Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

Introduction

This paper aims at presenting an overview of English consonants and vowels. First, the vocal organs are introduced.
Second, the differences between consonants and vowels are established in terms of spelling, phonology and
phonetics. Third, the English consonants are classified and described. Last, the English vowels are addressed.

Organs of speech

Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air out of the lungs. Air from the lungs goes up the trachea and into
the larynx, where the vocal cords lie. The vocal cords are two small muscular folds that can assume different
positions. When we are just breathing, the vocal cords are wide apart so that the air from the lungs can escape freely
through the pharynx and the mouth. When the vocal cords are near together leaving a narrow passage between
them, the airstream will make them vibrate. Most vowels are produced with the vocal cords vibrating, therefore
they are voiced sounds. Sounds that are produced without vocal cord vibration are said to be voiceless. Most English
obstruent1 consonants can be distinguished just by the position of the vocal cords. For example, try saying a long s
sound (sssss) and compare that to a long z sound (zzzzz). Both of these sounds are produced in the same way in the
mouth. The difference between them lies in the position of the vocal cords. The vocal cords vibrate for the
production of [z]; therefore, [z] is voiced. While the vocal cords are wide apart for the production of [s]; thus, [s] is
voiceless. You can feel this vibration by putting your hand in your throat.

The air passages above the larynx are called the vocal tract. The vocal tract can be divided into two: the oral tract
(within the mouth and larynx) and the nasal tract (within the nose). The articulators are the parts of the vocal tract
that can be used to produce sounds. The articulators that form the lower surface of the vocal tract are moveable and
approach those that form the upper unmovable parts of the mouth and the back wall of the pharynx. Figure 1 below
shows the nasal tract and the articulators of the upper and lower surface of the oral tract.

Figure 1: Nasal and oral tract. The main parts of the upper and lower surface of the vocal tract.

Close your eyes and with the tip of your tongue explore the upper surface. You will feel the inside of the upper lip,
then, the back of the upper teeth. Just behind the upper teeth you will feel a hump or protuberance. This is the
alveolar ridge. You will also feel that the front part of the roof of your mouth has a bony structure. This part is called

1
Obstruent consonants are produced with a complete closure or a stricture causing friction at some point in the mouth.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

the hard palate. In order to feel the back part of the roof of your mouth you can either curl the tip of your tongue or
use a fingertip. At the back of the mouth, you will feel a soft surface. This is the soft palate or velum. The soft palate
can be raised or lowered. When it is raised, the nasal cavity is shut off and all the air escapes through the mouth, as
in all oral sounds. When it is lowered, the air can escape through the mouth and the nose, as in nasal vowels; or, if
there is a closure at some point in the mouth, all the air will escape through the nose, as in nasal consonants. At the
lower end of the soft palate, there is a small appendage called the uvula. The pharynx is between the uvula and the
larynx. In certain languages, not in English, some sounds are articulated with the root of the tongue raised in the
direction of the pharynx wall. The vocal cords are in the larynx.

The lower lip and the tongue are the articulators of the lower surface of the vocal tract. The tip and blade of the
tongue are the most mobile parts. The front is the forward part of the tongue that lies underneath the hard palate
when the tongue is at rest. The center of the tongue is partly beneath the hard palate and the soft palate. The back
is beneath the soft palate. The root is opposite the back wall of the pharynx.

Phonetics is the scientific study of the speech sounds that occur in a language. The study of the organs of speech and
how they are used in producing speech sounds is called articulatory phonetics. However, there are at least two
other ways of studying speech sounds. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of the sounds produced in
speaking. Auditory phonetics studies the processing and interpretation of speech sounds by the ear, the nervous
system and the brain. In the teaching of a foreign language, the description of the sounds of that language focuses
on how the sounds are produced; therefore, the emphasis is on the articulatory event. The most convenient
descriptive technique combines articulatory criteria and auditory judgments. Thus, consonants are most easily
described in terms of their articulation, whereas the description of vowels requires both articulatory and auditory
impressions.

