Vowel letters
A vowel letter is a letter that represents a vowel. A vowel is a speech sound in spoken language which is pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis.
For historical reasons there is a large mismatch between the number of vowels in English - which has up to twenty vowels (depending on the accent) - and the vowel letters, which are limited to A E I O U, and in some cases, Y (see below).
All vowel letters have 4 basic sounds: short sound, long sound, long rhotic monophthong and rhotic diphthong. They are shown here in five columns, because the so-called “short” sound (as in trap) is shown separately before /r/ (as in carry).
Two sounds of O (/ɔː/ and /oə/) have merged in most part of the English speaking world, so O has only 3 basic sounds.
| Letter | So called “short” sound |
Example | So called “long” sound |
Example Single letter |
Example Two letters |
Long monophthong before /r/ |
Example | “Long” sound before /r/ |
Example Single letter |
Example Two letters |
“Short” sound before /r/ |
Example | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | /æ/ | trap | /eɪ/ | face | wait | /ɑː/ | start | /eə/ | square | pair | /æ/ | carry, arid | |||||
| E | /e/ | dress | /iː/ | we | fleece | /ɜː/ | term | /ɪə/ | here | near | /e/ | cherry, very | |||||
| I | /ɪ/ | kit | /aɪ/ | price | die | /ɜː/ | girl | /aɪə/ | fire | pliers | /ɪ/ | mirror, spirit | |||||
| Y | /ɪ/ | gym | /aɪ/ | try | rye | /ɜː/ | myrrh | /aɪə/ | tyreBrE | /ɪ/ | lyrics | ||||||
| O | /ɒ,BrE ɑːAmE/ | lot | /əʊ/ | most | goat | /ɔː/ | north | /ɔː/ used to be /oə/ | force | board | /ɒ,BrE ɔːAmE/ | torrid, forest | |||||
| U | /ʌ/ | strut | /juː/ | cute | cue | /ɜː/ | nurse | /jʊə/ | cure | /ʌ/ | hurry |
| æ | ɑː | |
| trap | father - start | |
| e | eɪ | eə |
| dress | face | square |
| ɪ | iː | ɪə |
| kit | fleece | near |
| ɒ | əʊ | ɔː |
| lot | goat | taught |
| ʊ | uː | ʊə |
| foot | goose | mature |
| juː | jʊə | |
| cute | cure | |
| ʌ | ə | ɜː |
| strut | comma | nurse |
| aɪ | aʊ | ɔɪ |
| price | mouth | choice |
| Normal sound: /b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z/ | ||
| ʃ | tʃ | ŋ |
| show | church | sing |
| ʒ | dʒ | j |
| usual | judge | you |
| θ | ð | s |
| think | that | see |
| IPA | Stress |
|---|---|
| ˈ | Primary stress hotel /həʊˈtel/ |
| ˌ | Secondary stress understand /ˌʌndərˈstænd/ |
| IPA | Syllabification |
|---|---|
| . | nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/, night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/ |
Note that the words “long” and “short” are conventional names. For example /ɑː/AmE is a long sound, but it is called “short o”.
Contents
A[edit]
See main article Decoding the letter A.
The vowel letter a has six common pronunciations, as in the following examples:
- /æ/: and - bad - carry - happy - man - trap
- /ɑːr/: car - marble - start
- /eɪ/: day - face - same - rain - stay
- /eə/: aware - care - scare - square
- /ɔ/: ball - call - law - saw - talk - walk
- /ə/: about - America - England
- Spelling anomalies
E[edit]
See main article Decoding the letter E.
The vowel letter e has six common pronunciations, as in the following examples:
- /e/: cherry - get - pen - well
- /ɜː/: service - term - verb
- /iː/ me - she - theme
- /ɪə/: here - material - period
- /ɪ/: return - decide - debate
- /ə/: happen - model - problem - teacher
- End of word
- At the end of the word the letter e is normally silent. See silent e.
- Examples:
- same - theme - time - bone - cute - type
- The letter e is pronounced at the end of one-syllable words in which no other vowel is present:
- he - we - she
- Spelling anomalies
- catastrophe - Chile - karate - recipe
E is also part of some digraphs.
- "ea" and "ee" as /iː/: see - speak - weak - week - three
- "ei" or "ey" as /eɪ/: eight - weight - they
- "eu" or "ew" as /juː/: dew - Europe - few - new
I[edit]
See main article Decoding the letter I.
The vowel letter i has five common pronunciations, as in the following examples:
- /ɪ/: think - fit - win
- /aɪ/: time - night - wine
- /aɪə/: desire - fire - hire
- /ɜː/: bird - first - girl
- /ə/: April - civil - cousin
O[edit]
See main article Decoding the letter O.
The vowel letter o has four common pronunciations, as in the following examples:
- /əʊ/: go - home - open - phone
- /ʌ/: come - love - Monday - money
- Spelling anomalies
- /uː/: do - lose - move - to - two - who
- /ʊ/: woman
- /ɪ/: women
U[edit]
See main article Decoding the letter U.
The vowel letter u has four common pronunciations, as in the following examples:
- /juː/: unit - use - tune - university.
- /uː/: brutal - June - rule - truth.
- /ʌ/: fun - but - butter - summer.
- /ɜː/: turn - return - burn - Thursday.
- Spelling anomalies
- busy - minute - sure
Y[edit]
See main article Decoding the letter Y.
The letter y corresponds to both a vowel and a consonant.[1]
As a vowel it has two common pronunciations in English, as in the following examples:
- /aɪ/: try - fly - why - my
- /iː/ or /ɪ/: city - easy - tiny - ugly
As a consonant:
- /j/: yes - you - year
Semivowel[edit]
To further complicate the matter, English also has semivowels - letters such as "L" and "W" which, like our "Y" above, can have the properties of both vowels and consonants.
Curiosities[edit]
There obviously aren't many words in English that contain all the vowel letters, but abstemious and facetious are two of the relatively common ones[2] - and are both spelt in a-e-i-o-u order, too.
References[edit]
- ↑ Oxford Dictionaries: Ask the experts "Is the letter Y a vowel or a consonant?"
- ↑ Wikctionary, Category:English words that use all vowels in alphabetical order, accessed 2017-06-112
