English Pronunciation Practice A Practical Course for Students of English By Wang Guizhen Faculty of English Language & Culture Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

English vowels Classification & Description Three factors for the description of English vowels I. The height of the body of the tongue – highest point of tongue (vertical axis); II. The front-back position of the tongue – highest point of tongue (horizontal axis); III. The degree of lip rounding - lip posture

frontcentreback high i:i: u:u: mid low : : æ :

example i:i: beat bitbit betbet æ batbat better butbut heart hothot book u:u: boot :

In addition to the 'pure vowels' (ones where the tongue positioning is fairly static) shown above there is also the set of vowel diphthongs. These are effectively long vowels during which the tongue moves to produce a definite change of quality during the sound. In phonetic transcription we usually use a pair of linked symbols for each diphthong - one indicating the quality of the sound at the start of the vowel, and the other indicating its quality as it ends. Examples of diphthongs are found in words like 'boy', 'hear', 'may', 'my'.

Listen to the pronunciation of the English diphthongs:

pot p