). Phonetics: A critical analysis of phonetic theory and a technic for the practical description of sounds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
- Pisoni, David B.; & Remez, Robert E. (Eds.). (2004). The handbook of speech perception. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-6312-2927-2.
- Rogers, Henry. (2000). The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics. Harlow, Essex: Pearson. ISBN 0-582-38182-7.
- Stevens, Kenneth N. (1998). Acoustic phonetics. Current studies in linguistics (No. 30). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0-2621-9404-X.
- ko:음성학 ja:音声学

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract where there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. The additional requirement is that vowels function as syllabic units: it is this criterion that distinguishes vowels from semivowels (and approximants, which in some languages may be slightly more constricted). In most languages, vowels usually form the nucleus or peak of a syllable, whereas consonants form the onset and coda. However, some languages allow sounds that wouldn't normally be classified as vowels to form the nucleus of a syllable, such as the sound of l in the English word table (the final e is not pronounced), or the sound of r in the Czech word vrba (meaning "willow"). The non-vowel sounds that may function as syllable nuclei are called sonorants. (In some languages, such as Tashlhyt Berber and Oowekyala, non-sonorant consonants can also form the nucleus of a syllable.) The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis, meaning "uttering voice" or "speaking".

Articulation

The articulatory features that distinguish different vowels in a language are said to determine the vowel's quality. Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels in terms of the common features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundedness (lip position). These three parameters are indicated in the schematic IPA vowel diagram on right. There are however still more possible features of vowel quality, such the velum position (nasality), type of vocal fold vibration (phonation), and tongue root position.

Height

Height refers to either the vertical position of the tongue relative to the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the jaw. In high vowels, such as i] and u], the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, whereas in low vowels, such as a], the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. Sometimes the terms open and close are used as synonyms for low and high for describing vowels. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies seven different vowel heights, although no known language distinguishes all seven:
- close vowel (high vowel)
- near-close vowel
- close-mid vowel
- mid vowel
- open-mid vowel
- near-open vowel
- open vowel (low vowel) It may be that some varieties of have five contrasting heights. The Bavarian dialect of Amstetten has thirteen long vowels, reported to be distinguished as four heights (close, close-mid, mid, and near-open) among the front unrounded, front rounded, and back rounded vowels, plus an open central vowel: . Otherwise, the usual limit on the number of vowel heights is four. The parameter of vowel height appears to be the most primary feature of vowels cross-linguistically in that all languages use height constrastively. The other possible parameters, such as backness and roundedness (explained below), are not used in all languages.

Backness

Backness refers to the horizontal tongue position during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth. In front vowels, such as , the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth, whereas in back vowels, such as , the tongue is positioned towards the back of the mouth. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies five different degrees of vowel backness, although no known language distinguishes all five:
- front vowel
- near-front vowel
- central vowel
- near-back vowel
- back vowel The highest number of constrastive degrees of backness is 3.

Roundedness

Roundedness refers to whether the lips are rounded or not. In most languages, roundedness is a reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels, and not distinctive. Usually the higher a back vowel, the more intense the rounding. However, some languages treat roundedness and backness separately, such as French and German (with front rounded vowels), most Uralic languages ( has a rounding contrast for /o/ and front vowels), Turkic languages (with an unrounded /u/), Vietnamese (with back unrounded vowels), and Korean (with a contrast in both front and back vowels). Nonetheless, even in languages such as German and Vietnamese, there is usually some correlation between rounding and backness: Front rounded vowels tend to be less front than front unrounded vowels, and back unrounded vowels tend to be less back than back rounded vowels. That is, the placement of unrounded vowels to the left of rounded vowels on the IPA vowel chart is reflective of their typical position. Different kinds of labialization are also possible. The /u/, for example, is not rounded like English /u/, where the lips are protruded (or pursed), but neither are the lips spread to the sides as they are for unrounded vowels. Rather, they are compressed in both directions, leaving a slot between the lips for the air to escape. (See Vowel roundedness for illustrations.) Swedish is one of the few languages where this feature is contrastive, have both protruded-lip and compressed-lip high front vowels. In many treatments, both are considered a type of rounding, and are often called endolabial rounding (pursed, where the insides of the lips approach each other) and exolabial rounding (compressed, where the margins of the lips approach each other). However, other phoneticians do not believe that these are subsets of a single phenomenon of rounding, and prefer instead the three independent terms rounded, compressed, and spread (for unrounded).

