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A vowel sound is like a nucleus, often found in the middle of a word.
A vowel is a speech sound that is produced when the air flows out through the mouth without being stopped by the vocal organs. Vowels are produced when there is nothing to obstruct the vocal cords.
A syllable is a part of a word containing one vowel sound, called the nucleus. It may or may not have consonant sounds before or after it. If the syllable has a consonant sound before it, this is called the 'onset'. If there is a consonant sound after it, this is called the 'coda'.
A word can have more than one syllable:
In the English language, we have five vowels. These are a, e, i, o and u.
There are five vowel letters in the English alphabet. - freepik.com
These are vowels as we know them in the alphabet, however there are many more vowel sounds than these. We'll look at them next.
There are 20 possible vowels sounds. Twelve of these are present in the English language. The 12 English vowel sounds are:
/ ɪ / as in if, sit, and wrist.
/ i: / as in be, read, and sheet.
/ ʊ / as in put, good, and should.
/ u: / as in you, food, and through.
/ e / as in pen, said, and when.
/ ə / as in about, polite, and teacher.
/ 3: / as in her, girl, and work.
/ ɔ: / as in also, four, and walk.
/ æ / as in ant, ham, and that.
/ ʌ / as in up, duck, and some.
/ ɑ: / as in ask, large, and start.
/ ɒ / as in of, not, and what.
Every vowel is pronounced according to three dimensions that distinguish them from each other:
Height, or closeness, refers to the vertical position of the tongue in the mouth, if it's high, mid, or low . For example, / ɑ: / as in arm, / ə / as in ago, and / u: / as in too.
Backness refers to the horizontal position of the tongue, if it's in the front, center, or back of the mouth. For example, / ɪ / as in any, / 3: / as in fur, and / ɒ / as in got.
Rounding refers to the position of the lips, if they are rounded or spread . For example, / ɔ: / as in saw, and / æ / as in hat.
Here are some other aspects that help to describe vowel sounds:
There are two types of vowels in English: Monophthongs and Diphthongs.
These vowels are called monophthongs because we don't pronounce them together but as three distinct sounds. A monophthong is a single vowel sound.
Unlike monophthongs, here there are two vowels joined together. We say that the word 'tie' contains one diphthong. A diphthong is two vowels together.
Here's another example: alone.
The first / ə / is separated from the other two vowel sounds by the consonant sound / l /. Yet, the two vowel sounds / ə, ʊ / are joined to make the diphthong / əʊ /.
In English, there are some words that contain triple vowels, called triphthongs, as in the word liar /ˈlaɪə /. A triphthong is a combination of three different vowels.
A vowel is a speech sound that is produced when the air flows out through the mouth without being stopped by the vocal organs.
A syllable is a single part of a word that contains one vowel sound, the nucleus, and two consonants, the onset and the coda.
Every vowel is pronounced according to: height, backness, and rounding.
There are two types of vowel in the English language: monophthong and diphthong.
A vowel is a speech sound that is produced when the air flows out through the mouth without being stopped by the vocal organs.
Vowels are speech sounds made when the mouth is open and the air can escape freely from the mouth. Consonants are speech sounds made when the airflow is blocked or restricted.
The letters a, e, i, o, u.
There are 5 vowels in the alphabet and they are a, e, i, o, u.
There are 12 vowel sounds and 8 diphthongs in the English language.
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