Vowels and consonants

Different meanings are associated with the terms ‘vowel’ and ‘consonant’. In spelling, the difference between vowel
letters and consonant letters is clear-cut. However, when referring to sounds, they have different meanings
depending on whether their function or their production is taken into account. In general, consonants are those
segments which occur at the edges of syllables, while vowels are those which occur at the center of syllables. This
reference to the functioning of sounds in syllables in a particular language is a phonological definition
(CRUTTENDEN, 2008, p. 26). When taking into account the differences between vowels and consonants in terms of
their production, we are moving to a phonetic definition. In that sense, a basic distinction in the production of
vowels and consonants is the fact that the latter involve some kind of obstruction or narrowing in the mouth which
prevents the air from escaping with freedom. With vowels, the air escapes rather freely through the mouth because
there is little narrowing.

But difficulties arise in English with those definitions because certain sounds seem to belong to one group
phonologically speaking and to the other in phonetic terms. On one hand, English /,/ are consonants
phonologically speaking because they occupy the edges of syllables. However, phonetically speaking they resemble
vowels. That is why they are also called semi-vowels. On the other hand, in words such as sudden or local the final
consonants // and //2 form syllables on their own, so they are the center of those syllables. That is to say, even
though they are phonetically consonants, in those cases they are phonologically vowels. In those cases, nasals and
laterals are called syllabic consonants.

In the following sections we will describe and classify speech sounds phonetically.

2
// and // more frequently occur at the edges of syllables, as in net, look. In those cases, they are consonants both
phonologically and phonetically: they function and are produced as consonants.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

Consonants

All English consonants are produced with the air coming out from the lungs. In order to describe and classify them
we need to consider the following:

 State of the glottis: position of the vocal cords vibrating or not.

 Force of articulation: the degree of breath and muscular effort involved in the articulation.
 Position of the velum: whether the soft palate is raised shutting off the nasal cavity or lowered, allowing the
air to escape through the nose
 Place of articulation: where the sounds are produced within the vocal tract
 Manner of articulation: how the sounds are produced depending on the type of closure or narrowing.

State of the glottis:

At any place of articulation, a consonant articulation may be produced with vocal cord vibration or not, i.e. may be
voiced or voiceless. English voiceless consonants are ALWAYS voiceless. They never suffer assimilation of voice, i.e.
they are never influenced by a following voiced sound. On the other hand, English voiced consonants are only fully
voiced when they are between voiced sounds. When they are preceded or followed by silence they are partially or
completely devoiced. For example, the first [] is fully voiced in the word roses [] because it is between two
vowels. If the word is in final position or followed by a word that starts with a voiceless consonant, the final [] will
be partially or completely devoiced, i.e. it will be produced with little or no vocal cord vibration.

Force of articulation:

A voiceless/voiced pair such as [,] are distinguished not only by the absence or presence of voice but also by the
degree of breath and muscular effort involved in the articulation (CRUTTENDEN, 2008, p. 30). In English, voiceless
consonants are relatively strong and are called fortis; whereas voiced consonants are produced with relatively weak
energy and are said to be lenis. Lenis consonants remain weak even if they are devoiced, i.e. even when they are not
produced with (total) vocal cord vibration. Therefore, the energy of articulation becomes a significant factor in
distinguishing such pairs of consonants. Another characteristic of fortis consonants is the fact that they are longer
than their lenis counterpart. For example, the consonant /t/ is longer than /d/. As such, fortis consonants tend to
reduce the length of the preceding vowel sound. Look at the waveforms below that exemplify the words pat and
pad.

Figure 2: Waveforms of pat and pad (adapted from Ladefoged, 1993)

Figure 2 above shows time in the horizontal axis. The fortis sound /t/ is comparatively longer than the lenis sound
/d/. This, in turn, affects the length of the preceding vowel. The vowel // is shorter when followed by /t/ than
when it is followed by /d/.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

Position of the velum:

Most English consonants are produced with the soft palate being raised and the air escaping only through the
mouth, i.e. most consonants are oral. The only English consonants that are produced with the soft palate lowered
are the nasal consonants /,,/.

Place of articulation:

Figure 3 below shows the points or places of articulation of the English consonants.