Nasalization

Nasalization refers to whether some of the air escapes through the nose. In nasal vowels, the velum is lowered, and some air travels through the nasal cavity as well as the mouth. An oral vowel is a vowel in which all air escapes through the mouth. French, Polish and Portuguese contrast nasal and oral vowels.

Phonation

Voicing describes whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. Most languages only have voiced vowels, but several Native American languages, such as Cheyenne and Totonac, contrast voiced and devoiced vowels. Vowels are devoiced in whispered speech. As in Japanese and Quebec French, vowels that are between voiceless consonants are often devoiced. Modal voice, creaky voice, and breathy voice (murmured vowels) are phonation types that are used contrastively in some languages. Often, these co-occur with tone or stress distinctions; in the Mon language, vowels pronounced in the high tone are also produced with creaky voice. In cases like this, it can be unclear whether it is the tone, the voicing type, or the pairing of the two that is being used for phonemic contrast. This combination of phonetic cues (i.e. phonation, tone, stress) is known as register or register complex.

Tongue root retraction

Advanced tongue root (ATR) is a feature common across much of Africa. The contrast between advanced and retracted tongue root resembles the tense/lax contrast acoustically, but they are articulated differently. ATR vowels involve noticeable tension in the vocal tract.

Secondary narrowings in the vocal tract

Pharyngealized vowels occur in some languages; Sedang uses this contrast, as do the Tungusic languages. Pharyngealisation is similar in articulation to retracted tongue root, but is acoustically distinct. A stronger degree of pharyngealisation occur in the Northeast Caucasian languages and the Khoisan languages. These might be called epiglottalized, since the primary constriction is at the tip of the epiglottis. The greatest degree of pharyngealisation is found in the strident vowels of the Khoisan languages, where the larynx is raised, and the pharynx constricted, so that either the epiglottis or the arytenoid cartilages vibrate instead of the vocal chords. Note that the terms pharyngealized, epiglottalized, strident, and sphincteric are sometimes used interchangeably.

Rhotic vowels

Rhotic vowels are the "ar-colored vowels" of English and a few other languages.

Tenseness/checked vowels vs. free vowels

Tenseness is used to describe the opposition of tense vowels as in leap, suit vs. lax vowels as in lip, soot. This opposition has traditionally been thought to be a result of greater muscular tension, though phonetic experiments have repeatedly failed to show this. Unlike the other features of vowel quality, tenseness is only applicable to the few languages that have this opposition (mainly Germanic languages, e.g. English), whereas the vowels of the other languages (e.g. Spanish) cannot be described with respect to tenseness in any meaningful way. In most Germanic languages, lax vowels can only occur in closed syllables. Therefore, they're also known as checked vowels, whereas the tense vowels are called free vowels since they can occur in any kind of syllable.

