English vowel differences are produced by varying the height of the body of the tongue (high, mid, or

low); the frontness or backness of the tongue (front, central, back); the degree of muscular tension
(tense or lax); and the rounding of the lips (rounded or unrounded).

In general, front vowels (beat, live, bait, bet, bat) central vowels (but, pot) are pedagogically more important than
most back vowels (boot, book, boat,bought), since many of the front and central vowel contrasts are both
difficult for students and frequently in English words.

The term tense and lax refer to the muscular tension required to produce the vowels. With the tense vowels, the
tongue is positioned farther from the center of the mouth ( the center is the rest or relaxed position for the tongue),
thus requiring more muscular tension to reach and maintain these positions. When the tension is relaxed a little, the
tongue moves toward a more central position in mouth, producing the lax vowel counterpart. For example, with /iy/ (as
in leave), the body of the tongue is high and front in the mouth. When the tongue drops down and back a little (more
toward the center of the mouth), the lax vowel /I/ ( as in live) is produced. Differences in lip shapes are also present
with tense-lax pairs. The lips are generally more relaxed (less spread or less rounded) for lax vowels.

-vowel spelling

Phonetic Symbols

As we progress through American Accent Course, we will frequently hear the terms articulators, vowel, and
diphthongs. We will now define these terms

Articulators: The articulators are the different parts of the mouth area that we use when speaking, such as the lips,
tongue, teeth, and the jaw.

Vowel: A vowel is a speech sound produced with vibrating vocal cords and a continuous unrestricted flow of air coming
from the mouth.

The various vowel sounds are frequently affected by the changing shape and position of your articulators. The
different vowels are created by:

1. The position of your tongue in the mouth. For example, the tongue is high in the mouth for the vowel /i/ as in see,
but is low the mouth for the vowel /a/ as in hot.
2. The shape of your lips. For example, the lips are very rounded for the vowel /u/ as in new, but are spread for /i/ as
in see.
3. The size of your jaw opening. For example, the jaw is open much wider for /a/ as in hot than it is for the
diphthong /ei/ as in pay.

Diphthong: A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds. It begins as one vowel and ends as another. During the
production of a diphthong, your articulators glide from the position of the first vowel to the position of the second. For
example, when pronouncing /ei/ as in vein, your articulators glide from the vowel /e/ to the vowel /I/. in English, the
most common diphthongs are /au/,/ei/, /ai/, /cI/, and /ou/.

What are vowel sounds?

Categories of vowel sounds

Vowel sounds are divided into the following three categories:

Long vowels ( vowels that sound like the letter name)

Short vowels ( the most common sound for a single vowel spelling)
Other vowels ( the remaining vowel sounds)

It is important for students to realize that the terms long and short are not describing the length of time a vowel
sound is said. The archaic terms are still in popular use in American classrooms and online. They are used here to
simply give a name to a vowel sound so when the sound is discussed, the name and not the sound (which many
beginner students cannot yet here correctly) is used.
Key words

The vowel chart shows the keyword, or quick reference word, for each sound. Key words are used because vowel
sounds are easier to hear within a word that when they are spoken in isolation. Memorizing key words allows easier
comparison between different vowel sounds. Also, the term voiced is shown with each vowel category. All vowel
sounds voiced, meaning that the vocal cords ( also know as vocal folds) vibrate while creating the sound.

Introduction to Long Vowels

What is a long vowel sound?

Long vowel is the term used to refer to vowel sounds whose pronunciation is the same as its letter name. The five
vowels of the English spelling system (a,e,I,o and u) each have corresponding long vowel sound. Long vowels are
generally the easiest vowels for non-native English speakers to distinguish and pronounce correctly.

