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English Sounds and Spelling (#1), by Dennis Oliver
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English Sounds
and Spelling #1:
Introduction to the Vowels
English spelling is challenging
because its sounds are not
very well
represented by the letters
used in writing it.
Unlike many languages, English
writing is not phonetic:
most English sounds
have several very
different spellings.
One particularly frustrating
area in English is how its
vowel sounds are spelled. The spellings of these
sounds
are particularly confusing because
there are only five
vowel letters (a, e, i,
o, u)
in English, but there are
at least 14 vowel sounds in standard
American English.
To make this
situation even more
complicated, the letters
w and y are used in writing both vowel
and consonant
sounds. Also, most English vowel sounds change
when
they are followed
by the / r / sound.
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Examples of Vowel
Sounds, plus key words:
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fool |
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full |
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foal |
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fall |
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follow |
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Special Notes:
| 1. |
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Vowels are sounds like the
last sound in may,
be, hi, go,
and who.
Consonants are sounds like
the first sound in
be, see, do,
foe, go,
hay, joy,
key, chew,
lie,
may, now,
pie, raw,
so, she,
too, thigh,
thy,
view, way,
and zoo.
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| 2. |
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Vowels are grouped in several
different ways.
In one group (which is often
used by native
speakers), several vowels are classified
as
being long or short.
Long vowels include the sounds
shown in
the key words bait, beat, file, foal,
fool,
also fuel.
Short vowels include the sounds
shown in
the key words bat, bet, bit,
follow, and full.
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| 3. |
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Another classification groups
vowels
according to the position of the tongue
when the vowels are pronounced.
The front
vowels include the sounds in
the key words
beat, bit,
bait, bet,
and bat.
The back
vowels include the sounds in
the key words
fool, full,
foal, fall, and
follow.
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| 4. |
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Another classification groups
vowels
according to the amount of tension
in
the tongue when the
vowels are pronounced.
The vowels in the key words
beat, bait,
fool,
and foal are sometimes called tense
vowels. The
vowels in the key words bit,
bet,
full, and fall are sometimes called
called lax
vowels.
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| 5. |
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The
vowel sound in but is called schwa. |
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| 6. |
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The vowels shown in the key
words foul,
foil, and file
are called diphthongs.
Diphthongs are actually combinations
of
two vowel sounds.
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| 7. |
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The
diphthong in foul is pronounced in
two different
ways. In some American
English
dialects, the
first vowel is / a /
(the sound of o in hot). In other dialects,
the first
vowel is / ae / (the sound of a
in hat). |
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