Acoustics

free vowel The acoustics of vowels are fairly well-understood. The different vowel qualities are realized in acoustic analyses of vowels by the relative values of the formants, acoustic resonances of the vocal tract which show up as dark bands on a spectrogram. The vocal tract acts as a resonant cavity, and the position of the jaw, lips, and tongue affect the parameters of the resonant cavity, resulting in different formant values. The acoustics of vowels can be visualized using spectrograms, which display the acoustic energy at each frequency, and how this changes with time. The first formant, abbreviated "F1", corresponds to vowel openness (vowel height). Open vowels have high F1 frequences while close vowels have low F1 frequencies, as can be seen at right: The and have similar low first formants, whereas has a higher formant. The second formant, F2, corresponds to vowel frontness. Back vowels have low F2 frequencies while front vowels have high F2 frequencies. This is very clear at right, where the front vowel has a much higher F2 frequency than the other two vowels. However, in open vowels the high F1 frequency forces a rise in the F2 frequency as well, so a better measure of frontness is the difference between the first and second formants. For this reason, vowels are usually plotted as F1 vs. F2 – F1. This is the case for the vowel chart at the top of this page. (This dimension is usually called 'backness' rather than 'frontness', but the term 'backness' can be counterintuitive when discussing formants.) R-colored vowels are characterized by lowered F3 values. Rounding is generally realized by a complex relationship between F2 and F3 that tends to reinforce vowel backness. One effect of this is that back vowels are most commonly rounded while front vowels are most commonly unrounded; another is that rounded vowels tend to plot to the right of unrounded vowels in vowel charts. That is, there is a reason for plotting vowel pairs the way they are.

Prosody and intonation

The features of vowel prosody are often described independently from vowel quality. In non-linear phonetics, they are located on parallel layers. The features of vowel prosody are usually considered not to apply to the vowel itself, but to the syllable, as some languages do not contrast vowel length separately from syllable length. Intonation encompasses the changes in pitch, intensity, and speed of an utterance over time. In tonal languages, in most cases the tone of a syllable is carried by the vowel, meaning that the relative pitch or the pitch contour that marks the tone is superimposed on the vowel. If a syllable has a high tone, for example, the pitch of the vowel will be high. If the syllable has a falling tone, then the pitch of the vowel will fall from high to low over the course of uttering the vowel. Length or quantity refers to the abstracted duration of the vowel. In some analyses this feature is described as a feature of the vowel quality, not of the prosody. Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian, Arabic and Latin have a two-way phonemic contrast between short and long vowels. The Mixe language has a three-way contrast among short, half-long, and long vowels, and this has been reported from a few other languages, in not all of which is the distinction phonemic. Long vowels are written in the IPA with a triangular colon, which has two equilateral triangles pointing at each other in place of dots (). The IPA symbol for half-long vowels is the top half of this (). Longer vowels are sometimes claimed, but these are always divided between two syllables. It should be noted that the length of the vowel is a grammatical abstraction, and there may be more phonologically distinctive lengths. For example, in Finnish, there are five different physical lengths, because stress is marked with length on both grammatically long and short vowels. However, Finnish stress is not lexical and is always on the first two moras, thus this variation serves to separate words from each other. In non-tonal languages, like English, intonation encompasses lexical stress. A stressed syllable will typically be pronounced with a higher pitch, intensity, and length than unstressed syllables. For example in the word intensity, the vowel represented by the letter 'e' is stressed, so it is longer and pronounced with a higher pitch and intensity than the other vowels.

Monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs

A vowel sound whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the vowel is called a monophthong. Monophthongs are sometimes called "pure" or "stable" vowels. A vowel sound that glides from one quality to another is called a diphthong, and a vowel sound that glides between three qualities is a triphthong. All languages have monophthongs and many languages have diphthongs, but triphthongs or vowel sounds with even more target qualities are relatively rare cross-linguistically. English has all three types: the vowel sound in hit is a monophthong , the vowel sound in boy is in most dialects a diphthong , and the vowel sounds of way , flower (BrE AmE ) form a triphthong (dissylabic in the latter cases), although the particular qualities vary by dialect. The longest sensible word with most consecutive vowels is Finnish riiuuyöaieuutinen (courting night intention news [certainly yellow press stuff!]), syllabicated rii-uu-yö-ai-e-uu-ti-nen. In phonology, diphthongs and triphthongs are distinguished from sequences of monophthongs by whether or not the vowel sound may be analyzed into different phonemes or not. For example, the vowel sounds in a two-syllable pronunciation of the word flower (BrE AmE ) phonetically form a dissyllabic triphthong, but are phonologically a sequence of a diphthong (represented by the letters ) and a monophthong (represented by the letters ). Some linguists use the terms diphthong and triphthong only in this phonemic sense.

