Vowel Sounds

---

Vowel Sounds

A vowel is a sound made by the relatively free movement of air through the mouth, usually forming the main sound of a syllable.

You need to understand the basic conceptual separation of letters and sounds in English.

The letter vowels are:

a, e, i, o, and u.

Many languages have pure vowels, when the tongue and lips are relatively stationary while these vowels are being pronounced. But many of the vowels in English are not pure. This means they are lengthened and spoken with the tongue moving from one sound into another sound.

There are 15 vowels sounds in English:

1. /i:/   eat, bead, bee
2. /ɪ/   id, bid, pit
3. /eɪ/  eight, wade, bay
4. /ɛ/   bet, fed
5. /æ/   ask, bat, glad
6. /ʌ/   under, putt, bud
7. /ɑ:/   cot, bomb
8. /u:/   boot, two, tube
9. /ʊ/   foot, should, put
10. /oʊ/  oat, own, zone, blow
11. /ɔ/  caught, paw, port
12. /ɚ/   merge, bird, further
Diptongs:
13. /aɪ/  ice, bite, tie
14. /aʊ/  out, gown, plow
15. /oɪ/  oyster, coil, boy

All 12 main vowel sounds in English and the three diphthongs are organized and described in terms of the following characteristics:

The American English vowel sounds are described in terms of height (high, middle, low); backness (front, central, back); lip position (rounded, spread or unrounded); length (short, long, complex); and tenseness (lax, tense).

1- HEIGHT: Tongue Position in the mouth:
High (/i:/, /ɪ/, /ɚ/, /u:/, /ʊ/)
Middle (/eɪ/, /ɛ/, /ʌ/, /ə/, /oʊ/)
Low (/æ/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ/)

2- BACKNESS: Far front or back the tongue is in the mouth:
Front (/i:/, /ɪ/, /eɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/)
Central (/ɚ/, /ʌ/, /ə/, /ɑ:/)
Back (/u:/, /ʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔ/)

3- LIP POSITION: Whether the lips are rounded (O-shape) or spread (no rounding) when the sound is being made:
Unrounded (/i:/, /ɪ/, /eɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɚ/, /ʌ/, /ə/, /ɑ:/
Rounded (/u:/, /ʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔ/)

4- LENGTH: Represents vowel sound has one or two parts:
Short (/ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑ:/)
Long (/i:/, /eɪ/, /ju/, /oʊ/, and the diphthong /aɪ/)
Complex (/u:/, /ʊ/, /ɔ/, and the diphthongs /aʊ/, /oɪ/)

5- TENSENESS: Refers to the amount of muscular tension around the mouth when creating vowel sounds:
Lax ( /i/ and /u/ *, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑ:/, /ʊ/)
Tense (/i:/, /eɪ/, /ɚ/, /u:/, /ɔ/, /oʊ/, and the diphthongs /aɪ/, /aʊ/, /oɪ/)

*/i/ and /u/ weak sounds

Other terms:

Monophthongs: A monophthong consists of only one vowel sound that does not change during its articulation; i.e., it starts and ends in the same quality, and the speech organs do not change their position during its pronunciation. Monophthongs are also called simple vowels, pure vowels, or stable vowels. American linguists list from 9 to 12 monophthongs in American English, the 9 monophthongs are: /ɑ:/, /æ/, /i:/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /u:/, /u/, /ɚ/, /ʌ/. Also, the following three vowel sounds are considered monophthongs. The first two are middle tense vowels written with two letters but they are in the same vowel position, so they are not diphthongs: /eɪ/, /oʊ/, and /ɔ/ vowel sound (*).

