Vowel sounds

Vowels are open sounds because they involve no obstruction to the flow of air from the lungs as it passes up

through the windpipe (trachea), through the voice box (larynx) and out of the mouth. Other than positioning the

tongue, jaws and lips there is nothing to obstruct the airflow. All vowels are produced with the vocal folds vibrating

and are said to be voiced sounds.

Vowels are commonly described according to the following characteristics:

1. The portion of the tongue that is involved in the articulation: front, central or back.
2. The tongue's position relative to the palate: high, mid or low.
3. The shape of the lips: rounded or unrounded (spread).
4. The length or duration of vocalization: long or short.

A four-sided vowel chart is often used to demonstrate the front–back and high–low positions. The chart roughly

represents the tongue position in the oral cavity.

The vowels of American English are described in the following table. Click on the links
to watch a short video of how each vowel is produced.

Phonetic symbol Example Tongue Lips Length Video

/i/ cream high-front unrounded long

/ɪ/ bit high-front unrounded short

/e/ lake mid-front unrounded long

/ɛ/ bet mid-front unrounded short

/æ/ cat low-front unrounded short

/ɚ/ burn high-central rounded long

/ʌ/ cut mid-central unrounded short

/ə/ about mid-central unrounded short

/u/ boot high-back rounded long

/ʊ/ put high-back rounded short

/o/ over mid-back rounded long

/ɔ/ corn mid-back rounded long

/ɑ/ hard low-back unrounded long

Diphthongs
A diphthong is a long, complex vowel which starts with the sound quality of one vowel
and ends with the sound quality of another one. Although they are classified as single
phonemes, diphthongs are given a double symbol to show both the quality they start with
and the quality they end with.

Phonetic Exampl Lengt

Tongue Lips Video
symbol e h

moves from a low back position to a

/ɑɪ/ bite unrounded long
mid-high front position

moves from a low back position to a move from unrounded

/ɑʊ/ brown long
mid-high back position to rounded

moves from a low-mid back position to a move from rounded to

/ɔɪ/ boy long
mid-high front position unrounded