Vowels in languages

The semantic significance of vowels varies widely depending on the language. In some languages, particularly Semitic languages, vowels mostly serve to denote inflections. This is similar to English man vs. men. In fact, the alphabets used to write the Semitic languages, such as the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic alphabet, do not ordinarily mark all the vowels. These alphabets are called abjads. Although it is possible to construct simple English sentences that can be understood without written vowels (cn y rd ths?), extended passages of English lacking written vowels are difficult if not impossible to completely understand (consider dd, which could be any of add, aided, dad, dada, dead, deed, did, died, dodo, dud, dude, eddie, iodide, or odd). In most languages, vowels are an unchangeable part of the words, as in English man vs. moon which are not different inflectional forms of the same word, but different words. Vowels are especially important to the structures of words in languages that have very few consonants (like Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian), and in languages whose inventory of vowels is larger than its inventory of consonants.

Vowel systems

Most languages have 3–7 vowels, the following 5-vowel system being the most common: This particular configuration is common because it makes the most efficient use of the vowel space, so slight variations in a vowel are not easily confused for a different sound. Spanish and Modern Greek, for example, have this vowel system; Latin had a similar system that also distinguished between long and short vowels, although that distinction wasn't made in written Latin; it is for this reason that the Latin alphabet has five vowel letters. All languages have at least two vowels; the Tshwizhyi and Abzhui dialects of Abkhaz contrasts only and , with significant allophony. (There have been proposals to posit only one vowel in some Abkhaz dialects; however, most linguists who are familiar with Abkhaz do not accept this theory.) Three-vowel systems have been noted in a number of languages. These include:
- (Arabic, Inuktitut, Quechua),
- (Pirahã),
- (Wichita). A few languages, such as Navajo, have four-vowel systems that lack /u/ but there is no known natural language that lacks some form of a. At the other end of the spectrum, languages with more than twelve vowels are relatively uncommon, although some widely-spoken languages have large vowel inventories, particularly Germanic languages. For example, English has 14–20 vowels (including diphthongs) depending on dialect, and Swedish has 17 distinct vowel qualities in the height-backness-roundedness spectrum, although these also involve a length contrast, and the long vowels have diphthongized allophones. French has 16 vowel qualities, including nasals, and the previously-mentioned Sedang has 24 distinct monophthongs, which it achieves by contrasting phonation on seven vowel qualities. uses phonation and nasalization with five vowel qualities to achieve approximately 40 vowels, most of which may occur both long and short.

Written vowels

The name "vowel" is often used for the symbols used for representing vowel sounds in a language's writing system, particularly if the language uses an alphabet. In the Latin alphabet, the vowel letters are usually A, E, I, O, U, and in some languages Y, as in English and W, as in Welsh. There is necessarily not a direct one-to-one correspondence between the vowel sounds of a language and the vowel letters. Many languages that use a form of the Latin alphabet have more vowel sounds than can be represented by the standard set of five vowel letters. In the case of English, the five primary vowel letters can represent both long and short vowel sounds (some of the long vowel sounds in English are actually diphthongs). Furthermore, in English some vowel sounds are represented by combinations of vowel letters, such as the ea in beat or by a vowel letter and an approximant letter, as the ow in how, or the er in her. Other languages cope with the limitation in the number of Latin vowel letters in similar ways. Many languages, like English, make extensive use of combinations of vowel letters to represent various sounds. Other languages add diacritical marks to vowels, such as accents or umlauts, to represent the variety of possible vowel sounds. Some languages have also constructed additional vowel letters by modifying the standard Latin vowels in other ways, such as æ or ø that are found in some of the Scandinavian languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet has a set of 28 symbols to represent the range of basic vowel qualities, and a further set of diacritics to denote variations from the basic vowel.

