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1. English vowels handout
I. Definition of vowels
A vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as ah! [ɑː] or oh! [əʊ],
pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure
at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as
English sh! [ʃː], there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal
tract. A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic
sound is called a semivowel.
The English language has a fairly complex system of vowels. There are 12
main vowel sounds, but their pronunciation can vary in different contexts and in
different geographic areas. Keep in mind as you learn English pronunciation
that English spelling is rather unpredictable with a multitude of exceptions and
variations. The rules sometimes seem to lack a predictable pattern. Fortunately
there are only a limited number of 'phonemes', or sounds. Individual phonemes
are represented by their International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol between
forward slashes: / /.
The difference between vowels and consonants, of course, is that there is
generally no stoppage of air when pronouncing the vowel. Also, vowels are
always pronounced while the vocal chords are vibrated (voiced).
Linguists generally distinguish vowels by certain criteria that roughly
correspond to the location and manner of pronunciation: front vs. back, open vs.
close, and rounded vs. unrounded. Charts are often used to map vowels
according to these features. The 12 English vowel sounds are charted below:

2. How to produce vowels sounds
A vowel sound is an exhalation of air where a sound is produced in the larynx
(voicebox) rather than being shaped by the nose and mouth (tongue, lips, teeth).
 Vowels are sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract, so they do
not have a consonant-like point of articulation or manner of articulation.
 Instead, the vocal tract above the glottis acts as a resonator affecting the
sound made by the vocal folds.
II. English short vowels
English has a large number of vowel sounds the first ones to be examined
are short vowels.The system for them are “a” “e” “i” “o” “u”..A vowel is
usually short when there is only one vowel in a word or syllable, as in cat, bed,
and hot. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as with irregular
vowels
Since short vowels will take longer to get through. The short a sounds
like (short a). The key word for short is “cat”. To create the short a sound we
need to lift the middle of the tongue and push it forward and into our bottom
teeth a little bit. short a is a pretty forceful sound; we use a lot of muscle in our
mouth to create it. Try saying the sound alone. (short a)
Ex: short a (short a): add, after, bath, plan, crash
The short e sounds like (short e). There is very little muscle involved to
create this sound, just raise the middle of your tongue a tiny bit toward the roof
of the mouth. The sides of your tongue may lightly touch your upper teeth. The
key word for short e is “bed”
Ex; short e (short e): end, enter, bend, yes, dress
The short i sounds like (short i). It is the middle sound of the key word
“sit’. The middle of your tongue is a little higher for the short i sound than it is
for the short e sound. Listen to both sounds side by side. (short e, short i)
Ex; short i (short i): it, ill, gift, since, drip
To create the short o sound (short o), we need to open our mouth a lot.
Our jaw actually needs to open to get this sound out nice and clear. At the same
time as we open our mouth, our tongue bunches up some in the back of our

3. mouth. (short o) The key word for short o is “top”. Top. (t sound, short o, p
sound)
Ex: short o (short o): odd, on, box, lot, rock
Our last short vowel sound is the short u, and it sounds like (short u).
The short u sound is created by pressing the back of our tongue down, and our
mouth does not need to be open in the same way that it does for the short o.
The short u key word is sun. Listen to the difference in the middle sound in the
words top and sun. Top, sun. (short o, short u)
Ex: short u (short u): up, us, jump, luck, fun
May be you are starting to notice the sounds that are a bit harder for you. I
cannot stress the importance of listening practice enough, and I really
recommend that you should practice more. You can find minimal pairs for most
of these sounds
III. Long vowels
Definition:
LONG VOWELS:
The first to be introduced here are the five long vowels, there are the vowels which
tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts. It is necessary to say “in
similar contexts” because, as we shall see later, the length of all English vowel sounds
varies very much according to their context ( such as the type of sound that follows
them) and the presence or absence of stress. To remind you that these vowels tend to
be long, the symbols consist of one vowel symbol plus a length mark made of two
dots. Thus we have /i:/ , /a:/ , /æ/ , /ɔ:/ , /u:/ , /ɜ:/ . We will now look at each of these
long vowels individually.
The five long vowels are different from the six short vowels described in Chapter 2,
not only in length but also in quality. If you compare some similar pairs of short and
long vowels, for example /æ/ with /ɑː/ ( ‘hat’ – ‘heart’ ), or /e/ with /iː/ ( ‘bed’ –
‘bead’ ), or /ɪ/ with /iː/ ( ‘sit’ – ‘seen’ ) , we can see distinct differences in quality (
resulting from differences in tongue shape and position, and lip position) as well as in
length. For this reason, all the long vowels have symbols which are different from
those of short vowels; you can see that the long and short vowel sym-bols would still
all be different from each other even if we omittedthe length mark, so it is important
to remember that the length mark is used not because it is essential but because it
helpa learners to remember the length difference. Perhaps the only case where a long

