English Vowels
English Vowels
English Vowels
PHONETICS AND
PHONOLOGY
TOPIC 3:
ENGLISH VOWELS
Table of contents
English Vowels - Sounds and Symbols
01 02 03
Syllable Monophthongs Diphthongs
04 05
Position of the tongue Roundedness
● Tongue Height
● Tongue Advancement
Tenseness/ Laxness
VOWELS IN IPA
Syllable
Definition
• A unit of pronunciation that can join other
syllables to form longer words or be a word in Examples
and of itself.
• The indefinite article "a" is a syllable
• Syllables must contain a singular vowel sound (one vowel sound, with no consonants).
and may or may not have consonants before,
after, or surrounding the vowel sound
• The word "oven" has two syllables
(pronounced as a unit)
because it has two vowel sounds –
• For instance, the word 'butter' contains two "ov" /-ʌv/ + "en" /-ən/ (each of these
syllables: 'but' and 'ter'. Book' has one syllable, syllables includes a vowel sound and
and ' reading' has two syllables. a consonant).
.
Syllable (cont.)
Below are some examples of words with different numbers of
syllables:
• Eg: Rhythm - which has two syllables, does not contain any vowels, but
it is said with two vowel sounds.
• Vowel, in human speech, sound in which the flow of air from the lungs passes through
the mouth, which functions as a resonance chamber, with minimal obstruction and
without audible friction (e.g., the i in “fit,” and the a in “pack.”)
Criteria:
• It has a neutral mouth position
• It only appears on unstressed
syllables It takes very little time to say in a word – skip right over it
• Can be spelt with any vowel when saying a word (e.g. the second ‘o’ in ‘chocolate’ or the
first ‘e’ in ‘different’) or don’t even represent it when
letter. spelling (e.g. the vowel sound between ‘-th-‘ and ‘-m’ in
‘rhythm’).
SCHWA (cont)
• The English language is stress-timed (a language where the stressed syllables are said at
approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm)
• In an English sentence, the words that communicate the most important parts of a message
(the nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs) are stressed.
• Function words (auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions and prepositions) are not
usually stressed, in order to maintain a regular rhythm in the language. For the same reason,
words of more than one syllable have both stressed (strong) and unstressed (weak) syllables.
Ba-na-na
• Vowels are produced with the vocal tract open. Said to be articulated with
an open articulation in opposition to consonants.
• Sometimes called pure vowel sounds and have no restriction to the air
through the mouth.
• They are all produced with vibration of the vocal folds = voiced sounds.
• The escape of the airflow coming from the lungs is always made through
the mouth only, because the soft palate is in its raised position = oral
sounds.
• The sound of each vowel is made by the shape and volume of the space in
the mouth, which is shaped by the tongue, the lips and the jaw.
LONG VOWELS
• Long vowels sound the same as their spoken name. For example, the vowel /a/
in bake sounds the same as the letter /a/ in the alphabet.
• Easy to identify because they sound like their name, but they can be tricky to learn, as
there are various spellings for each long vowel sound. Examples of long vowel words
include
• Long vowels are vowel sounds that are pronounced for a longer duration compared to
their short counterparts. In English, there are five primary long vowel sounds: /ɑː/,
/iː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, and /uː/.
LONG VOWELS
Here are the longer vowel forms in more detail:
• /ɔː/ - The long ‘o’ sound can be represented by the letters ‘o’
(e.g., go, hope) and ‘oa’ (e.g., boat, coal).
• Short vowels are vowel sounds that are pronounced briefly and do not have an extended duration
like long vowels. In English, there are five primary short vowel sounds.
• These are sometimes represented by these symbols: /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, and /ʌ/
• /æ/ - Represented by the letter ‘a’ (e.g., cat, hat) and occasionally by ‘ai’ (e.g., rain, said).
• /e/ - Represented by the letter ‘e’ (e.g., bed, red) and ‘ea’ (e.g., head, bread).
• /ɪ/ - Represented by the letter ‘I’ (e.g., sit, hit) and occasionally by ‘y’ (e.g., gym, symbol).
• /ɒ/ - Represented by the letter ‘o’ (e.g., dog, hot) and occasionally by ‘a’ (e.g., watch, want).
• /ʌ/ - Represented by the letter ‘u’ (e.g., bus, sun) and occasionally by ‘o’ (e.g., come, love).
• It's important to note that the pronunciation of short vowels can vary depending on the word and
regional accents.
Basic rules for Using Long and Short Vowels
• Here are some basic long and short vowel rules to help you understand the concept well. Do remember
that rules have exceptions too.
1. When a word has only one vowel and ends with a consonant, the vowel makes a short sound.
‘a’ in ‘jam’
‘e’ in ‘west’
‘o’ in ‘hot’
‘i’ in ‘fish’
‘u’ in ‘cup’
2. When a word has two vowels separated by two or more letters, the first vowel makes a short sound
as in ‘apple’
as in ‘octopus’
as in ‘basket’
as in ‘elephant’
Basic rules for Using Long and Short Vowels
• Here are some basic long and short vowel rules to help you understand the concept well. Do remember
that rules have exceptions too.
3. When a word has two vowels walking together the first one does the talking. The first
vowel makes a long sound and the second vowel remains silent.
In the word ‘beat’, the ‘e’ is long while the ‘a’ is silent.
In the word ‘goat’, the ‘o’ represents a long ‘o’ sound while ‘a’ stays silent.
4. A vowel at the end of a syllable is almost always long such as try, potato and tomato.
Short Vowel Sound Phonetic Symbol Example Short Vowel Words
i /ɪ/ win, hit, pip, kid, sit, nit, did, six, wit