Thursday, 22 May 2014

vowel combinations

·         vowel combinations

·         A vowel combination is a combination of two or three vowels, or of a vowel and at least one consonant, that is associated with one or more specific single sounds. For example, ea has the sounds /long e/ and /long a/; ay has the sound /long a/, and igh has the sound /long i/. These vowel combinations are sometimes called digraphs, diphthongs, trigraphs, and triphthongs.
·         Vowel combinations occur in three different forms in written English:
·                                  1- Vowels often appear in clusters within a single syllable. This is the most common form.
·         2- Vowels often appear in combination with a particular consonant or consonants which, together, represent a sound unit that is different from what you would expect if you didn't know the specific combination. For example, the o in old has the /long o/ sound, but if you didn't already know that already, you would think that the o in cold was short.
·         3- Another common combination in English is one or two vowels followed by gh. The gh is usually silent. It is usually easier to decode the whole unit (igh, eigh) than to process the vowel and the gh separately.

Monophthongs

A monophthong consists of only one vowel sound that does not change during its articulation; i.e., it starts and ends in the same quality, and the speech organs do not change their position during its pronunciation. Monophthongs are also called simple vowels, pure vowels, or stable vowels. American linguists list from 9 to 12 monophthongs in American English, generally 11 monophthongs: [a:], [æ], [i:], [i], [e], [o:], [o], [u:], [u], [ər], [ə].

Monophthongs



A monophthong consists of only one vowel sound that does not change during its articulation; i.e., it starts and ends in the same quality, and the speech organs do not change their position during its pronunciation. Monophthongs are also called simple vowels, pure vowels, or stable vowels. American linguists list from 9 to 12 monophthongs in American English, generally 11 monophthongs: [a:], [æ], [i:], [i], [e], [o:], [o], [u:], [u], [ər], [ə].

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