VOWEL

Vowel is a sound of a spoken language that is pronounced with the vocal

tract open, not having an increase in air pressure at any point above
the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, where there is an
obstruction or closure at some point in the vocal tract

it is more open, and nearer in to the bit, pin,

SHORT

centre. fish
The hips are slightly spread.
This is a front vowel between bet, men,
Vowel no. 2 and no. 3 yes
The lips are slightly spread.
This vowel is front, but not quite as bat, man,
open as cardinal vowel no. 4. The lips gas
are slightly spread.
This is a central vowel, diagram shows but,
that it is more open than the open-mid some,
tongue height. 1 n hp position is rush
neutral.
This vowel is not quite fully back, and pot,
between open-minded and open iii tongue gone,
height. The lips are slightly rounded. cross
The nearest cardinal vowel can be seen put,
that is more open and nearer central pull,
push
LONG

the tongue shape is not much different Beat,

from cardinal vowel 1, the lips are mean,
only slightly spread and this results peace,
in a rather different vowel quality.
This is a central vowel which is well bird,
known in most English accents as a fern,
hesitation sound purse
The lip position is neutral.
This is an open vowel in the region card,
cardinal vowel no. 5 but not as back as half,
this. The hp position is neutral. pass

The tongue height for this vowel is board,

between cardinal vowel no.6 and no. 7, torn,
and closer to the latter. horse
This vowel is almost fully back and has
quite strong lip-rounding.
The nearest cardinal vowel this is no. Words,
8 but it is much less back and less food,
chose, while the lips iii only soon,
moderately rounded.
 DIPHTHONGS
Diphthongs are like the long vowels described above. the most important
thing to remember about all the diphthongs is that the first part is
much longer and stronger than the second part

the starting point is a Beard,

DIPHTHONGSOFGROUP

little closer than i Ian

This diphthong begins with Aired,
CENTRING the same vowel sound as the cairn
e of get, men.
For speakers who have this Moored,
diphthong, this has a tour
starting point slightly
closer than u in ‘put’,
‘pull’. Many speakers
pronounce x instead
The starting point is the Paid ,
same as the e of get, ‘men’. pain
Begin with an open vowel Tide,
which is between front and time
CLOSING back
The first part of this Void,
diphthong has The same loin
quality as in ‘ought’,
‘born’.
The word ‘about’. The lips Load,
may be slightly rounded in home
anticipation of the glide
towards u, for which there
GLIDE is Quite noticeable lip-
rounding.
This diphthong begins with a Loud,
Vowel similar to cu. Since gown
this is an open vowel, a
glide to u would necessitate
a Large movement. Usually in
English
FRICATIVES AND AFFRICATES NASALS AND OTHER
CONSONANTS

NASALS
FRICATIVES
LABIODENTAL, that is,

LENNIS
the lower lip is in
contact with Upper teeth

The basic characteristic of a nasal

consonant is that the air escapes
DENTAL fricatives are through the nose. However air does
sometimes described as not pass through the mouth There are
if the tongue we placed three types of closures are: bilabial
between the teeth, , alveolar and velar this set of
places produces three nasal consonant
M,N,N which correspond to the
three places of articulation for the
pairs of plosives pb , td , kd

POST-ALVEOLAR fricative
with the same place of
FORTIS

articulation as t and d.
the air escapes through

CONSONANT L
a narrow passage along LATERAL consonant is one in which
the centre of the tongue the passage of air through the mouth
does
Not go in the usual way along the
centre of the tongue. There is a
complete closure between the centre
of the tongue and the part of the
roof of the mouth where contact is to
be made.
VESAFFRICATI

There are the only two affricate You can feel the movement of air
phonemes in English. As with past sides of the tongue; this is not
plosives and most of the really possible in a voices sound but
fricatives, we have a if you try to make a very loud
fortis/lenis pair, and whispered you should be able to feel
Voicing characteristics are the the air rushing along the sides of
same as for these other your tongue
consonants. it is slightly
CONSONANT R

This consonant is important in that

aspirated in the positions where considerable differences in it
p, t, k are aspirated, articulation and its distribution are
Not strongly enough for it to be found in different accents o English.
necessary for foreign learners to An approximant, as a type of
give much attention to it. The consonant, is rather difficult t
place of articulation describe; informally, we can say that
The first point concerns the
CONSONANTSFORTIS

it is an articulation in which the

shortening of a preceding vowel
by syllable-final fortis
consonant. , the effect most
noticeable in the case of long
vowels and diphthongs, although
it does also affect short vowels.
WCONSONANT J AND
articulators approach each other but
do not get sufficiently close td each
other to produce a “complete”
consonant such as a plosive nasal or
fricative.

Articulation of J is practically the

GLOTTALISED a glottal stop occurs
just before p, t, k or tf, is in
only found in certain context.
more conservative pronunciation
and not try to use glottalisation
same as that of a front close, but is
very short. In the same way W is
closely. If you make the initial
sound of ‘wet’ or ‘yet’ very long,
you will be able to hear this. But
despite this vowel-like character, we
use then like consonants.
The J and W sounds are and are
slightly fricative in these contexts.
For place of articulation, we regard
j as palatal and w as bilabial.