Vowels in English and Arabic

What is a vowel sound? Consonant sounds are mostly articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract, vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically voiced.

Front /iː/ as in cream, seen, sea, see, 2. /ɪ/ as in bit, silly, pin, sit 3. /e/ as in bet, head, get, beg 4. /æ/ as in cat, dad, act, fact

Central 5. /ɜː/ as in earth, burn, firm 6. /ə/ as in about, clever, ago, teacher 7. /ʌ/ as in cut, nut, note: the vowel sound in not and what is not the same as that in cut and nut

Back Vowels 8. /u:/ as in boot, glue, moon 9. /ʊ/ as in put, soot, would, wood 10. /ɔː/ as in corn, born, horse 11. /ɒ/ as in pot, dog, plot, what, not 12. /ɑː/ as in hard, far, car, farm

Diphthongs & Triphthongs

Diphthongs: The term diphthong is derived from Greek. It means “double sound” which is a glide from one vowel to another in the same syllable. It behaves like a simple vowel in other respects. They are called falling diphthongs because in them, the first element is more prominent. Like long vowels, all of them are relatively longer when they occur before voiced sounds or finally.

There are 8 English diphthongs: They can be subdivided into 2 categories: 1- Closing diphthongs: Those diphthongs which have the close vowels /ᶷ/ & /ᴵ/ 2- Centering Diphthongs: Those diphthongs which have the central vowel /ᵊ/

Examples: 1 /eɪ/ Day, eight, afraid 2 /aɪ/ Buy, high, night, write 3 /ɔɪ/ Boy, toy, voice, enjoy 4 /əʊ/ Close, know, low 5 /aʊ/ Town, now, how, out 6 /ɪə/ Hear, here, ear /ɪə/ 7 /eə/ Hair, there, parent 8 /ʊə/ Sure

Triphthongs: -A triphthong is a vowel glide with three distinguishable vowel qualities. - Triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs described with /ᵊ/ added at the end.

Ending in/ᴵ/+ /ᵊ/ Ending in /ᶷ/+/ᵊ/ Triphthong ( Closing Diphthong + /ᵊ/) Ending in/ᴵ/+ /ᵊ/ Ending in /ᶷ/+/ᵊ/

- In English, there are, said to be, five triphthongs formed by adding /ᵊ/ to the closing diphthongs. Layer, player, mayor Fire, higher, liar royal, loyal Lower, mower Power, hour

English vowels vs Arabic vowels Short vowels English /i/ This short vowel is produced when the front of the tongue is in the half-close position, and the lips are spread .We find it in the word "hit". Arabic /i/ This vowel is called "kasrah" in Arabic. It appears under the alphabet in this shape ( ِ ) as in, سِر "secret". The tongue in the half-close position forms /i/ vowel in Arabic. Here the lips are unrounded. This short vowel refers to the genitive case.

English /ʊ/ It is a short vowel. The central-back of the tongue is in half-close position and the lips are slightly rounded. It occurs in words like "book". Arabic /u/ This is the Arabic ضمة, which is produced by the tongue in the half -close position with the rounded lips. In Arabic it is written as ( ُ ) above the alphabet like the word صُم "deaf". It is used to express the nominative case.

-Arabic /a/ This short vowel is represented byفتحة ( َ ) in Arabic. It signals accusative case as in أكل التفاحةَ

Long vowels English /iː/ Arabic- /ii/ If the front of the tongue is in close position, lips are unrounded. This comes out with the long vowel / iː/ that occurs in the word “see, sea, police". Arabic- /ii/ This vowel is formed when we have the letter (y) ي preceded by the notation (ِ ) "kasrah'. For example, "fiil"فيل "elephant".

English-/uː/ This is a long vowel as in moon, rude. Arabic-/uu/ This long vowel is formed by the prolongation letter (w) و preceded by the notation ( ُ ) ḍِammah. We find it in the word "ṭuul" طول "length". Arabic /aa/ The third Arabic long vowel is formed by the prolongation letter (a)ا preceded by the notation ( َ ) fathah. It occurs in the word "qabala" قابل "met

/ay/ -َ ي as in بيت, أين, ليل /aw/ -َ و as in يوم, صوم, صوت Arabic diphthongs /ay/ -َ ي as in بيت, أين, ليل /aw/ -َ و as in يوم, صوم, صوت

worn going fate Exercise 1: 1. here 6. sure 2. learn 7. worm 8. air Write the symbol for the underlined vowel sounds: 1. here   6. sure 2. learn 7. worm worn 8. air going 9. wash fate 10. hour

Exercise 2: How many centering diphthongs are there in English? Give two examples of the two back closing diphthongs? Give two example of two Arabic long vowels which correspond to two English long vowels.