Vowels

Vowels

There are forty-four sound segments in English comprising twenty vowels and twenty-four consonants and in English Alphabets there are twenty six letters five are vowels while twenty one are consonants.

The vowel

There are five letters, a, e, i, o, u which are letters broken into twenty sounds segments. The production of these takes place as the air stream flows from the lings to the mouth without any obstruction, when the speech sound is produced the mouth is open and the tongue does not touch the top of the mouth and teeth, when a vowel is produced there is no obstruction of the air stream. For example if your produce /e/ you will notice that air flows out freely from the lungs. Although the long is raised when the vowel is produced, it does not make any contact with any other articulator as to obstruct the free flow of the air stream. Unlike the consonant when produced there is always some kind of interruption of the air stream from the lungs e.g. /m/ when produced, you notice the flow of air is obstructed.

Classification of the English Vowel

The vowels in English are classified into two main groups, pure vowels, which are known as monothongs and diphthongs. Pure vowels are divided into short and long vowels.

These are some examples of the pure vowels.

1. /i:/ as in beat and seal
2. /i/ as in bit and sit
3. /e/ as in bed and egg
4. /e/ as in pat and mat
5. /a:/ as in market and farm
6. / / as in dog and pocket
7. /:/ as in sort and cork
8. /u/ as in put and food
9. /u:/ as in two and woo
10. /3 / as in hunt and hung
11. /3:/ as in bird and herb
12. / / as in akin and baker