Introduction to two-sound vowels

A two-sound vowel is a vowel sound that includes a y sound or a w sound in the pronunciation. Often, the y sound or
w sound is only a minor part of the sound, but must be included for the sound to be pronounce fully. Two-sound
vowels are known linguistically as diphthongs (pronounced as dip-thongs or dif-thong)

long a ends in a brief y sound

long i end in a brief w sound
long o ends in a brief w sound
long u begins with a brief y sound

You might be thinking right now, this is a lot to take in. This is going to be boring.
But well make things easy not just for me but for everyone.

Introduction to American English Vowels

What are vowel sounds?

Vowel sounds are characterized by being produced with a relatively open vocal tract.

Categories of vowel sounds

Vowel sounds are divided into the following three categories:

Long vowels
Short vowels
Other vowels

They are used here to simply give a name to a vowel sound so when the sound is discussed, the name
not the sound is used.

It is important to realized that the terms long and short are not describing the length of time a
vowel sound is said.

Key words

The vowel chart shows the key word, or quick reference word, for each sound.

Phonics is the link between the spelling of a word and its pronunciation. Since English has more sounds
than letters, a combination of letters is often necessary to represent a single sound. English as fifteen
vowel sounds represented by the letter a, e, i, o, and u. The letters y, w and gh are also commonly used
in vowel sound spellings.

In addition, many spelling patterns of English pronunciation have the possibility of two or more
pronunciations using that single spelling. For example, the letters ea have a different pronunciation in
the words team and dead. It is helpful to learn the common spellings for each vowel sound along with
knowing all the possible pronunciation for each spelling.
Introduction to Long Vowels

What is a long vowel sound?

Long vowel is the term used to refer to vowel sounds whose pronunciation is the same as the letter
name.

The five vowels of the English spelling system (a, e, i, o, and u) each have a corresponding long vowel
sound. Long vowels are generally the easiest vowels for non-native English speakers to distinguish and
pronounce correctly.

Introduction to two-sound vowels

2-sound long vowels

long a ends in a brief y sound

long I ends in a brief w sound

There are 12 simple vowels and 5 diphthongs in English, but there are only five letters to
represent them. These are: a, e, i, 0 and u. Therefore, each letter represents more than
one sound. And each sound is spelled more than one way. The International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) alleviates the confusion with English spellings by providing one symbol for
each sound.

Differentiate a vowel and a letter

The English Alphabet has 26 letter. Five of them are the vowel letters.

Can anybody tell me what these vowel letters are?

And the remaining 21 vowel letters are called

Can anyone guess what there remaining vowel letters are called?

Ok Good!, I want you to say them how you say it in English

For example, in the following words, the letter a is used to represent five different sounds.

have father have any saw

Pretty confusing, right? Thats why we need a set of symbols in which each sound is represented by a
different symbol. These are the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is used all over the world. It
consists of a set of symbols in which one symbol represents one sound.

DONT PANIC! It is not necessary to learn all thy symbols at once. Each sound will be introduced and
explained one at a time. You will learn the symbols easily as you progressed through the book.

To help you understand the exact pronunciation of the phonetic symbols and key words, the Key

VOWEL: A vowel is a speech sound produced with vibrating vocal cords and a continuous unrestricted
flow of air coming from the mouth.

The most well know vowels in English are

AEIOU
Vowels are sounds in which the air stream moves up from the lungs and through the vocal tract very
smoothly; theres nothing blocking or constricting it. The first sounds in the words extra, only, and
apple are vowels.

Each vowel letter can represent more than one sound.

Sometimes people assume that there are five vowel sounds in English: A, E, I, O and U. However, this is
a misconception. These are vowel letters, not vowel sounds. Each vowel letter can represent more than
one sound. For example, the letter a can represent // as in hat, /ey/ as in hate, // as in car, or // as in
care. Also, each vowel sound can be represented in more than one way in spelling: The sound /iy/ can
be written as ee in seem, as ea in seal, as ie in piece, as ei in receipt, as ey in key, as i...e in machine,
and perhaps more. Theres certainly not a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds, and
English has many more vowel sounds than vowel letters.