Skip to main content

Tense Vowels

 Tenseness is the pronunciation of a vowel with less centralization (i.e. either more fronting or more backing), longer duration, and narrower mouth width (with the tongue being perhaps more raised) compared with another vowel.


The tense vowels are longer than lax vowels for example, /i:/ in we (wi: ) is longer than the /ɪ/ in (‘bɪg).



Some of those examples include this vowels i, e, o, u, ɔ, and ɑ.
Law : /lɔ/ 

Spa:  /spɑ/

Bay:  /beɪ/

Bee: /bi/

Ray: /reɪ/ 

Too: /tu/



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

¡WELCOME!

In this blog you will learn the difference between tense vowels and lax vowels 

Lax Vowles

 The length of a vowel is affected by many factors. However, if all other factors including the height of a vowel remain the same, a lax vowel is shorter than a tense vowel. The muscles of the vocal apparatus are relatively loose when articulating lax vowels.  In addition, lax vowels mostly occur in one syllable words that end in consonants /I/ (as i in bit) /e/ (as e in bet) /æ/ (as a in bat) /U/ (as u in put) /ô/ (as au in caught)

Tense and Lax vowels examples

Tense Vowels examples Heart Horse  Laugh Water Glue Moon  Bird      Earth Note:  Remember, tense vowels are produced with greater tension in the tongue and may occur at the end of the words. Lax Vowels examples Bet Boy Hat Cup Sit Note:  Remember, in the lax vowels we produce less tension in the tongue and may not occur at the end of the words.