Vowels of English

Presented by
Marwa Mahmoud Abd El Fattah

Under the supervision of:

The sounds in English consist of two basic parts: consonants and vowels. The consonants may be the
skeleton of English as mentioned by O'Connor yet vowels are of no less importance since they may be
the only factor differentiating a word from another as such the case in minimal pairs or sets (e.g. pit/pet
and sit/sat/set). During the production of all the English vowels, the soft palate is raised and the vocal
cords vibrate. in general we divide vowels into simple vowels and diphthongs. The simple vowels are one
quality vowels while diphthongs are combinations of two vowels.

Simple vowels

English has twelve vowel sounds. They are divided into seven short and five long vowels. An alternative
way of organizing them is according to where (in the mouth) they are produced. This method allows us to
describe them as front, central and back. We can qualify them further by how high the tongue and lower
jaw are when we make these vowel sounds, and by whether our lips are rounded or spread, and finally by
whether they are short or long. This scheme shows the following arrangement:

They are divided into front vowels , central vowels, and back vowels

Front vowels

 /i:/ - cream, seen (long high front spread vowel)

Central vowels

 /ɜ:/- burn, firm (long mid central spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /ə:/.
 /ə/ - about, clever (short mid central spread vowel); this is sometimes known as schwa, or the
neutral vowel sound - it never occurs in a stressed position.
 /ʌ/ - cut, nut (short low front spread vowel); this vowel is quite uncommon among speakers in the
Midlands and further north in Britain.

Back vowels

 /u:/ - boob, glue (long high back rounded vowel)

We can also arrange the vowels in a table or even depict them against a cross-section of the human
mouth. Here is an example of a simple table:
 Front Central Back
High ɪ i: ʊ u:
Mid ɛ ə ɜ: ɔ:
Low æ ʌ ɒ ɑ:

With more elaboration

/i: / The front of the tongue is raised to a height slightly below and behind the close front position; the
lips are spread; the tongue is tense, with the side rims making a firm contact with the upper molars; the
tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. Its quality is nearer to CV 3 [i] than to CV [e]. It does not occur in a
syllable closed by / /.

/I/ a part of the tongue nearer to center than to front is raised just above the half-close position; the lips
are loosely spread; the tongue is lax, with the side rims making a light contact with the upper molars;
the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. Its quality is that of a centralized CV [e]. /I/ may occur in all
positions in the word.

/e/ The front of the tongue is raised between the half-open and half-close positions; the lips are loosely
spread and are slightly wider apart than for /I/; the tongue may have more tension than in the case of
/I/, the side rims making a light contact with the upper molars; the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth.
Its quality lies between that of CV [e] and that of CV [ ]. /e/ does not occur word-finally or in stressed
open syllables.

/œ/ (In RP) The front of the tongue is raised just below the half-open position, with the side rims making
a very light contact with the back upper molars; the mouth is slightly more open than for /e/; the lips are
neutrally open; the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. It is often produced with considerable
constriction in the pharynx (esp. in the south of England), the tongue having rather more tension than is
the case of /e/. Its quality is nearer to CV [ ] than to CV [ ].4

/ Ʌ / (In RP) The center of the tongue (or a part slightly in advance of center) is raised just above the fully
open position, no contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars; the jaws are
considerably separated and the lips are neutrally open; the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. Its
quality is that of a centralized and slightly raised CV [ ]. / Ʌ/ does not occur word-finally or in stressed
open syllables.

/ / A part of the tongue between the center and the back is in the fully open position, no contact being
made between the rims of the tongue and the upper molars; the jaws are considerably separated and
the lips are neutrally open; the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. Its quality is somewhat nearer to CV
[ ] than to CV [ ]. / / does not normally occur before / /.

/ / The back of the tongue is just below the half-open position, no contact being made between the
tongue and the upper molars; the jaws are wide open and there is slight, open lip rounding; the tongue
tip is behind the lower teeth. Its quality is that of an open lip-rounded CV [ ], i.e., secondary CV
[ ]. / / does not occur word-finally or in stressed open syllables.

/Ͻ:/ The back of the tongue is raised between the half-open and half-close positions, no contact being
made between the tongue and the upper molars; there is medium lip-rounding. Its quality lies between
CV [ ] and CV [ ]. / / does not normally occur before / /.

/ / A part of the tongue nearer to center than to back is raised just above the half-close position; the
tongue is laxly held, no firm contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars. The lips are
closely but loosely rounded; the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. Its quality is that of a centralized
CV [o]. This vowel occurs in both accented and unaccented syllables. / / does not occur in stressed
word-initial position or before word-final/ /.

/u / The back of the tongue is raised relaxedly from the closest position and is somewhat advanced
from the true back; its articulation is tenser compared with that of / /, though no firm contact is made
between the tongue and the upper molars; the tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. The lips tend to be
closely rounded. Its quality is that of a relaxed, slightly lowered and centralized CV [u]. /u / does not
normally occur before / /.

/ / The center of the tongue is raised between the half-close and half-open positions, no firm contact
being made between the tongue and the upper molars; the lips are neutrally spread. The tongue tip is
behind the lower teeth. Its quality is remote from all peripheral Cardinal Vowel values, but it often
coincides with that of unaccented / /. / / does not normally occur before / /.
/ / In non-final word positions, the center of the tongue is raised between the half-open and half-close
positions; in the vicinity of the velar consonants /k, g/ and /N/, the tongue may be slightly more raised
and retracted; in word-final positions, the tongue is in the half-open central position or in the most open
region of the central area. The tongue tip is behind the lower teeth. The lips have a neutral position (i.e.,
are unrounded). So the quality of / / will vary depending on its position in the word. This sound has
very high frequency of occurrence in unaccented vowels. It is considered the neutral English vowel.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are sounds that begin as one vowel and end as another, while gliding between them. For
this reason they are sometimes described as glide vowels. How many are there? Almost every modern
authority says eight - but they do not all list the same eight (check this for yourself). Simeon Potter, in
Our Language (Potter, S, [1950] Chapter VI, Sounds and Spelling, London, Penguin) says there are nine -
and lists those I have shown in the table above, all of which I have found in the modern reference works.
The one most usually omitted is /ɔə/ as in bored. Many speakers do not use this diphthong, but use the
same vowel in poured as in fraud - but it is alive and well in the north of Britain.