1 Ridwan OSHIOYEMI 

Home

Home  My courses  Main Campus  Harmattan_2324  General Studies  GST111 -

Communication in English  1 - Sound Patterns in English Language  Vowel Sounds

Vowel Sounds
1. Vowel Sound

Vowels

Vowels are produced through the flow of air directed into di!erent parts of the mouth. All vowels
are voiced in English. Vowels are of three types:

i. the monophthongs: those that constitute a single sound, e.g., /ɪ/

ii. the diphthongs: those that constitute two monophthong vowels, e.g., /aɪ/

iii. the triphthongs: those that constitute three monophthongs vowels, e.g, /aɪә/

Unlike the consonant sounds, all vowels are voiced sounds irrespective of the types (as illustrated
above). However, single vowels which are monophthongs can be either long or short. Those
monophthongs vowels that have the diacritic [:] are long vowels while those without the diacritic are
short vowels.

Monophthongs
:
 The English monophthong vowels are regarded as the pure vowels. They are twelve in number.
These vowel sounds are called monophthong because they are pronounced as a single, unchanging
sound, without any significant change in quality or length. In other words, it is a single vowel sound
that remains constant throughout its pronunciation is a monophthong vowel. Based on their
representation on the vowel chart, the monophthong vowels can be classified as based on the
shape of the lips, height of the tongue and length of the tongue.
:
 Description of the English Monophthongs
There are two types of monophthongs: long and short monophthongs. There are 5 long
vowels and 7 short ones.

Long

/a:/ as in calm.
/u:/ as in cool.
/i:/ as in leap.
/3:/ as in turn.
/ɔ:/ as in all.

Short

/ɪ/ as in sit.
/ʊ/ as in boot.
/e/ as in bed.
/ə/ as in letter.
/æ/ as in rat.
/ʌ/ as in bus.
/ɒ/ as in pot.
:
:
 Diphthongs
Unlike monophthongs which constitute single sounds, diphthongs are combination of two
monophthongs. Also, diphthongs are vowel sounds that involve a gradual change in quality and
length, such as the "oi" sound in "boil" or the "au" sound in "caught". Diphthongs are gliding vowels,
created when a speaker glides from one vowel sound glides into another. The totality of the English
language diphthongs are eight. the diphthongs are illustrated as follows:
:
 /eɪ/ as in late (/leɪt/) or gate (/geɪt/)

/ɪə/ as in dear (/dɪə/) or fear (/fɪə/)

/eə/ as in fair (/feə/) or care (/keə/)

/ʊə/ as in sure (/ʃʊə/) or cure (/kjʊə/)

/əʊ/ as in globe (/ˈgləʊb/) or show (/ʃəʊ/)

/ɔɪ/ as in join (/ʤɔɪn/) or coin (/kɔɪn/)

/aɪ/ as in time (/taɪm/) or rhyme (/raɪm/)

/aʊ/ as in cow (/kaʊ/) or how (/haʊ/)

Description of the English Diphthong Vowels

The categories of the English diphthongs are falling and rising diphthongs, opening,
closing, centring diphthongs, and wide and narrow diphthongs.

Falling diphthongs are diphthongs that begin with a higher pitch or volume and end with a
lower pitch or volume. The most common falling diphthong is /aɪ/ found in words
like eye, flight and kite. Here the first vowel sound is the syllable-building sound.

Rising diphthongs are the opposite of falling diphthongs. They begin with a lower pitch or
volume and end with a higher pitch or volume. The rising diphthong sound is created in English
when a vowel follows a semivowel. The semivowels are /j/ and /w/. There are no specific
phonemic representations (e.g. /əʊ/) for rising diphthongs, as they are usually analysed as a
sequence of two phonemes (e.g. /wiː/). The rising diphthong sound can be heard in words
like yell (/jel/), weed (/wiːd/), and walk (/wɔːk/).

Closing diphthongs have a second vowel sound that is more ‘closed’ than the first. A closed
vowel is pronounced with the tongue in a much higher position in the mouth (e.g. /iː/ in see).
Centring diphthongs have a second vowel that is mid-central, i.e. it is pronounced with the
tongue in a neutral or central position. The mid-central vowel sound is also known as
the schwa (/ə/). Any diphthong ending with the schwa sound can be considered a centring
:
 diphthong, e.g. /ɪə/ found in dear, /eə/ found in fair, and /ʊə/ found in cure.
Wide diphthongs require a large tongue movement from the first vowel sound to the second
vowel sound. In wide diphthongs, the sound di!erence between the two vowel sounds will be
more prominent.

Exit book ▲

◀ Consonant Sounds

Jump to... References ▶

 Table of contents

1. Vowel Sound

 Recent activity

Activity since Sunday, 14 January 2024, 10:16 PM

Full report of recent activity...

NEW FORUM POSTS:

AMEERAH ALUKO 15 Jan, 16:42

GST111

VERA BAMISAYE 16 Jan, 15:25

Gst
:
 Calendar

◀ January 2024 ▶
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

Hide site events

Hide category events

Hide course events

Hide group events

Hide user events

Hide other events

Need help or support?

 E-mail: lmshelp@kwasu.edu.ng

or visit:
 CDEE Virtual Learning Help Desk, First Floor, Main Library Complex, Malete Campus.
OR
 CDEE Virtual Learning Support Hub, A-Division Area, Ilorin, Kwara State.
(same premises as KWASU Business School)
:
 © 2023 | Centre for Distance and E-Learning Education | Kwara State University
Reset user tour on this page
: