Vowels and Diphthongs Overview

This set of flashcards is designed to help students review key concepts related to vowels and diphthongs, including definitions, examples, and phonetic features.

What is a vowel?

A sound produced without significant constriction of the oral and pharyngeal cavities, can be prolonged indefinitely, serves as the nucleus of the syllable, and is produced with voicing.

Monophthong

A pure vowel; a vowel of essentially unchanging phonetic quality throughout its duration.

Diphthong

A vowel-like sound that serves as a syllable nucleus and involves a gradual transition from one vowel articulation to another.

Phonemic diphthongs

Diphthongs that cannot be converted to a monophthong without a loss of meaning, such as /ao/, /oi/, and /au/.

Non-phonemic diphthongs

Diphthongs that can be converted to monophthongs without changing the meaning, such as /e/ and /oʊ/.

The four possible features of vowels

Height (high, mid, low), Advancement (front, central, back), Tenseness (tense or lax), and Lip rounding (rounded or unrounded).

Schwa /ə/

An unstressed vowel sound, as in the word 'about' or 'sofa'.

Vowel Quadrilateral

A diagram that visually represents the different vowel sounds based on their phonetic characteristics.

R-controlled vowel

A vowel followed by an 'r' which changes the quality of the vowel, as seen in words like 'bird' or 'her'.

Examples of front vowels (IPA)

i (lower case i), ɪ (small cap i), e (lower case e), ɛ (epsilon), æ (ash).