Figure 3: Places of articulation: 1 Bilabial; 2 Labiodental; 3 Interdental; 4 Alveolar; 5 Post-alveolar; 6 Retroflex; 7 Palato-alveolar;
8 Palatal; 9 Velar; 10 Glottal (adapted from Ladefoged, 1993, p. 6)

1. Bilabial: the two lips are the primary articulators, e.g. [,,] as in pop, Bob, mum.
2. Labiodental: the lower lip articulates with the upper teeth, e.g. [, ] as in fight, view.
3. Interdental: the tongue tip or blade is placed between the upper and lower front teeth, e.g. [, ] as in
thumb, this.
4. Alveolar: the blade, or tip and blade, of the tongue articulates with the alveolar ridge, e.g. [, , , , , ] as
in tea, day, last, noise, sun, zoo.
5. Post-alveolar: the tip of the tongue articulates with the rear part of the alveolar ridge, e.g. [3, , 4] as in
red, train, dry.
6. Retroflex5: the tip of the tongue is curled back to articulate with the part of the hard palate immediately
behind the alveolar ridge. This sound is a typical characteristic of American English. Some American speakers

3
The symbol [], used to differentiate the post-alveolar type of English r from other varieties, will normally be replaced by []
when no such comparison is required.
The alveolar sounds [, ] have a post-alveolar point of articulation when followed by the sound [] within the same syllable,
4

e.g. train, drop.

5
Authors do not reach a consensus on the definition and classification of retroflex sounds. Ladefoged (1993) considers it a place
of articulation. For Laver (1994) it is a label applied to any conformation of the tongue in which the tip is bent up and back, but
not used to label a place of articulation. Cristófaro-Silva (2011) treats it as a manner of articulation.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

produce it only in post-vocalic position, e.g. car, park. Others use this sound also in prevocalic position, e.g.
rich.
7. Palato-alveolar: the blade, or the tip and blade, of the tongue articulates with the alveolar ridge and there is
at the same time a raising of the front of the tongue towards the hard palate, e.g. [, , , ] as in shy,
vision, church, just.
8. Palatal: the front of the tongue articulates with the hard palate, e.g. [] as in yes.
9. Velar: the back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate, e.g. [, , ] as in cook, gut, sing.
10. Glottal: the vocal cords articulate together, e.g. [] as in home.

Manner of articulation:

At most places of articulations there are several ways in which articulation can be accomplished. The obstruction
made by the organs may be total, or may merely constitute a narrowing sufficient to cause friction; or may simply
modify the shape of the tract by approaching each other in some way without any friction.

Complete closure

(Oral) stop or plosive: a complete closure at some point in the mouth, behind which the air pressure builds up and
can be released abruptly and explosively, e.g. [, , , , , ].

Affricate: a complete closure at some point in the mouth, behind which the air pressure builds up; the separation of
the organs is slow compared with that of a plosive, so that friction is a characteristic second element of the sound,
e.g. [, , , ]. Due to their distribution in English, the first two [, ] are considered phonemes, they occur
both in initial and in final positions, e.g. church, judge. While the last two [, ] are just considered allophonic
variants that occur only in initial position, e.g. train, dry.

Nasal (stop): a complete closure at some point in the mouth but, the soft palate being lowered, the air escapes freely
through the nose, e.g. [, , ]. These sounds are continuants and produced with vocal cord vibration. They share
those two characteristics with vowel sounds.

Tap or flap: a single tap or flap of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, e.g. []. In British English, this sound may
occur as a variant of [] in intervocalic position, as in very. In American English, this sound normally occurs as a
variant of [] in intervocalic post-tonic position, as in city, party.

Narrowing

Fricative: two organs approximate to such an extent that the airstream passes through them with friction, e.g. [, ,
, , , , , , ]. For the listener, these sounds produce noise.

Approximation

Approximant is an articulation in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being
narrowed enough to produce a turbulent airstream; therefore, no friction is produced.

Semi-vowel: the approximants [ ] are also called semi-vowels. These two sounds are included in the consonantal
category on functional grounds. Phonologically speaking, they take the pre-consonantal form of the article, e.g. a
yacht, a witch; and they occur at the edge of syllables. But from the point of view of phonetic description they are
more properly treated as vowel glides.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

Frictionless continuant: in British English, the pre-vocalic r-sound has neither the closure nor the noise component
typical of consonantal articulations [], e.g. rest. There is a mere open approximation of the tip or tip and blade of
the tongue in the direction of the post-alveolar region. In the production of this sound, the tip of the tongue is not
curled as for the retroflex sound.

