THE 20 VOWEL SOUNDS
The vowel sound is the core of every word in English.
There is no word without the vowel sound though we have words without the consonant sound like the indefinite article "a."
The vowel is central to the production of any word in English.
In syllable, the vowel is the core.
The obligatory part of the syllable.
Syllables are what make up words in English and each syllable must have the obligatory part which is the vowel.
So, do you see how important the vowels are?
Etymology:
The word vowel was borrowed from both Latin and old French into the middle English.
Middle English: from Old French vouel, from Latin vocalis (littera) ‘vocal (letter)’.
Definition
The vowel sounds are produced with little to no obstruction to the air flow coming from the lungs into the mouth.
It is produced with a vibration of the vocal cords but without any audible friction.
It is the unit of the speech sound system of a language that forms the obligatory (nucleus) of a syllable.
Number of vowel sounds:
We have 44 speech sounds (phonemes) in English and 20 out of this 44 sounds are vowels.
Production of vowels
All vowel sounds are produced with a vibration of the vocal cords. Therefore, they are all voiced.
This vibration happens inside the larynx as the air flows from the larynx to the mouth.
The position of the tongue and the shape of the lips also play a crucial part in determining which vowel sounds we are about to produce.
Classification of the vowel sounds based on their production.
The vowel sounds are divided into the monophthong and the diphthong.
And they are classified based on their production.
The Monophthong
The Monophthong is from two greek words: MONO which means One and PHTHONG which means Sound.
The Monophthong is then explained to mean one sound.
It is made up of just a single sound.
Out of the 20 vowel sounds, 12 are monophthongs.
The Monophthong is then further divided into: 7 short vowels and 5 long vowels based on their pronunciation length.
Short Vowels : /ɪ/ /e/ /ə/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ʊ/ /ɒ/
Long Vowels: /ɔ:/ /ɜ:/ /ɑ:/ /u:/ /i:/
The Monophthong is classified based on these classifications:
1. Vowel height
2. Vowel location
3. Lip shape and position
4. Duration
The Vowel Height:
This refers to the highest or lowest position of the tongue inside the mouth during the production of the Monophthongs.
It is split into 3 parts based on the tongues position in the mouth.
High: The vowels are produced with the tongue raised high and close to the roof of the mouth.
The sounds produced here are the: /i:/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /u:/
Mid: The vowels are produced with the tongue mid air or half way between the roof of the mouth and the floor of the mouth.
The sounds produced here are the: /e/ /ɜ:/ /ə/ /ɔ:/
Low: The vowels are produced with the tongue lowered and close to the floor of the mouth.
The sounds produced here are the: /ʌ/ /ɑ:/ /æ/ /ɒ/
The Vowel Location:
This has to do with the parts of the tongue: the tip, blade, front, centre, and back, raised during the production of vowel sounds.
So whichever part of the tongue is raised shows the location of the vowel sounds.
Front of the tongue: The vowels are produced with the front part of the tongue raised high towards the hard palate.
The sounds produced here are the: /i:/ /ɪ/ /e/ /æ/
Centre of the tongue: The vowels are produced with the centre of the tongue raised towards the hard palate.
The sounds produced here are the: /ɜ:/ /ʌ/ /ə/
Back of the tongue: The vowels are produced with the tongue pulled back in the mouth and the back of the tongue is raised high towards the velum(soft palate).
The sounds produced here are the: /ʊ/ /u:/ /ɒ/ /ɔ:/ /ɑ:/
The Lip Shape and Position:
The vowels are also produced based on whether the lips are rounded, unrounded, or neutral.
Rounded lips: When the lips are rounded and protruded, the following sounds are produced: /ʊ/ /u:/ /ɒ/ /ɔ:/
Unrounded lips: When the lips are unrounded or spread, the following sounds produced: /ɑ:/ /i:/ /ɪ/ /e/ /æ/
Neutral: When the shape of the lips are neither rounded or unrounded, we say that it is in its neutral position.
When the lips are neutral, they are slightly parted and the sounds produced are the: /ɜ:/ /ʌ/ /ə/
The Duration:
This has to do with the length of time it takes to produce the vowel sounds.
Some vowels when produced are sustained for a while and they are called Long Vowels:
/ɔ:/:- water, talk, ward, author,awful
/ɜ:/:- earth, term, err, first, work
/ɑ:/:- ask, palm, star, fracas, laugh
/u:/:- beauty, grew, ewe, view, tomb
/i:/:- be, police, aesthetic, tea, feel
Others are produced within a very short breathe and they are called Short Vowels:
/ɪ/:- village, effect,sit, captain, Monday
/e/:- any, end, said, says, spread
/ə/:- about, metabolism, direct, today, focus
/æ/:- at, plait, impasse, quack, man
/ʌ/:- but, son, blood, does, touch
/ʊ/:- put, wolf, took, could, woman
/ɒ/:- want, en route, pot, cough, knowledge
The Diphthong:
The diphthong is from two greek words: DI which means Two and PHTHONG which means Sound.
The diphthong is then explained to mean two sounds.
It is made up of just two sounds.
Out of the 20 vowel sounds, 12 are monophthongs, the remaining 8 are the diphthongs.
The diphthongs are produced with a glide from the first sound to the second sound.
They are also called Gliding Vowels.
The diphthong is then further divided into: 3 centering diphthongs and 5 closing diphthongs based on their pronunciation length.
The Centering Diphthongs: These vowels ends with the central vowel /ə/. This is why they are called centering. They are the:
/ɪə/:- peer, pier, rear, mere, cheer
/ʊə/:- sure, your, lure, moor, doer
/eə/:- vary, aerial, dairy, air, scarce
The Closing Diphthongs: These vowels are divided into those ending with the front vowel /ɪ/:
/eɪ/:- bait, raid, pain, wane, tale (the letters a and e is what gives us the sound.)
/aɪ/:- bite, pine (the letters i and e is what gives us the sound),light, piper, aisle
/ɔɪ/:- oil, boy, buoy, foil, oyster
And those ending with the back vowel /ʊ/:
/aʊ/:- shout, down, proud, rout, pout
/əʊ/:- show, toe, low, doe, code
They are called Closing because the two sounds that ends them are closed.
Photo credits:
www.vowel.com
https://www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/222294931585312755/
https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/67308552090/how-to-remember-the-ipa-vowel-chart
https://icecubestudio.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/ipa_chart_vowels1.jpg
Etymology Source:
Definitions from Oxford Languages