4. and short vowel are closely similar in quality is that of /ɜ:/ and /ə/, but /ə/ is a special
case – as we shall see later.
1. /iː/ (example words: ‘beat’, ‘mean’, ‘peace’). This vowel is nearer to cardinal
vowel no. 1[i] (i.e. it is closer and more front) than is the short vowel of ‘bid’, ‘din’,
‘fish’ described in Chapter 2. Although the tongue shape is not much different from
cardinal vowel no. 1, the lips are only slightly spread and this result in a rather
different vowel quality.
2. /ɜ:/ (example words: ‘bird’, ‘fern’, ‘purse’). This is a mid-central vowel which is
used in most English accents as a hesitation sound (written ‘er’), but which many
learners find difficult to copy. The lip position is neutral.
3. /ɑː/ (example words: ‘card’, ‘half’, ‘pass’). This is an open vowel in the region of
cardinal vowel no. 5 [ɑ], but not as back as this. The lip position is neutral.
4. /ɔː/ (example words: ‘board’, ‘torn’, ‘horse’). The tongue height for this vowel is
between cardinal vowel no. 6 [ɔ] and no. 7 [o], and closer to the latter. This vowel is
almost fully back and has quite strong lip-rounding.
5. /uː/ (example words: ‘food’, ‘soon’, ‘loose’). The nearest cardinal vowel to this
is no. 8 [u], but BBC /uː/ is much less back and less close, while the lips are only
moderately rounded.
Summary:

5. - Vowels are the sounds in the production of which none of the articulators come
very close together so the passage of air-stream is relatively unobstructed and the air
can get out freely.
- Vowels are the type of sounds that depend mainly on the variations in the
position of the tongue. They are nomally voiced.
- Vowels can be classified according to three variables:
a. Tongue height:
+ High vowels: /uː/, /ʊ/
+ Mid vowels: /ɔ:/
+ Low vowels: /ɑː/, /ʌ/, /æ/, /ɒ/.
b. Part of the tongue which is raised
+ Front vowels: /iː/, /ɪ/
+ Central vowels: /ɜ/, /ɜ:/
+ Back vowels: /uː/, /ʊ/
c. Degree of lip rounding
+ Rounded vowels: /ɔ:/ , /u:/ , /ɜ:/ , /a:/ , /ʊ/ , /ɒ/
+ Unrounded vowels: /i:/ , /æ/ , /e/
+ Neutral vowels: /i/ , /ə/ , /ʌ/
IV. Diphthongs
Vowel is a speech sound in which the mouth is open and the tongue is not
touching the top of the mouth, the teeth. In this part, we’ll look at a type of
vowel Diphthong. There are many definitions of diphthong. Literally, they are
two sounds or two tones also known as gliding vowel, refers to two adjactents
vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a
vowel with two different targets: that is the tongue moves during the
pronunciation of the vowel.
Diphthongs contrast with monothongs, where the tongue or other speech
organs do not move significantly and the syllable contain only a single vowel
sound. To produce diphthongs sound, your tongue, lips <and your jaw on

6. occasions> have to move. Sometimes your tongue makes it short and very
controlled, in some of the diphthongs, it has to move a long distance in your
mouth, involving a lot of jaw movement too.
We find diphthongs are difficult because producing them is a motor skill which
has to be practiced in order to obtain a good result. You can’t succeed in
English pronunciation by understanding alone. The muscles you have to train to
make English diphthongs are unlikely to be identical to those you use in
production of vowel sound in your first language.
There are eight diphthongs altogether. They are categorized by two types:
centering diphthongs which ending in /ə/. They are /iə/ /eə/ and /ʊə/. And
closing diphthongs which divided into two types: ending in /i/: /ei/, /ai/, /ɔɪ/;
ending in /ʊ/: /əʊ/ and /aʊ/.
1. Centering diphthongs.
a. /iə/: as in beer, pier, hear. The starting point is /i/ as in if or pit which tongue
front and high, lips relaxed. Because diphthongs are composed by vowels, they
are also described by using the parameters of closeness <height>, frontness and
rounding. The parameters are listed using vowel closeness, height, frontness and
rounding of the first vowel and then followed by second vowel
b. /eə/: as in bear, pair, hair. The starting point is /e/ in egg, bed with tongue in
mid position at front of mouth. To make diphthong, using a small controlled
movement, pull your tongue slightly back from mid central position in your
mouth.
c. /ʊə/: as in tour, pour. The starting point is /ʊ/, pull your tongue back but
small aperture as in hook, book, look. This time the small controlled tongue
movement goes from the back position to the mid central position, losing the
lips rounding and relaxing your mouth from the tight starting position.
2. Closing diphthongs.
This part will analyze closing diphthongs ending /i/.
d. /ei/ as in day, pay, say. The starting point is /e/ with tongue in mid position at
front of mouth as in egg, bed or Ted. Therefore you move the up to make
diphthong
e. /ai/ as in sky, by, cry, tie. The starting point is /æ/ the same sound in cat, hat,
to make the diphthongs, you need a big jaw movement moving the tongue from
front open to front close.
f. /ɔɪ/ as in boy, toy or soil. The starting point is /ɔ:/ the sound in door, or, core.
Your tongue needs to be low, but you need to pull it back and make your mouth