Lateral: a partial closure is made at some point along the center of the mouth; the airstream is allowed to escape
laterally on one or both sides of the contact. As there is no stoppage of the air, and not even any fricative noise,
these sounds are classified as approximants. As these sounds tend to be voiced and continuant they are vowel-like.
In English, the lateral approximant [] has two allophones: clear [] and dark []. The clear variant occurs before
vowels, ex. look, the dark one, after vowels, ex. cold. American English tends to use the dark variant [] in all
positions. This variant is produced with the tip or tip and blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge and the back
of the tongue raised in the direction of the velar region. That is why it is a velarized sound.

To summarize, English consonants can be described in terms of five factors: (1) state of the vocal cords (voiced or
voiceless); (2) force of articulation (lenis or fortis); (3) position of the velum (oral or nasal); (4) place of articulation;
(5) manner of articulation. Thus, the consonant at the beginning of the word see may be described as: (1) voiceless,
(2) fortis; (3) oral; (4) alveolar; (5) fricative. However, in general it is not necessary to state all these factors to label a
sound. As all voiced consonants are also lenis and all voiceless are also fortis, for economy we may use just
voiced/voiceless. Most consonants are oral as they are produced with the soft palate being raised and the nasal
cavity shut off. Only the nasal consonants are produced with the soft palate lowered, then that label is just used to
differentiate them from all the others. So the consonant [] is simply called a voiceless alveolar fricative. The last
thing to bear in mind is that those labels always follow that order: state of the glottis, place of articulation and
manner of articulation.

Vowels

It is much easier to describe English consonants than vowels for different reasons. First, vowels vary more than
consonants. Second, as these sounds are produced without any closure or narrowing, it is difficult to describe them
just in articulatory terms and auditory judgments of sound relationships are also needed. Third, different linguists
have analyzed the English vowels in different ways. These analyses recognize different number of vowels, they use
different symbols, they highlight different features and they use different terms to describe them.

English vowels exhibit a great deal of dialect variation, much greater than consonants. This variation is related to
geographical region, social class, educational background, age and gender, among other factors. These factors affect
all aspects of pronunciation, but vowel variation is the most noticeable.

According to Kreidler (1989), the differences in the vowels are of three kinds: in the inventory of vowels, in their
incidence, and in their phonetic realization. For example, in RP British English, the words part // and pot //
are pronounced with two different vowels /, /, while in GA American English, both words are pronounced with
the same vowel //. The only difference between the two words is the presence of // in the first one: part //
and pot //. That is to say, the vowel // is not part of the American inventory.

The term incidence refers to the occurrence of particular vowels in particular sets of words. Speakers of different
dialects may share the same inventory but use it in different ways. Kreidler (1989) gives the example of the words
father, rather, and lather (p.50). Some speakers produce the same vowel in the three words //, others produce
lather with the vowel of latter //. A third group produce both rather, and lather with that vowel.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

Phonetic realization has to do with how the same sound is pronounced by people from different dialects. It is related
to fine phonetic details, to the exact quality of the same vowel.

In the production of vowel sounds, the articulators do not come very close together, so that there is relatively little
obstruction of the airstream in comparison to consonants. Different vowel qualities result from different
configurations of the vocal tract in terms of shape and size of the resonant space in the mouth. This is determined by
the tongue height – whether the tongue is high, mid or low in the mouth; by the frontness/backness of tongue –
whether the front, center or back of the tongue is involved; by the lip position – whether the lips are spread,
neutral or rounded; by the tenseness/laxness – whether the muscles are tense or lax; and there is another
characteristic that is not related to the vocal tract configuration that is the length or duration of a vowel – whether
the vowel is short or long6. All these factors together are necessary to describe and classify the English vowels.
Vowels also differ in complexity – whether the vowel is simple, pure, i.e. a monophthong or a compound vowel, i.e.
a diphthong. In a monophthong, the tongue and lips remain relatively stable throughout the articulation. In a
diphthong, there is one mouth posture at the beginning of the vowel sound, and another at the end. The resulting
glide between these two tongue and lip positions gives the diphthong its characteristic ‘two-sound’ quality
(UNDERHILL, 1994, p.4).

