MONOPHTHONG

8th October, 2013

 What is a vowel?

 A vowel, also known as

a monothong, is a
sound produced in the
mouth with no air
obstruction. That is,
there is nothing
blocking the flow of air
from the lungs out
through the mouth.
 If you try saying aaaaa, iiiii, uuuuu,
eeeeee, oooooo to yourself you should be
able to feel that, although your tongue
moves about your mouth, it never actually
obstructs the airflow. You should also be
able to feel that the position of the tongue
changes for each of those vowels.
 The Vowel Chart
 The vowel chart shows where sounds are
produced in the mouth, and is divided into
sections, both horizontally and vertically. The
chart is designed to show where each vowel
sound is produced in the mouth. For this reason,
vowels are labeled as front, central, or back.
 Vowel classification

 The long or tense monophthong are [i]ː as

in ‘see’ [ɜː] as in church [ɑ]ː as in car [ɔ]ː as
in door [u]ː as in pool

 The short or lax monophthong are [ɪ] as

in ‘sit’ [e] [æ] [ʌ] [ə] [ɒ] [ʊ]
 Front Vowels

 Front vowels are pronounced

using the front of the mouth.
There are four: [i:], [I], [e], and
[æ].

 [i:] .
 EX: Sweet, people,quay, key.

 [I] is shorter in pronunciation.

 EX: Si t, fi ll, pi ll, gui lt, build
 [e] is pronounced “ate”
 EX: Name, bed, leopard, says, said

 [æ] is a unique sound.

 EX: Fa t, ba nd, back, sack
 Let’s tryTry
someYour
single Luck!
exercises and see
if we can identify the front vowel
sound!

 Bill

[i] [I] [æ]

 Here’s another one!

 m an

[e] [i] [æ]

 Now let’s try some more exercises!

 Central vowels
 Low mid unround back [ʌ] as in ‘cup’,
‘luck’, ‘fuss’ blood, honey

 Mid central unround [ɜː] as in ‘nurse’, ‘fir’,

‘worse’, girl, journey
 Central vowels
 Long low back unrounded [ɑ]ː as in ‘father’
cart, park, heart

 Central vowel schwa [ə] as in ‘about’,

‘puma’, doctor: (commonest vowel in
syllables that don’t carry stress)
 Mid back vowels
 low mid back vowel [ɔ]ː as in ‘cause’,
bought’, ‘door’

 Short low back round [ɒ] as in ‘dog’

 High back vowels
 High back vowel [u]ː as in ‘shoe’, pool,
school

 Low back vowel [ʊ] as in ‘put’, cook, look,

could, pull