7. round to produce the diphthong, you must relax the lip rounding and move your
tongue forward and up.
B. Lastly, I want to present closing diphthong ending /ʊ/: /əʊ/ and /aʊ/.
g. /əʊ/ as in phone, so. The starting point is the neutral sound also known as
schwa. It’s the short controlled movement in opposite direction from the center
to the back moving your relaxed lips into a tighter small round aperture. Your
check should move a bit.
h. /aʊ/ as in “how now brown cow”. To make the diphthong, your tongue from
front low < mouth very open> to back high <small tight mouth aperture> is a
very long excursion. Your jaw will move a lot too.
Understanding sounds, articulators is very important. Although you can
train to a certain extent through repetition, you will able to make further
improvement though awareness of the manner of articulation <the absence or
presence of lips rounding or tension, size of aperture, degree of jaw movement>
the starting and finishing tongue position and both the direction and extent of
tongue movement.
V. TRIPHTHONGS.
DEFINITION
There are many different definition of triphthongs based on different
document. We would like to mention here some common ones:
In English, Triphthong is a union of three vowels (letters or sounds)
pronounced in one syllable, contrasted with diphthong, monophthong.
In phonetics, a triphthong /ˈtrɪfθɒŋ/ (from Greek τρίφθογγος,
"triphthongos", literally "with three sounds," or "with three tones") is
a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of
the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third. While
"pure" vowels, or monophthongs, are said to have one target articulator
position, diphthongs have two, and triphthongs three.
In short, we can say, a triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and the
to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption.
CONTENT

8. About usage, in literature:
“A TRIPHTHONG is produced by running together three vowel sounds in the
same syllable.” (by Elmer W. Cavins)
• For example, a careful pronunciation of the word ‘hour’ begins with a vowel
quality similar to ‘ɑ:’, goes on to ‘ʊ’ then ends in ‘ə’.
• It says /aʊə/
• Triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the 5 closing diphthongs
with ‘ə’ added on the end:
- eɪ + ə = eɪə . as in layer, player
- aɪ + ə = aɪə. as in lire, fire
- ɔɪ + ə = ɔɪə, as in loyal, royal
- əʊ + ə = əuə, as in lower, mower
- aʊ + ə = auə, as in power, hour.
The principal cause of difficulty for the foreign learner is that in present-day
English the extent of the vowel movement is very small, except in very careful
pronunciation. Because of this, the middle of the three vowel qualities of the
triphthong (i.e. the /ɪ/ or /ʊ/ part) can hardly be heard and the resulting sound is
difficult to distinguish from some of the diphthongs and long vowels. To add to
the difficulty, there is also the problem of whether a triphthong is felt to contain
one or two syllables. Words such as ‘fire’ or ‘hour’ are probably felt by most
English speakers (with BBC pronunciation) to consist of only one syllable,

9. whereas ‘player’ /pleɪə/ or ‘slower’ /sləʊə/ are more likely to be heard as two
syllables.
However, nowadays, there’re still many debates about the confuse between
diphthongs and triphthongs. In the limitation of our lesson, that’s all we can tell
you about Triphthongs.
Conclusion
Learning the vowel sounds at the time helped us to learn that are relate
with positions lips and tongue position because is very important to consider
how to use the lips according to each vowel because are open, closed and in the
middle of the mouth and to identify the correct way in all the words that I can
find, also it help me very much to speak to people that understand English
language because generally they use 12 Pure vowels are divided into 4 close
vowels that help me to identify that the tongue is quite high in the mouth, Also
have 4 mid vowels that help me to identify that tongue is neither high nor low in
the mouth and finally this Pure vowels have 4 open vowels that help me to
know that with these vowels the tongue works in low in the mouth and also with
this Pure Vowels the tongue have different positions in the front and in the back
of the mouth, for example:

10. Finally, the vowel sounds have 8 diphthongs that are divided in 3
centering diphthongs that help me to distinguish because this work with the mid
vowels, also have 3 closing diphthongs ending in / I / these teach me that the
glide is towards a higher position in the mouth and finally these diphthongs
have 2 closing diphthongs ending in / ʊ / that teach me the same way that the
glide is towards a higher position in the mouth, for example:
VII. Sources of material

11. Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel
English pronunciation:
http://www.fonetiks.org/engsou2am.html