Rounding: describes whether the lips are protruded or not.Īnother way to describe vowels is to describe the place of articulation and manner of articulation. Height: describes the position of the tongue – high, mid or low in the mouthĪdvancement: describes whether the tongue is in the back or front of the mouth Since vowels need continual sound flow and sound shaping, they can be described in terms of The vowel sounds are represented by their IPA symbols. Given below is a chart of vowel sounds in English.

The same vowel sound can be also represented by different vowel letters as well.Įx: weigh (/weɪ/), clay (/kleɪ/), bake (/beɪk), opaque (/ə(ʊ)ˈpeɪk/) (Vowel: cry, sky, my) These 5/6 letters represent about 20 sounds in English.Ī vowel letter can have different vowel sounds.Įx: cat(/kat/), hate (/heɪt/), all(/ɔːl/), art(/ɑːt/) The letter y can also sometimes act as a vowel.

The letters that represent the vowel sounds in the English alphabet are a, e, i, o, and u. A vowel can be defined as a speech sound produced by a relatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with the vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction. A vowel sound is made by the vocal cords. Speech sounds in a language can be basically categorized into vowels and consonants.

What is vowel sound