Vowels are determined by changes in position of the lips, tongue and palate. These changes can be very slight and difficult to detect. In English, vowels can also glide into one another to form diphtongs and even tripthongs.
Diphthongs are those sounds that consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another. The firts part of a diphthong is always longer and stronger than the second part.
/ei/
Spelling: the sound /ei/ is usually written with the letters:
1. A: baby, face, late, page, place, same, take (the final "e" indicates that " a" is pronounced /ei/. without this final "e" the pronunciation would be a voquel.
2. Ay: day, say, stay, today, way
3. Ai: rain, Spain, train, wait.
4. Ea: great, weight, steak
5. Other
Transcribe the following words:
- Paper [ˈpeɪpə ]
- Sail [seɪl ]
- Radio [ˈreɪdɪəʊ ]
- James [ʤeɪmz ]
- Railway [ˈreɪlweɪ ]
- Station [ˈsteɪʃən ]
- Newspaper [ˈnjuːspeɪpə ]
- Date [deɪt]
/ou/ /eu/ /əʊ/
This has two sounds /ə/ and /ʊ/. The second element of the diphthong is very short and the first one is longer than /e/. The lips at the beginning are in a neutral position and the dragudally rounded as the tongue rises to make /u/.
Spelling: The sound /əʊ/ is usually writen witht the letters:
1. o: go, hello, no, old, only, hotel.
2. o...e: home, hole, nose, those.
3. oa: boat, coat, road, Joan.
4. ow: know, low, narrow, show, slow, throw.
5. ou: though, soul, shoulder
6. Some words: boat, Joan, Jone's, hoel, hello.
/ai/
This has two sounds /a:/ and the add /i/ this is a short sound. Most students have no difficulties with this sound.
Spelling: the sound /ai/ is usually written with the letters "i" or "y".
/ai/
This has two sounds /a:/ and the add /i/ this is a short sound. Most students have no difficulties with this sound.
Spelling: the sound /ai/ is usually written with the letters "i" or "y".
- i, y: child, find, five, smile, try, by, fly, right, sky,..
- igh: high, light, night, right, bright.
- ye; eye, goodbye.
- Other spellings: lie, buy
Pie [ Pai ]
Kite [ Kait ]
Climbing [ Klaimin ]
Riding [ Raidin]
Rice [ Rais ]
Bright [ Brait ]
Ice-cream [ Ais-kri:m ]
Ice-skating [ Ais-skeitin ]
Goodnight [ gʊdnait ]
Friday [ Fraidei ]
/au/
The first sound is, in some way, similat to /ae, the add /uu/; this second sound is very short. There is an /au/ diphthong in Spanish bit it is
Spelling: the sound /au / is written with the letters:
- ou: about, mouth, count, round, out.
- ow: cow, crowd, flower, down, now, town, brown.
Flowers [Flauəz]
Mouse [Mauz]
Mice [Maiz]
Thousand [θaʊznd]
Cows [Cauz]
Trousers [Trauzəz]
/oi/
The two sounds in this diphthong are: /o:/ even pronounced longer, then /i/, being even shorter. There are few words for practice of this sound at beginner level.
Spelling: the sound /oi/ is written with the letters:
- oi: noise, point, voice,...
- oy: boy, toy, employ,...
CENTRIC DIPHTHONGS
/iə/
In this diphthong both elements are short, but the accent falls on the first one. When this diphthong is
followed by an "r", this consonant is not pronounced except when the following syllable or word begins
with a vowuel, in this case a lingling "r" can be pronounced.
Spelling:
- ea: dear, hear, ear, near.
- er: deer, beer, here
- other spellings: idea, real, museum.
/eə/
The first sound is an /e/ but you have to make it a little longer, then add /ə/, Most students produce the -er
ending with the "r" always pronounced.
Spelling
- are: share, scare, mare, care
- air: chair, pair, air,
- ear: bear, tear
- Other spellings: their, they're
Beer [ biə ]
Near [ niə ]
Here [ hiə ]
Chair [ ʧeə ]
Where [ weə ]
Airtport [ ˈeəpɔːt ]
Square [ skweə ]
/oə/
The diphthong /oə/ is normally replaced by a /ɔː/ by RP speakers, that is why I don't think it is important
although we don't care about it's production you should understand it.
Spelling:
- oar, ore, our, oor: boar, for, soar, your, pour.
/uə/
The first element is a /u/ and the sectond one is a /ə/. It is often pronounced /ɔː/ or /ɔ/
Look at the following examples:
- Poor: [puə][poə][pɔː]
- Sure: [ʃuə] [ ʃoə][ ʃɔː]
Spelling:
- -or, ure, oor: tour, pure
