LANGUAGE

Language is a system of symbols. It is always represented by sounds and conventional

signs, such as letters in the alphabet, to form a word and create a meaning.

Phonetic Alphabets are used to record precisely what words are like. They are
composed of consonants and vowels.
Vowels serve as the nuclei of each syllable. Learning vowels and their sounds will help
students chunk words easily and articulate the sounds correctly.

Vowels
Vowels are syllabic speech sounds produced with a relatively unobstructed air stream.
Vowels differ in length, quality and loudness. Vowels are primarily represented by the
letters: a, e, i, o, u.
Vowels versus Consonants
Vowels differ from consonants as described :
1. Vowels are produced without any friction or obstruction in the hollow tube/air
strem. While consonants are made by totally or partially restricting the airflow that
gets out of the mouth.
2. A vowel is free-flowing sound. The air escapes freely through the mouth while the
consonants the air has to work harder to push its way out.
3. When producing vowel sounds, the mouth and the throat are open and do not
close at any point. The tongue does not touch the lips and the teeth in producing
consonants, the sound is impeded by the teeth, the tongue and the lips, etc. since
the vocal tract is not entirely open.
4. All vowel sounds are voiced while some consonant sounds are not voiced.
5. The vowel sounds are described in terms of tongue height, tongue advancement,
and roundedness of the mouth. The consonants sound are described in terms of
voicing, place and manner of articulation.
6. Some vowels can be an entire word – ‘a”, “I” , however, no consonants can be a
word by itself.
7. Every word has a vowel, while not every word has a consonant.
8. Vowels can be sung and yelled, yet consonants are difficult to sing, and cannot be
yelled singly.

VOWEL QUALITY
Vowel quality is a phonetic terminology that refers to the distinction that makes a vowel
sound different.
CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS
There are five vowels in the English alphabet. These are categorized according to their
vowel qualities, articulation of the tongue, the stability of articulation, lengthening and
thickness, and voicing.

Cardinal Vowels
The cardinal vowel system is a set of reference vowel qualities that distinguish
different vowel sounds.

Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the
sounds of languages. 
Phoneticians - A person who specializes in the study of speech sounds and their
representation by written symbols.
The Phoenicians are perhaps best known for creating the first alphabet, which
influenced writing systems everywhere.

Primary Cardinal Vowel

 The primary cardinal vowels are produced at each extremity such as the vowels [i],
[a], [a] and [u], where [i] and [a] are produced at the front while [a] and [u] are
produced at the back.

Secondary Cardinal Vowel

The secondary cardinal vowels complement the primary vowels. Secondary vowels
are produced by reversing the lip-posture of how the primary vowels are articulated.

Articulation of the Tongue

The vowel articulation corresponds to the form of the mouth and the position of
the tongue when vowel sounds are produced. Vowels are articulated based on tongue
height and tongue advancement.

Tongue Height
Vowels can be high, low, mid, mid-high, and mid-low. These classifications are
based on the height of the tongue where vowels are articulated.

Tongue Advancement
When the vowels are produced, the tongue may be retracted or advanced into
three positions: (a) the back of the mouth, (the center), and (e) the front. This is called
tongue advancement or back-ness.

Stability of Articulation
Monophthongs
A monophthong is a single vowel sound in which the positioning of the
articulators at both beginning and end is fairly fixed and does not glide up or down.
Monophthongs can be a lexeme or a syllable. Syllables are units of pronunciation with
one rhythmic character of the word.

A lexeme or syllable is a basic unit of meaning.

Diphthongs
If a monophthong has a single vowel sound, a diphthong has two-vowel sound.
Diphthongs are formed when two single vowels are combined in a syllable. Usually, it is
a combination of a vowel plus a glide. A glide is considered as a semi-vowel since it
phonetically resembles a vowel sound. Rather than being a nucleus of a syllable, a glide
functions as a syllable boundary.

Triphthongs
In phonetics, a triphthong has three vowel sounds that glide together. A
triphthong is monosyllabic, a combination of a diphthong and a monophthong that
quickly and smoothly moves.

Lip Rounding, Lengthening, and Tenseness

Roundedness
Vowels are classified in terms of roundedness. Vowel roundedness in phonetics
refers to the rounding of the lips during the articulation of the vowel.

Vowel Lengthening
The difference between the vowel production of these words is the lengthening of
the vowel. Generally, if a one-syllable word is followed with a voiced consonant the
vowel will be lengthened and longer than when it is followed by an unvoiced consonant.
physical measurement is duration. 

The lengthening of vowels produces long vowel sounds.

Long vowel sounds are sounds of the five vowel letters ( ‘a’, ‘e,’ ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’), the
pronunciation of which is the same as how the letters are pronounced: [ei], [i], [ai],
[ou], [yu].
Long vowels often occur when a vowel is placed next to another such as in the
words “beam, deem, rain, road, seen, achieve, paid, beauty.” The vowel is lengthened
before a syllabic boundary.

Tense and Lax Vowels

Tense vowels are articulated with more tension of the muscles, the tongue
position is somewhat higher and the durations are longer compared to the lax vowels.

Tense vowels are articulated with greater muscular effort, slightly higher tongue
positions, and longer durations than lax vowels. …
Tense and lax vowels refer to the degree or tension of the tongue and muscles of the
vocal tract.
Rhotic Vowels
In phonetics, rhoticity is the term that describes that sound of the /r/, based on
sound quality. Rhotic vowels (also called r-colored, retroflex, and vocalic r or
rhotacized vowel) are altered vowels resulting in the lowering of the frequency of the
third formant. Rhotic vowels are produced when the tip of the tongue is curled upward.