First, what do we mean by "vowel length"? - We simply mean the
length of time it takes to pronounce the vowel. We can measure this length
in centiseconds - hundredths of a second.
Some languages, like both English and Icelandic, vary the lengths of their
vowels according to certain rules.
Below you can see the typical or average length of some of the vowels in English
lax vowels ( ) are short
tense ( ) vowels (including diphthongs:
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) are variable in length, and often longer than lax vowels.
We find that vowels are clipped (shortened) when they are followed by UNVOICED consonants in RP English. (As we shall see the term "unvoiced" is not an exact one, but it will do for the moment -we'll deal with this later under the heading "Fortis and lenis". See Fortis -Lenis for more details from another course (use BACK button to return)
The unvoiced-voiced pairs of English consonants are:
Unvoiced: keep (), sweet (
), leak (
), leaf (
), path (
)*, lease (
), leash (
), leech (
)
Voiced: cab (), feed (
), league (
), leave (
), bathe (
), please (
), rouge (
) and bridge (
)
or þ? - Note that outside Iceland, linguists usually use the Greek theta
instead of our 'thorn'
.
(Data from Gimson 1980:98)
This point is sometimes difficult for Icelanders to remember.
This is because there is a basic difference between vowel length in Icelandic
and English.
So the Icelandic and English rules for vowel length are different, and Icelanders unconsciously use Icelandic rules in English. Take for instance the English words:
bit ever many book
These all have lax vowels: bit has KIT
, ever
and many have DRESS
,
and book has FOOT
. All short,
even book, which is written with 2 o's!. But Icelanders want to pronounce
them long, because they have only single consonants following them.
NOW DO THE EXERCISES in section 1.4.1 on p. 14 of the booklet English Pronunciation for Icelanders.
If you have any questions mail me at peturk@hi.is.