Vowel Chart

This chart show the height, backness, and tenseness of the vowels:

VOWELS	Tense/Lax	FRONT	CENTRAL	BACK
HIGH	Tense Lax	i: ɪ	ɚ	u: ʊ
MIDDLE	Tense Lax	eɪ ɛ	ʌ (ə) (**)	oʊ
LOW	Tense Lax	æ	ɑ	ɔ (*)

(*) Not in all dialects. In this website, the /ɔ/ vowel sound is changed by the /ɑ:/ vowel sound because it was decided not to indicate the contrast between words like tot /ˈtɑ:t/ and taught /ˈtɔ:t/, since this contrast isn’t made by a large number of American native speakers, and isn’t necessary for non-native speakers to learn, using as reference the Merriam-Webster's Learner Dictionary.

The neutral vowel sound

(**) Transcription symbols that are generally used to represent the neutral sound are /ʌ/ - vowel No. 6 (caret symbol) in stressed syllables as in gun /ˈgʌn/, son /ˈsʌn/, undone /ˌʌnˈdʌn/; and vowel sound /ə/ (schwa symbol) in unstressed syllables as in away /əˈweɪ/, article /ˈɑɚtɪkəl/, minus /ˈmaɪnəs/. In American ESL materials, the schwa symbol /ə/ is very often used for the neutral sound in both stressed and unstressed syllables: gun /gən/, son /sən/, undone /ənˈdən/, away /əˈweɪ/, article /ˈɑɚtɪkəl/, minus //ˈmaɪnəs/. For your information, the caret looks like a triangle without a base (or turned v), and the schwa looks like inverted "e".

Diphthongs

The Diphthongs vowels in English (/aɪ/, /aʊ/, and /oɪ/) are double sounds made up of two distict parts, that is, two different sounds:

DIPHTHONGS	FRONT	CENTER	BACK
HIGH	ɪ		ʊ
MIDDLE
LOW		aɪ aʊ	ɔɪ

* We use the /a/ symbol in the diphthongs above but it is the same /ɑ:/ vowel sound but weak: /ɑ/, forming the combination /aɪ/.

As you can see in the diphthongs chart:

The /aɪ/ vowel sound begins with the LOW/CENTRAl sound /ɑ/ and ends with a HIGH/FRONT sound /ɪ/.

The /aʊ/ vowel sound begins with the LOW/CENTRAL sound /ɑ/ and ends with a HIGH/BACK sound /ʊ/.

The /oɪ/ vowel sound begins with the LOW/BACK sound /ɔ/ and ends with a HIGH/FRONT sound /ɪ/.

Diphthongs refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, the diphthongs are double vowels that have the most tongue movement. The diphthongs move through the vowel chart as they are pronounced: they start at one vowel-position, and move towards another.

In the other hand, some Tense vowels are also written with two letters because they also have some diphthong-like tongue and face movement, but they are not diphthongs because they begin and end in the same vowel position:

The following vowel sounds are not diphthongs:

The /eɪ/ vowel sound begins and ends with a MIDDLE/FRONT sound.

The /oʊ/ vowel sound begins and ends with a MIDDLE/BACK sound.

Long, Short, and Complex Vowels

The long vowel sounds are not pronounced for longer time than short vowel sounds. The terms "long", "short", and "complex" are not describing the length of time a vowel sound is said. These archaic terms are still in popular use in American classrooms and online. They are used to simply give a name to a vowel sound so when the sound is discussed, the name and not the sound is used.

1- Long Vowels

A long vowel sound is the same as its name. Some dictionaries use the diacritical mark for a long vowel and it is called a macron (¯), which is in the shape of a line above the vowel.

When a single vowel letter is in the end of a word (or syllable), it usually says its long sound (or its name), as in go and be. When two vowels go hand in hand in the same word (or syllable), the first vowel is usually long, and the second vowel is usually silent. e.g., bake makes the /aɪ/ sound (long a) and the "e" is silent; goal makes the /oʊ/ sound (long o) and the "a" is silent. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, such as with irregular vowels.

When there are two adjacent vowels in a word, the first one is long and the second one is silent. The first vowel is marked with a long line and second one is crossed out. Examples of this rule are in coat, ride, read.

