Front vowels

and Central vowels

/i:/, /i/, /e/ and /æ/. /з:/ and /ə/
 Front vowels
Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction
to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the
lips. There are 20 vowels in English, among which
12 are pure vowels and 8 are diphthongs. The
English pure vowels can be classified according to:
1)the height of the raised part of the tongue;
2)the part of the tongue raised, and
3)the position of the lips, i.e. whether they are
rounded or unrounded.
There are four front vowels in English:
/i:/, /i/, /e/ and /æ/.
The reason these are called front vowels is that the
tongue body is shifted forward, causing the vowels to be
produced in the front of the mouth.
In addition, the front vowels may be subdivided into
those that are:
High (or close), like /i:/ and /i/,
Mid, like /e/, and
Low (or open), like /æ/.
For the two vowels in the high front space, /i:/ and /i/,
the tongue is close to the hard palate. Likewise, for the
low vowel /æ/ the tongue is nearly flat and the lower jaw
more open than for the other front vowels.
 /i:/
/i:/ is a very common sound in the world's
languages. It is made by raising the body of the
tongue from its rest position and shifting it forward.
The /i/ sound is made by lowering the tongue
slightly from the high-front position for /i:/.
Besides, /i:/ is a much more tense sound than /i/.
The fact that English has these two high front
vowels, differentiated by muscle tension in the root
of the tongue, sets it apart from Chinese and many
languages of the world. Both /i:/ and /i/ can occur
in initial, medial, and final position in words.
 /i:/
It is therefore important to point out the fact
that to pronounce a correct /i/, you need to 1)
lower you tongue a little bit from the position
for /i:/, and 2) make it a lax sound instead of a
tense sound like /i:/. The importance of correct
pronunciation of /i/ lies in the fact that it is the
second most frequent vowel in English.
 meat, please, read, steal, leave, seat, sea,
ea
team.
see, free, tree, meet, seen, knee, bee, sleep,
ee
feed.
e she, he, me, be, we, scene, gene, complete.
Phoneme /i/

/i/ key, valley, money, monkey, honey, turkey.

ey

ie piece, field, priest, chief.

i ski, litre.

y happy, very, many, only, busy.

 hill, it, sing, is, big, sit, in, fill, pin, ink,,
i
milk, king.
message, image.
a

/I/ pretty, repeat.

e
Phoneme / I /
busy.
u
build, built.
ui
 red, pen, get, very, egg, pencil,
desk, tell, men.
e bell, fell, neck, second, hen, belt,
merry, when, less

/Ɛ/ ea dead, sweat, heavy, bread.

a any
ai - ay said.
Phoneme / Ɛ / Its sound is the
equivalent to the Spanish as “e”.

ie friend.
u bury.
 ea Steak, great.
ei Eight, weigh, weight.
ey They, grey, prey.
Name, grape, take,
a made, date, plane,
trace, cake.
/e/
Tail, rain, Spain, wait,
Phoneme / e / Its sound
has an equivalent in ai train, sail, aim, stain,
Spanish as “ei”.
snail.
Play, say, way, day, pay,
ay stay, May, today,
Monday.
 Cat, man, have, pack,
bad, pat, arrow, bag,
at, black, ran, sat, van,
/æ/ a hat, fat, bank, had, fan,
Phoneme /æ/
The sound is
between an “a”
marry, mad.
and an “e” in
Spanish.
 /e/ & /æ/ /e/
/e/ & /æ/ /e/ is also an English vowel with high
frequency of occurrence. The tongue body is
shifted forward in the mid-plane.
/æ/ is produced by shifting the body of the
tongue forward from its relaxed state, and
lowering it from the position for /e/. It is the
lowest of the front vowels.
/e/ and /æ/ do not occur in final position in
English words.
 /з:/ and /ə/
/з:/ and /ə/ are central vowels. /з:/ is made with
the tongue in the approximate middle of the
mouth. It occurs only in stressed syllables. /ə/ is
also called a schwa. It is made similarly to /з:/,
but with less tension. /ə/ is the most frequently
used vowel in English. Both /з:/ and /ə/ may
occur in all three word positions.
 Central vowels
There are two central vowels in English:

/з:/ and /ə/

They are called central vowels because they
tend to be produced at a point midway between
the front and back vowels and between the high
and low vowels.
 “ u” Up, cup, rubber, much, study, understand, uncle, ugly,
jump, lunch, husband, sun, under, Sunday, number, gun,
luggage, rubbish, curry, crush, run, fun, funny, shut, sung,
swum, suddenly, jumper, sunbathe, club, just, cut, etc.

“O” Wonderful, nothing, above, love, glove, money, come, son,

Monday, ton, monkey, among, some, oven, done, become,
/ʌ/ mother, onion, honey, won, stomach, income, worry, in
front of, cover, of, etc.

“ou” Southern, young, country, double, enough. Trouble, couple,

cusin, courage, etc.
“oe” Does, doesn’t, etc.
“oo” Blood, flood, etc.
 “ a” About, finally, German, Japan,, grammar, cassette, woman, a, pizza,
Brazil, again, immediately, casual, allow, above, ago, vinegar, agree,
alarm, alone, afraid, among, aloud, around, was, England,, husband,
cathedral, It’s a…, annoy, envelope, mustard, opera, Christmas,
another, etc.
“e” Mother, rubber, paper, accident, later, murderer, father, cover, rather,
worker, daughter, brother, computer, the, over, them, secretary,
teacher, envelop, letter, supermarket, wonderful, student, prisoner,
river, water, October, children, teenager, together, western, science,
open, desert, another, seventh, parent, sister, trainers, etc.
/ə/ “o” Computer, tomorrow, information, tomato, today, doctor, economy,
error, Europe, European, Ribbon, prisoner, mirror, together,
environment, opposite, onion, opinion, carrot, method, police, petrol,
second, memory, nobody, lion, million, billion, customer, etc.
“on” cupboard, etc.
“ou” Famous, should, would, enormous, ridiculous, fabulous, behaviour, etc.
Us, supply, suppose, surprise, autumn, August, succeed, picture,
“u”
adventure, measure, Saturday, etc.
Family, equality, responsibility, responsible, sensible, sensitive, holiday,
“i”
recipe, etc.