English Pronunciation and Phonetics

LESSON TWO

VOWELS
I. GENERAL

In the most common view, vowels are voiced sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow
of air as it passes from the lungs to the lips. Moreover, other important differences between
vowels and consonants are in their different distributions, the different contexts and positions in
which they occur.

All of the vowels are syllabic, for they form the centre of a syllable. Whenever a vowel occurs in
a word, there is a syllable.

There are 20 vowels in the English language: 12 cardinal-single vowels /I, iù, e, Q, Ã, Aù, ,
ù, U, uù, «, Îù/ and 8 diphthongs /eI, aI, I, aU, «U, e«, U«, I«/.

II. CLASSIFICATION

It has become traditional to locate cardinal vowels on a four-sided figure to help students learn
a way of describing, classifying and comparing vowels.

RP VOWEL CHART

Cardinal vowels can be classified according to the following principles:

1. The position of the tongue

- When the front of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate, we have front
vowels.
- When the middle of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate, we have central
vowels.
- When the back of the tongue is raised toward the soft palate, we have back vowels.

3
 English Pronunciation and Phonetics

2. The height of the tongue

- When the tongue is raised close to the palate and the passage is narrow, we have
close vowels.
- When the tongue is in mid position, we have mid-open vowels. This group
sometimes is considered to include half-close and half-open vowels.
- When the tongue is low and the passage is wide, we have open vowels.

3. Lip position: The lips can have three main shapes: rounded, spread and neutral.
- When the vowel is produced with the corners of the lips brought towards each other
and the lips pushed forwards, it is rounded.
- When the vowel is produced with the corners of the lips moved away from each other,
it is spread.
- When the vowel is produced with lips not noticeable rounded or spread, it is neutral.

4. Length
- When some vowels are produced and sustained over a longer time than others, they
are long vowels.
- The vowels which are relatively short are short vowels.

5. Muscle tension
- When we produce a vowel with great tension of the jaw and the throat, we have a
tense vowel.
- When we produce a vowel with great relaxation of the jaw and the throat, we have
a relaxed vowel.

III. DIPHTHONGS

A diphthong is a combination of 2 vowels produced within one syllable.

- The first element is the nucleus (strong – clear – distinct vowel sound).
- The second element is the glide (weak – short vowel).