1. There are five long vowels; iː, ɜː, ɑː, ɔː, uː 2. tendto be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts.
Ex: good – food
bit - beat
3. The symbols consist of one·vowel symbol plus a length mark made of two dots:. Eg: iː, ɜː, ɑː, ɔː, uː 4. the length mark is used to help learners remember the length difference.
5. These five long vowels are different from the six short vowels, not only in length but also in quality (resulting from differences in tongue shape and position, and lip position) as well as in length.
Ex: /ɪ/ - /i:/
+ /a:/: an open vowel in the region of cardinal vowel /a:/, but not as back as this. The lip position is neutral.
Ex: card /ka:d/ , half /ha:f/ , pass /pa:s/
+ /i:/: This vowel is nearer to cardinal vowel (that is, it is more close and front) than the short vowel of ‘bid’ ‘pin’ ‘fish’.
Ex: beat /bi: t/, mean /mi: n/, peace /pi: s/
The lips are only slightly spread, and this results in a rather different vowel quality.
+ /ɔː/: The tongue height for this vowel is between cardinal vowel [o], and closer to the latter. This vowel is almost fully back and has quite strong lip - rounding.
Ex: door /dɔː /, fork /fɔː k/, saw /sɔː/
+ /ɛː/: This is a central vowel which is well known in most English accents as a hesitation sound (spelt 'er'), but which many foreigners find difficult to copy. The lip position is neutral.
Ex: bird / bɜ: d/, purse /pɜ: s/, nurse /nɜ: s/
+ /u:/: The nearest cardinal vowel to this is no 8 [u], but it is much less back and less close, while the lips are only moderately rounded.
Ex: boot /bu: t/, goose /gu:s/ , food /fu: d/
2. Diphthongs:
1. Definition:
- Diphthong: Sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another.
• Pure Vowel: A vowel which remains constant, it does not glide.
• Diphthongs have the same length as the long vowels.
• The first part (sound) is much longer and stronger than the second part.
• Example: /aɪ/ in the words ‘eye’ and ‘ɪ’ consists of the ‘a’ vowel, and only in about the last quarter of the diphthong, does the glide to ‘ɪ’ becomes noticeable.
2 . There are 8 diphthongs in English:
- The centring diphthongs glide towards the /ə/ (schwa) vowel, as the symbols indicate.
+/ɪə/ example words: ‘beard’, ‘Ian’, ‘fierce’. The starting point is a little closer than / ɪ / in ‘bit’, ‘bin’
+/eə/ example words: ‘aired’, ‘cairn’, ‘scarce’. This diphthong begins with the same vowel sound as the /e/ of ‘get’, ‘men’
+/ʊə/ example words: ‘moored’, ‘tour’. This has a starting point slightly closer than /ʊ/ in ‘put’, ‘pun’
- Three of the diphthongs glide towards / ɪ /, as described below:
+ /eɪ/ example words: ‘paid’, ‘pain’ , ‘face’. The starting point is the same as the /e/ of ‘get’, ‘men’
+/aɪ/ example words: ‘tide’, ‘time’, ‘nice’. This diphthong begins with an open vowel which is between front and
back. It is quite similar to the a of the words 'cut', ‘bun’.
+ /ɔɪ/ example words: ‘void, ‘loin’, ‘voice’. The first part of this diphthong has the same quality as or in 'ought',
'born'
- Two diphthongs glide towards U, so that as the tongue moves closer to the roof of the mouth there is at the same time a rounding movement of the lips:
+/əʊ/ example words: ‘load’, ‘home’, ‘most’. The lips may be slightly rounded in anticipation of the glide towards u, for which there is quite noticeable lip-rounding.
+ /aʊ/ example words: ‘loud’, ‘gown’, ‘house’. The end of the diphthong being somewhere between close-mid and open-mid in tongue height. There is only slight lip-rounding.
3. Triphthongs:
1. Definition:
- A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption.
- They can be rather difficult to pronounce and very difficult to recognise. - The triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing dipthongs with “ə” added on the end.
+ eɪ + ə = eɪə
+ aɪ + ə = aɪə
+ ɔɪ + ə = ɔɪə
+ əʊ + ə = əʊə
+ aʊ+ ə = aʊə
- To help identify these triphthong, some examples words are given:
+ eɪə : player, layer
+ aɪə : liar, fire
+ ɔɪə: loyal, royal
+ əʊə: lower, mower
+ aʊə: power, hour
Words such as ‘fire’ faiə or ‘hour’ əʊə are probably felt by most English speakers (with BBC pronunciation) to consist of only one syllable, whereas ‘player’ pleiər or ‘slower’ sləʊə are more likely to be heard as two syllables.
