The reduction of English vowels in the flow of speech

Vowel reduction is the term in phonetics that refers to various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word, and which are perceived as "weakening". It most often makes the vowels shorter as well. In phonology, vowel reduction refers to a reduction of the number of distinct vowels, rather than their quality, either over time or when comparing related dialects. In some cases these two concepts may be related. For example, when vowels are phonetically reduced in English, there is also a reduction in the number of vowel contrasts. In other cases, however, phonemic reduction is due to historical vowel mergers (such as the merger of the «a» vowels in Mary, merry, marries in much of the United States) and has nothing to do with "weakening".

The term ……………………………………………………………………3

Weakening of vowels ……………………………………………………….3

Vowel reduction in English …………………………………………………4

Unstressed but unreduced vowels …………………………………………..5

Alternation …………………………………………………………………..5

Literature ………………………………...………………………………….6