Written vowels in writing systems

- Arabic: دَ دِ دُ دَ‌ا دَ‌ى دِ‌ي دُو
- Devanagari: Independent vowels: अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ओ औ Dependent vowels: ा ि ी ु ू े ै ो ौ
- Guaraní: oral: a e i o u y; nasal: ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ ỹ
- Japanese: normal: あいうえお grammatical: へを
- Korean: ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ
- Latin: a e i o u
- Finnish: back: a u o; neutral: i e; front: ä y ö; long vowels doubled (aamu, uuma, etc.)
- Estonian and Võro: a e i o u ü ä ö õ (y), half-long and over-long vowels doubled
- Skolt Sami: u o õ å a, i e â ä (normal), u´ o´ õ´ å´ a´, i´ e´ â´ ä´ (centralized), long vowels doubled (lääij, nââ'ǩǩted, etc.).
- Norwegian and Swedish: back ('hard'): a o u å; front ('soft'): e i y æ/ä ø/ö
- Russian: non-iotating ('hard'): А О У Ы Э; iotating ('soft'): Я Ё Ю И Е

References

- Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, 1999. Cambridge University ISBN 0521637511
- Johnson, Keith, Acoustic & Auditory Phonetics, second edition, 2003. Blackwell ISBN 1405101237
- Ladefoged, Peter, A Course in Phonetics, fourth edition, 2000. Heinle ISBN 0155073192
- Ladefoged, Peter, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, 1995. University of Chicago ISBN 0226467643
- Ladefoged, Peter and Ian Maddieson, The Sounds of the Worlds Languages, 1996. Blackwell ISBN 0631198156
- Ladefoged, Peter, Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages, 2000. Blackwell ISBN 0631214127.
- Lindau, Mona. (1978). Vowel features. Language, 54, 541-563.
- Stevens, Kenneth N. (1998). Acoustic phonetics. Current studies in linguistics (No. 30). Cambridge, MA: MIT. ISBN 0-2621-9404-X.
- Stevens, Kenneth N. (2000). Toward a model for lexical access based on acoustic landmarks and distinctive features. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 111 (4), 1872-1891.
- Korhonen, Mikko. Koltansaamen opas, 1973. Castreanum ISBN 951-45-0189-6

External links

- [http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/vowels/contents.html Vowels and Consonants] Online examples from Ladefoged's Vowels and Consonants, referenced above.
- [http://www.oneletterwords.com Dictionary of All-Vowel Words]: a free online dictionary with over 1,000 words with no consonants and examples of usage from literature.
- roa-rup:Vocală ko:홀소리 ja:母音

Formant

A formant is a peak in an acoustic frequency spectrum which results from the resonant frequencies of any acoustical system. It is most commonly invoked in phonetics or acoustics involving the resonant frequencies of vocal tracts or musical instruments. However, it is equally valid to talk about the formant frequencies of the air in a room, as exploited, for example, by Alvin Lucier in his piece I am sitting in a room. I am sitting in a room Formants are the distinguishing or meaningful frequency components of human speech and of singing. By definition, the information that humans require to distinguish between vowels can be representated purely quantitatively by the frequency content of the vowel sounds. Formants are the characteristic partials that identify vowels to the listener. Most of these formants are produced by tube and chamber resonance, but a few whistle tones derive from periodic collapse of Venturi effect low-pressure zones. The formant with the lowest frequency is called f₁, the second f₂, and the third f₃. Most often the two first formants, f₁ and f₂, are enough to disambiguate the vowel. These two formants are primarily determined by the position of the tongue. f₁ has a higher frequency when the tongue is lowered, and f₂ has a higher frequency when the tongue is forward. Generally, formants move about in a range of approximately 1000 Hz for a male adult, with 1000 Hz per formant. Vowels will almost always have four or more distinguishable formants; sometimes there are more than six. Not all sounds used in human language are composed of formants. Formants are restricted to sonorants, a subset of pulmonic sounds including vowels, approximants, and nasals. Nasals usually have a formant around 2500 Hz in addition to two lower formants (and, where applicable, voicing). The liquid [l] usually has a formant at 1500 Hz, while the English "r" sound (IPA ) is distinguished by virtue of the third formant, which dips below 2000 Hz. Plosives (and, to some degree, fricatives) modify the placement of formants on the surrounding vowels. The distinguishing formant drop for [ɹ] is characteristic of retroflexes, for instance. Bilabial sounds (such as 'b' and 'p' as in "ball" or "sap") sometimes feature a dip in the first two formants. Velar sounds ('k' and 'g' in English) almost always show F2 and F3 coming together before the velar and separating from a point once the velar sound is completed. Alveolar and dental sounds (English 't' and 'd') show little change from the ordinary formant positions. Note that fricatives always lack formant structure and are distinguished by the frequency range with the most noise, as well as overall strength of frication. If the fundamental frequency of the underlying vibration is higher than the formant frequency of the system, then the character of the sound imparted by the formant frequencies will be mostly lost. This is most apparent in the example of soprano opera singers, who sing high enough that their vowels become very hard to distinguish. Control of formants is an essential component of the vocal technique known as throat singing, in which the performer sings a low fundamental tone, and creates sharp resonances to select upper harmonics, giving the impression of several tones being sung at once. Spectrograms are used to visualise formants.

