1. Vowel Sounds Revisited Taken from: A Course in Phonetics, Chapter 4 Teaching Pronunciation, Chapter 4

2. How can we define vowels?

3. There are at least 3 ways:

4. Manner of Articulation Syllabic Structure Poetry Structure

5. Vowels are sounds in which there is a continual vibration in the vocal cords and the air stream is allowed to escape from the mouth in an unobstructed manner, without any interruption.

6. Vowels are the core or “peak” of a syllable. As we have seen, a syllable can consist minimally of one vowel (V), like in eye (V) /  /. Alternatively, the vowel in a syllable can also be surrounded on either or both sides by a syllable.

7. Vowels are the tools of poets, since it is vowels that allow poets to create assonance and rhyme, and thus shape language musically and make it pleasing to the ear.

8. How can we classify vowels?

9. In Chapter 1 we saw at least 3 ways:

10. Tongue Position Tongue Height Lip Shape

14. Thus we get the following chart:

16. But there are other aspects to consider, like:

17. Lower Jaw Height Gliding Length Tenseness