There is both a long and short sound to “oo”. The long sound appears as in the words boo, food, smooth, and moose.

The following is a list of the 5 long vowel sounds in American English:

1- Long "a" (ā) sound /eɪ/ as in ape, snail, ache, explain, reindeer
2- Long "e" (ē) sound /i:/as in eat, agony, needle, pianist, and electricity
3- Long "i" (ī) sound /aɪ/ as in eye, cry, tightrope, tile, violin
4- Long "o" (ō) sound /oʊ/ as in oh, domino, ghost, pillow, stethoscope
5- Long "u" (ū) sound /ju/ as in you, few, use, cute

2- Short Vowels

When a vowel is followed by a consonant, the vowel is short. Some dictionaries use the diacritical mark for a short vowel and it is called a breve (˘), which is in the shape of a downturned arc.

A vowel is usually short when there is only one vowel in a word or syllable, as in cat, bed, hot. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as with irregular vowels.

There is both a long and short sound to “oo”. The short sound appears as in the words book, booth, and took.

The following is a list of the 5 short vowel sounds in American English:

1- Short "a" (ă) sound /æ/ as in at, taxi, anniversary, laboratory, tackle
2- Short "e" (ĕ) sound /ɛ/ as in elm, elevator, jellyfish, pentagon, dentist
3- Short "i" (ĭ) sound /ɪ/ as in it, gift, inflate, spinach, ink
4- Short "o" (ŏ) sound /ɑ:/as in hop, camouflage, garage, chop, father, paw
5- Short "u" (ŭ) sound /ʌ/ as in up, cut, cup

3- Complex Vowels

Besides long vowel sounds, short vowel sounds, and the schwa sound, there are some other special sounds in English that are represented by vowels. They are as follows:

1- Complex "oo" sound /ʊ/ as in put, pull, book, good, should
2- Complex "oo" sound /u:/ as in salute, toothbrush, goose, boot, costume
3- Complex "aw" sound /ɔ/ (*) as in awful, dog
4- Complex "oi" sound /oɪ/as in boil, poison, toilet, annoy
5- Complex "ow" sound /aʊ/ as in lighthouse, cow, flower, fountain

Lax and Tense Sound

We already said that the vowels can be short or long, and Lax or Tense. But also there is an unstressed vowels called Schwa sound:

1- Lax Sound:

Lax vowels are shorter in sound than Tense vowels.

/æ/   ask, bat, glad
/ɑ/   cot, bomb, caught, paw
/ʌ/   under, putt, bud
/ɛ/   bet, fed
/i/   very, any, thirty (*)
/ɪ/   id, bid, pit
/ʊ/   foot, should, put

(*) The /i/ is a Lax sound and /i:/ is a Tense sound but they are pronouced in the same tongue vowel position. The /i/ sound is pronounced in words that have final y.

2- Tense Sound:

Tense vowels are longer in sound than Lax vowels.

/i:/  eat, bead, bee
/u:/  boot, two, coo
/ɚ/   merge, bird, further
/eɪ/  eight, wade, bay
/oʊ/  oat, own, zone, blow

In the Tense sound are included the Diphthongs:

/aɪ/  ice, bite, tie
/aʊ/  out, gown, plow
/oɪ/  oyster, coil, boy

3- Schwa Sound.

When you are speaking American English the vowel within the stressed syllables is longer, louder and higher in pitch. The vowel within the unstressed syllable is reduced and become a neutral, short vowel called Schwa and is pronounced with the tongue in the neutral or rest position. The symbol used is /ə/. It can be spelled with a, e, i, o, or u. All of the five vowels can sound the same if they are part of a reduced syllable. As you can see, it is more important to know which syllabe is stressed than how the word is spelled. If people don't understand a particular word you are saying chances are you stressing the wrong syllable.

The combination of stressed syllables with long clear vowel sounds and reduced syllables with the Schwa vowel sound create a distinctly American English speech rhythm.

/ə/   about, banana, collide

---