Singer's formant

Studies of the frequency spectrum of trained singers, especially male singers, indicate a clear formant around 3000 Hz that is absent in speech or in the spectra of untrained singers. It is this formant which allows singers to be heard and understood over an orchestra. This formant is actively developed through vocal training, for instance through so-called voce di strega exercises.

External links

- [http://www.ling.lu.se/persons/Sidney/praate/whatform.html What are formants?]
- [http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/Phonetics%20II%20page%20nineteen.htm Formants for fun and profit]
- [http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/wahpedl/voicewah.htm Formants and wah-wah pedals] Category:Sound ja:フォルマント

Vowel backness

Front vowel

A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. The front vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close front unrounded vowel [i]
- close front rounded vowel [y]
- close-mid front unrounded vowel [e]
- close-mid front rounded vowel [ø]
- open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ]
- open-mid front rounded vowel [œ]
- near-open front unrounded vowel [æ]
- open front unrounded vowel [a]
- open front rounded vowel [ɶ] In some languages, the open front vowels do not pattern or group with the other front vowels in their phonologies.

Effect on preceding consonant

In the phonology of many Indo-European languages, front vowels have a special effect on certain preceding velar consonants, bringing them forward to alveolar, postalveolar, or palatal consonant sounds. This is not unique to Indo-European — similar effects can be observed in other languages including Japanese. See also palatalization. Some examples in familiar languages include the "C" and "G" in Italian and French, and the "K" in Norwegian and Swedish. English follows the same pattern as French but without as much regularity. : Category:Vowels Category:Phonology

Near-front vowel

A near-front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as in a front vowel, but slightly further back in the mouth. The near-front vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- near-close near-front unrounded vowel [ɪ]
- near-close near-front rounded vowel [ʏ] Category:Vowels

Central vowel

A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. The central vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close central unrounded vowel
- close central rounded vowel
- close-mid central unrounded vowel
- close-mid central rounded vowel
- mid central vowel
- open-mid central unrounded vowel
- open-mid central rounded vowel
- near-open central vowel Occasionally the ad hoc symbols (ɪ, ʊ) for near-close central vowels will be seen. Category:Vowels ja:中舌母音

Back vowel

A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. The back vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close back unrounded vowel
- close back rounded vowel
- close-mid back unrounded vowel
- close-mid back rounded vowel
- open-mid back unrounded vowel
- open-mid back rounded vowel
- open back unrounded vowel
- open back rounded vowel See also: List of phonetics topics Category:Vowels ja:後舌母音

مؤسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران

مقدمه

مؤسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران تنها سازمانی است در ایران که بر طبق قانون می‏تواند استاندارد رسمی فرآورده‏ها را تعیین و تدوین و اجرای آنها را با کسب موافقت شورایعالی استاندارد اجباری اعلام نماید. وظایف و هدفهای مؤسسه عبارتست از: (تعیین، تدوین و نشر استانداردهای ملی – انجام تحقیقات به منظور تدوین استاندارد، بالا بردن کیفیت کالاهای داخلی، کمک به بهبود روشهای تولید و افزایش کارآئی صنایع در جهت خودکفائی کشور، ترویج استانداردهای ملی – نظارت بر اجرای استانداردهای اجباری – کنترل کیفی کالاهای صادراتی مشمول استانداردهای اجباری و جلوگیری از صدور کالاهای نامرغوب به منظور فراهم نمودن امکانات رقابت با کالاهای مشابه خارجی و حفظ بازارهای بین‏المللی، کنترل کیفی کالاهای وارداتی مشمول استاندارد اجباری به منظور حمایت ازمصرف کنندگان و تولیدکنندگان داخلی و جلوگیری از ورود کالاهای نامرغوب خارجی راهنمائی علمی و فنی تولیدکنندگان، توزیع کنندگان و مصرف کنندگان – مطالعه و تحقیق درباره روشهای تولید، نگهداری، بسته‏بندی و ترابری کالاهای مختلف – ترویج سیستم متریک و کالیبراسیون وسایل سنجش – آزمایش و تطبیق نمونه کالاها با استانداردهای مربوط، اعلام مشخصات و اظهارنظر مقایسه‏ای و صدور گواهینامه‏های لازم). موسسه استاندارد از اعضاء سازمان بین المللی استاندارد می باشد و لذا در اجرای وظایف خود هم از آخرین پیشرفتهای علمی و فنی و صنعتی جهان استفاده می نماید و هم شرایط کلی و نیازمندیهای خاص کشور را مورد توجه قرار می دهد. اجرای استانداردهای ملی ایران به نفع تمام مردم و اقتصاد کشور است و باعث افزایش صادرات و فروش داخلی و تأمین ایمنی و بهداشت مصرف‏کنندگان و صرفه جزئی در وقت و هزینه‏ها و در نتیجه موجب افزایش درآمد ملی و رفاه عمومی و کاهش قیمت‏ها می‏شود.

آدرس

: خیابان ولیعصر، بعد از تقاطع زرتشت، کوچه پزشک‏پور، پلاک 22 تلفن: 8898177 - 8892955 فاکس:8898180

تاریخچه

گذشته از پیشینه تاریخی غیر مدون استاندارد در ایران اولین تشکیلات موسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران با تصویب قانون اوزان و مقیاسها در سال 1304 شمسی مطرح می‏شود. بعدها در سال 1331 به لحاظ ضرورت تعیین ویژگیها و نظارت بر کیفیت کالاهای صادراتی و وارداتی ایجاد یک تشکیلات رسمی مورد توجه قرار گرفته و هسته اولیه تشکیلات سازمانی موسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران بصورت ادارهای در وزارت بازرگانی وقت شکل می‏گیرد. در سال 1339 با تصویب قانون تاسیس موسسه استاندارد ایران این موسسه کار خود را در چهارچوب هدفها و مسئولیتهای تعیین شده آغاز می‏نماید. موسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران در سال 1339 به عضویت سازمان بین‏المللی استاندارد ISO در آمده و این عضویت تا به امروز به شکل موثری ادامه دارد به گونهای که در بیشتر کمیته‏های فنی بین‏المللی حضور فعال داشته و بر اساس آخرین اطلاعات دریافتی از ایزو در 127 کمیته فنی اصلی و فرعی عضو فعال و در 111 کمیته فنی اصلی و فرعی عضو ناظر می‏باشد و دبیرخانه بین‏المللی کمیته‏های فنی زیر نیز در ایران مستقر است: 1- دبیرخانه کمیته فنی شوینده‏ها (مواد فعال سطحی) ISO/TC91 - Surface active agents 2- دبیرخانه کمیته فنی کودهای شیمیایی ISO/TC134 - Fertilizers and soil conditioners 3- دبیرخانه کمیته فنی فر‏آورده‏های بهداشتی و آرایشی ISO/TC217 - Cosmetics موسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران علاوه بر عضویت در سازمان بین‏المللی استاندارد با سازمانهای بین‏المللی زیر همکاری دارد: 1- IEC : کمیسیون بین‏المللی الکتروتکنیک 2-OIML : سازمان بین‏المللی اندزه شناسی قانونی 3- BIPM : عهدنامه متر راجع به دفتر بین‏المللی اوزان و مقیاسها 4- WAITRO : انجمن جهانی سازمانهای تحقیقات صنعتی و تکنولوژیکی

