PHONEMES: VOVELS

1. Catalan vowel system is different depending on its being stressed or unstressed. The first one is much larger than the second one. The whole vowel system is as follows:

/i/						/u/
	/e/				/o/
			/ə/
		/ɛ/		/ɔ/
			/a/

2. Catalan possesses seven stressed vowels, represented as follows:

/i/						/u/
	/e/				/o/
		/ɛ/		/ɔ/
			/a/

It is important to point out that open and closes vowels play an important role, since two words may often distinguished thanks to the openness or the closeness of the vowel. Observe the following examples (the first word of the pair has an open vowel, the second one is closed):

pèl	hair
pel	for/by the (contraction)

deu	ten; [(s)he] must
déu	god

dona	lady
dóna	[(s)he] gives

3. The unstressed system of Catalan (the system of East Catalonia) is quite reduced:

/i/						/u/
			/ə/

Some geolects offer different systems. Valencian, for example, maintains five vowels and Balearic four.

The reduction process of the stressed vowels into unstressed ones (known as neutralisation) can be represented as follows:

STRESSED	UNSTRESSED
/a/	> /ə/
/ɛ/
/e/
/i/	> /i/
/ɔ/	> /u/
/o/
/u/