Vowels

Ref: https://byjus.com/english/vowels-in-english/

Vowel - a letter that represents a vowel sound - a, e, i, o, u

Vowel sounds are produced when the airflow from the lungs passes through the vocal tract with little to no obstruction. It is made by changing the shape of the mouth and the position of the tongue.

• There are 5 vowels. But 20 vowel sounds.
• Out of 20,
  • 12 of them are called pure vowels
  • 8 of them are called diphthongs

Pure vowels:

• Vowels which have a single vowel sound when pronounced are called pure vowels.
  • announce(ə) - vendor, monitor
  • fret(e) - pet, ten
  • sun(ʌ) - cut, butter
  • tick(ɪ) - sit, pin
  • please(iː) - theme, fleet
  • dot(ɒ) - goggles, fog
  • foot(ʊ) - cook, put
  • food(uː) - flute, boon
  • word(ɜː) - bird, worm
  • warm(ɔː) - more, warn
  • arm(aː) - park, far
  • pant(æ) - bat, fan
• Pure vowels are classified into two:
  • checked vowels
  • free vowels

Checked vowels:

• These vowels cannot occur at the end of open syllables.
• 7 out 12 vowels are checked.
  • ʌ
  • e
  • ə
  • ʊ,
  • ɪ,
  • æ and
  • ɒ

Free vowels:

• These vowels can be used at the end of open syllables.
  • uː,
  • iː,
  • ɜː,
  • aː and
  • ɔː

Diphthongs:

Diphthongs are speech sounds formed by the combination of two vowel sounds. They do not resemble the speech sound of either vowel sound, instead form an entirely new speech sound.

• /aɪ/ - fight, write
• /aʊ/ - plough, cow
• /eə/ - their, chair
• /əʊ/ - soak, rodent
• /eɪ/ - fate, pain
• /ɪə/ - here, cheer
• /ʊə/ - poor, sure
• /ɔɪ/ - toy, exploit

Consonants