Shaina

• The key to improving pronunciation and articulation in English is the vowels.
• Mastering the correct vowel sounds and placement of stress on the correct syllable will dramatically improve one’s overall pronunciation.
• Vowels can be categorized into Front, Back, Mid vowels and Monophthong and Diphthong.
• Vowels are produced without significant constriction of the air flowing through the mouth.
• Vowels do not have a place and manner of articulation.
• Vowels are almost always voiced.
• Vowels are produced with a relatively open vocal tract.
• The standard descriptors for consonants (place, manner and voicing) are not helpful when describing vowels.
• Vocal fold vibration is the source for vowel sounds.
• Vowels can be divided into sets based on voicing, tongue position, and tongue height.
• In English, all vowels are voiced (except when whispering), but some languages such as Japanese have voiceless vowels as well.
• Front Vowels are pronounced with the tongue positioned forward the mouth.
• Central Vowels are pronounced with the tongue positioned in the middle of the mouth.
• Backward Vowels are pronounced with the tongue positioned towards the back of the mouth.
• High Vowels, also known as Closed Vowels, are pronounced with the tongue raised high.
• Mid Vowels, also known as Half-Close Vowels, are pronounced with the tongue raised halfway.
• Low Vowels, also known as Open Vowels, are pronounced with the tongue raised low.
• Tense vowels are pronounced with more muscle tension and are usually longer.
• Lax vowels are pronounced with less tension and are usually shorter.
• Differences in vowel tension and length can affect the pronunciation and meaning of words.
• The seven short vowels in English are: /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.
• The five long vowels in English are: /a:/ as in calm, /u:/ as in cool, /i:/ as in leap, /3:/ as in turn, /ɔ:/ as in all.
• In terms of length, English distinguishes between long vowels such as in knee and short vowels like knit.
• Long monophthongs are vowels with long pronunciation.
• The word monophthong comes from the Greek “mono”, which means “one”, and “-phthong”, which means “tone” or “sound”.
• In English, rounding is allophonic (back vowels are rounded; front vowels are not), but some languages contain front rounded vowels and some others contain back unrounded vowels.
• In English, length is allophonic (tense vowels are long; lax vowels are short), but some languages distinguish between vowels that are the same in quality only different in length.
• The vowel sound in eat and sit is an example of a short monophthong.
• A monophthong is a vowel sound pronounced as a single, unchanging sound, without any significant change in quality or length.
• Diphthongs are vowels in which there is a change in quality during a single syllable, as in the English words boy, buy, bow.
• There are two types of vowels in English, namely, monophthongs and diphthongs.
• Monophthongs are sometimes called pure vowels.
• Short monophthongs are vowels with a ‘short’ sound, which means that they are not extended sounds.
• Diphthongs can be analyzed as a sequence of two vowels or as vowel guide.
• There are two types of Monophthongs: Long and Short Monophthongs.