Tongue height

Pronounce the vowels in seat, sit, set, and sat in sequence. You will notice that your tongue lowers and your jaw
drops as you move from one vowel to the next. The vowels in seat // and sit // are both considered to be high
vowels because they are produced with the tongue raised above its rest position. Notice, however, that the vowel in
seat is higher than the vowel in sit. The vowel in set //7 is a mid vowel because the tongue is neither high nor low in
the mouth. The vowel in sat is a low vowel because it is pronounced with the tongue below its rest position and the
mouth opened.

If you pronounce the words pool, pull, Paul, and pot in sequence, again you will feel the tongue gradually lowering
and your jaw dropping as you move from one vowel to the next. The vowels in pool // and pull // are high
vowels. Again, the vowel in pool is higher than the vowel in pull. The vowel in Paul // is a mid vowel and the vowel
in pot //8 is a low vowel.

Figures 4 and 5 below show the position of the tongue in the pronunciation of the high front vowel in the word seat
and sat, respectively (adapted from AVERY; EHRLICH, 1992, p28).

6
Portuguese vowels are not phonologically distinguished by the length or duration, i.e. there are not short and long vowels. On
the other hand, Portuguese has oral and nasal vowels while in English, all vowels are oral.
7
Some dictionaries use the symbol // to represent this vowel. It might be helpful for Brazilian learners of English to use the
symbol // as a way to avoid nasalization of the vowel and suppression of the following nasal consonant in words such as ten.
8
Remember that the vowel // is present in RP British inventory but it is not part of GA American English. In GA, the vowel in
the word pot is //. However, this vowel is also a low vowel. In fact, the difference between // and // is that the first is
produced with lip-rounding and the second is not.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

Figure 4: high front vowel // Figure 5: low front vowel //

In Figure 4, the tongue is high in the mouth while in Figure 5 the tongue is low.

Frontness/backness of tongue

In pronouncing the two sequences of words in the section above, you may have noticed that a different part of the
tongue was raised or lowered in both sets. You can also feel this difference by saying the sound //, and as you do so
put the tip of your finger (or a pen or pencil) in contact with the tip of your tongue. Now gradually slide towards the
sound //, you will notice that you lose contact with the tip of your tongue. That shows vowel // is produced with
the front of the tongue high in the mouth, while vowel // is pronounced with the back of the tongue high in the
mouth. Thus, the vowel of seat is referred to as a high front vowel and the vowel in pool as a high back vowel. Look
at Figure 4 again and compare it to Figure 6 below (adapted from AVERY; EHRLICH, 2004, p30).

Figure 4: high front vowel // Figure 6: high back vowel //

In Figure 4, the front of the tongue is high in the mouth in the direction of the hard palate while in Figure 6 the back
of the tongue is high in the mouth in the direction of the soft palate.

The same difference exists between the vowels // (mid front vowel) and // (mid back vowel); and between the
vowels // (low front vowel) and // (low back rounded vowel) or // (low back unrounded vowel).

In English, there are also vowels made with the center of the tongue. These are called central vowels. Pronounce the
vowels in hurt //9 and hut //. You may notice that your tongue lowers and your jaw drops a bit as you move from
the first vowel to the second. The position of the tongue for // is very near the position that the tongue occupies
when it is at rest, the tongue is neither high nor low, that is to say, // is a mid central vowel. For the production of
// the tongue lowers a little so that this is a low central vowel. There is a third mid central vowel that only occurs in

9
In American English, this vowel is produced with the tip of the tongue curled up, as it is always associated with a following
letter ‘r’, therefore, the symbol is //.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

unstressed syllables. This vowel is called schwa //10, ex. about, pizza. It is the most common vowel in English and
plays a major role in the English stress system and rhythm.

Lip position

Lip position is another important variable of vowel quality. For the sake of vowel description three different
positions are considered: spread, neutral, and rounded.

- Spread: the corners of the lips move away from each other, as for a smile. Front vowels are produced with
different degrees of spreading of lips.
- Rounded: the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips are pushed forwards, as for a
kiss. Back vowels tend to have different degrees of lip rounding11.
- Neutral: the lips are neither rounded nor spread. Central vowels are pronounced with the lips in this
position.

Tenseness/laxness

Vowels also differ in terms of muscle tension in the mouth. Vowels produced with extra muscle tension are tense
and those articulated without this tension are lax. The tense vowels are /    /; the lax vowels are /    
/. If you say the words seat and sit, you will notice that these two high front vowels differ in the degree of muscle
tension with which they are articulated. The facial muscles are more tense in the pronunciation of seat than in sit.
This also causes a grater spreading of the lips in seat. The tense vowels are more peripheral than the lax ones, for
example, // is higher and more front than //, // is higher and more back than //. The tense vowels are also
longer than their lax counterparts.

Vowel length or duration

Vowel length or duration is a relevant aspect of English vowels both at the phonological and phonetic levels. Length
or duration is a distinctive feature of the English vowels. There are five long vowels /    / and six short
vowels /     /. The colon after the symbol of the long vowels represents the length. A long vowel has a longer
duration than a short vowel in the same context, ex. seat, sit. But length is not an invariable characteristic of any
vowel, therefore, the difference in quality that is determined by the shape and configuration of the vocal tract is the
main distinguishing factor.

As you can see, the long vowels are tense and the short ones are lax. In fact, as both features (tenseness and length)
are redundant, British linguists tend to use just the labels long/short, while Americans use only the labels tense/lax.
Long and short vowels have a different distribution in the English system. While long vowels are ‘free’ to occur both
in syllables that end in a vowel (ex. sea) and in syllables that end in a consonant (ex. seat); short vowels can only
occur in checked syllables, i.e. in syllables that end in a consonant (ex. sit). Vowel length is also a crucial element in
English lexical stress assignment, as long vowels tend to attract stress much more than short vowels.

At the phonetic level, vowel length is affected by the following sound. Fortis consonants tend to reduce the length of
a preceding vowel. Therefore, length is not invariable and, in identical contexts, we can say, for example, that //
(ex. seat) is longer than // (ex. sit). But if we compare // in seat and seed, we will notice that the first is shorter
than the second. In the same way, // is shorter in kit than in kid. Finally, if we compare // in leaf to // in live, we

10
In American English, when this vowel is followed by a letter ‘r’, as in words such as doctor, manner it is pronounced with the
tip of the tongue curled up, therefore, the symbol is //.
11
The only back vowel made without lip rounding is //.
Overview of English consonants and vowels – Adriana Marusso ©, LET847 – Língua Inglesa: Fonologia I, UFOP, 2017.

will notice that the long and the short vowel are roughly the same length. That is so because // in leaf is shortened
due to the influence of the following fortis consonant //, while // in live is followed by the lenis consonant //.

To summarize, English vowels can be described in terms of five factors: (1) the tongue height in the mouth (high, mid
or low); (2) the frontness/backness of tongue (front, central or back); (3) position of the lips (spread, neutral or
rounded); (4) the tenseness/laxness (tense or lax); (5) the length or duration of a vowel (short or long). Thus, the
vowel at the beginning of the word eat may be described as: (1) high, (2) front; (3) spread; (4) tense; (5) long.
However, in general it is not necessary to state all these factors to label an English vowel. In English, all front vowels
are produced with spread lips, and all central vowels are produced with neutral lips. Therefore, only back vowels are
distinguished as being produced with lip rounding. As already mentioned, all tense vowels are long and all lax vowels
are short. Consequently, those two labels become redundant. In short, the vowel in the word eat can be described
as a long high front vowel. And the vowel in the word zoo as a long high back rounded vowel. The last thing to bear
in mind is that those labels always follow that order: duration, height, part of the tongue and lip position.

References

AVERY, P.; EHRLICH, S. Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.

CRISTÓFARO-SILVA, T. Dicionário de Fonética e Fonologia. São Paulo: Editora Contexto, 2011.

CRUTTENDEN, A. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. Hodder Education, London, 2008.

KREIDLER, C. The Pronunciation of English. A Course Book in Phonology. Blackwell Publishers, 1989.

LADEFOGED, P. A Course in Phonetics. 3rd Ed., Harcourt Brace & Co., 1993.

LAVER, J. Principles in Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

UNDERHILL, A. Sound Foundations. Heinemann, 1994.