استاندارد چیست؟

استاندارد در لغت به معنی نظم قاعده قانون و مفاهیمی از این قبیل است. اما معنی آن در ارتباط با موسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران که مسئولیت قانونی تهیه و تدوین استانداردهای ملی را عهده دار می‏باشد عبارت است از: تعیین و تدوین ویژگیهای لازم در تولید یک فرآورده و انجام یک خدمت با تبادل نظر و توافق جمعی صاحبان حق و نفع با روشهای مشخص شده

مرجعیت قانونی

موسسه استاندارد و تحقیقات صنعتی ایران بر اساس اختیارات و وظایف قانونی در موارد زیر به عنوان مرجع در کشور شناخته شده است: 1- تعیین و تدوین استانداردهای ملی (رسمی) به استثنا مواد داروئی 2- تعیین ویژگی کالاها و مقایسه آن با استانداردهای مربوط (به استثنای مواد داروئی) 3- اجرای سیستم بین‏المللی یکاها و کالیبره کردن وسایل سنجش 4- تائید صلاحیت شرکتهاو موسسات بازرسی کننده داخلی و خارجی (سورویانس) و بازرسی کالا در مبدا و مسیر 5- انگ گذاری و تعیین عیار فلزات گرانبها توضیح: آزمایشگاههای موسسه در سطح کشور بعنوان آزمایشگاههای مرجع شناخته شده است.

فعالیت‏های اصلی موسسه

1- مطالعات و پژوهشهای کاربردی برای تدوین و بازنگری و اجرای استانداردهای ملی 2- تدوین و انتشار استانداردهای ملی 3- ترویج استانداردهای ملی (اطلاع‏رسانی و فعالیتهای فرهنگی و ترویجی) 4- صدور، تمدید، تعلیق و ابطال پروانه‏های کاربرد علامت استاندارد ایران (بررسی نظام کیفیت، تائید صلاحیت مسئولین کنترل کیفیت، نمونه‏برداری و آزمون ادواری نمونه‏ها) 5- نظارت بر اجرای استانداردهای اجباری (آزمون کالاها در مقایسه با مشخصات مندرج در استانداردها و رسیدگی به شکایات و پیگیری‏های حقوقی و قضائی) 6- صدور گواهینامه‏های انطباق در مورد کالاهای وارداتی و صادراتی 7- تائید صلاحیت: شرکتها و موسسات بازرسی (سورویانس) آزمایشگاه‏های تطبیق ویژگی کالا کارشناسان استاندارد مشاوران سیستمهای کیفیت گواهی‏کنندگان سیستم‏های کیفیت 8- نظارت بر اجرای استاندارد و علامت‏گذاری مصنوعات فلزات گرانبها 9- نظارت بر اجرای استانداردها و آزمایش ادواری اوزان و مقیاسها و وسائل سنجش عمومی 10- بررسی و تهیه پیشنهاد اجباری و یا اختیاری شدن اجرای استانداردهای ملی 11- تعیین کیفیت و ویژگیهای کالاهای ساخت داخل و وارداتی که از نظر ایمنی و بهداشت عمومی حائز اهمیت می‏باشند و اعلام نتایج حاصل 12- رسیدگی به اعتراض‏ها و شکایات مرتبط با هر یک از فعالیتهای فوق

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