Vowels and Consonants
There are two main types of human language sounds: The vowel sounds and the consonant sounds. Consonants can be voiced or voiceless and usually have a noise component because the airstream is interrupted. They are classified according to the place where the interruption occurs, the manner in which the air is released, the presence or absence of voice (vibration of vocal cords), and the cavity through which the air escapes (oral or nasal).
Vowels, on the other hand, are usually voiced and are produced without any interruption of the airstream coming from the lungs. The phonemic classification of vowels is based on the position of the tongue and the lips, the muscular tension, the duration of the sound, and the aperture of the jaws. For example, the vowel sound
is classified as high and front (tongue position) closed aperture (jaw opening) short and lax (duration and tension) while the consonant sound
is classified as oral, bilabial (interruption) plosive (air release) and voiceless (no vibration of vocal cords).
Each vowel is classified based upon the area of the tongue that is raised as well as how high or low the tongue is when its sound is produced.
Click here to view a chart that illustrates the sounds within our vowel system.
VOWELS
While there are only five vowels in English, they are one of the most problematic systems for English learners to develop. We have already discussed the inconsistent designation of letters to sound in English. This grapheme to phoneme inconsistency is especially evident in the five letters we call vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. English’s five monothongs (individual vowels) are responsible for twelve different sounds, not considering, of course, our sometimes honorary vowel, Y. When they are combined with other vowels, the results are many more phonetic combinations. The number of possible sounds these five letters can produce can be confusing for English learners whose vowel systems in their L1s are usually consistently one-to-one (letter to sound). Spanish, for example also has five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Each vowel however, is responsible for just one sound. The animation below demonstrates the grapheme to phoneme difference between English and Spanish.
Click on the graphic below to listen to the grapheme to phoneme designation between vowels in Spanish.
Now click on the graphic to listen to the grapheme to phoneme designation between vowels in English.
