Vowels & Consonants

Vowels & Consonants

VOWEL

A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. ... The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis, meaning "vocal" (i.e. relating to the voice).

KEY DIFFERANCES

A vowel is a sound made by blowing air out of the mouth without closing your mouth or teeth. 

Example: Let's say "e" together. Your mouth, tongue, teeth, and lips did not move.

CONSONANT

A consonant is a speech sound in which the air is at least partly blocked, and any letter which represents this. ... Consonants may come singly or in clusters, but must be connected to a vowel to form a syllable.

KEY DIFFERANCES

A consonant is a sound made by moving part of the mouth, lips, tongue, or teeth.  

Example:Pronounce “b.” You briefly closed your lips.

AEIOU ... Y

 These 5 letters can be combined to pronounce different sounds. 

The letter “y” is a vowel and sometimes it is a consonant.·    “y”  is used as a vowel instead of a long i or long e at the end of words. Boy, pay, fly, busy, many, and my are all good examples of this.· “y”  is a consonant when it comes at the beginning of words, such as yacht, yellow, or yes.· Exceptions are myth and hymn.

Differances between Vowels and Consonants

• A Vowel is a speech sound made with your mouth fairly open, the nucleus of a spoken syllable.    

• A Consonant is a sound made with your mouth fairly closed. ... Most syllables contain a vowel, though vowel-like consonants can occasionally be syllables.

Vowel Digraphs and Diphthongs

• Vowel digraphs are 2 vowel letters written together. 
  

• When you pronounce these 2 letters, you make a single vowel sound, called a diphthong. 
  

• There are 8 diphthongs in the English language, but there are 18 different digraphs to spell them.
  

Vowel Digraphs and Diphthongs

• The different digraphs are ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, ei, oo, ou, ow, oe, oo, ue, ey, ay, oy, oi, au, and aw. ·   ome words have 2 vowels in a row, but these vowels are pronounced separately. These include chaos and violet.

•  Digraphs that end in y or w tend to come at the end of words. 

• Some words have 2 vowels in a row, but these vowels are pronounced separately. These include chaos and violet.

NOTE

Every word in the English language contains at least 1 vowel.   You will always need a vowel if you are spelling a word.

SHORT VOWELS

Short vowels typically appear at the beginning of words or sometimes in the middle. Some great examples include:
Short a:          map, pal, cat, dad
Short e:           pen, let, get, send
Short i:            pin, mint, still, fill                       

Short o:          con, lot, dot, hop                           

Short u:          pun, nut, bun, hub 

LONG VOWELS

Long vowel states its name. In other words, a long a is pronounced like the letter a, as in lake or tape. Some examples you can use include:

Long a:           bake, fake, date, state
Long e:            me, he, she, theme
Long i:             fine, mine, shine
Long o:           rope, dote, note
Long u:           mute, cute, rude, dune

NOTE

A “silent” e at the end of a word makes the previous vowel long.  An “e” at the end of a word means that the first vowel before it becomes long. Example: hat and hate, cap and cape, dot and dote, and ball and bale.

DIPHTHONGS

OY  “oy”  is often used at the end of words while “oi” appears in the middle of words. 

Examples: toil and toy or coin and coy to show the difference between these 2 digraphs. 

Example:  meat and meet or read and reed show the difference between these 2 dipthongs. 

CONSONANTS

A consonant is a letter of the alphabet that represents a basic speech sound produced by obstructing the breath in the vocal tract. All the letters in the alphabet apart from A, E, I, O, U and (sometimes Y) are called VOWELS; the others are known as consonants.

SYLLABLE

 A consonant can be combined with a vowel to form a SYLLABLE. 

A SYLLABLE is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word; for example, there are two syllables in water and three in inferno.

CONSONANT Digraph & Trigraph

Consonant digraph: Two letters that make one sound.  

Examples: sh, ch, th, wh, ck, ph, ng 

Consonant trigraph: Three letters that make one sound. 

Examples: scr, dge, nth, sch, shr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr; these are also called 'consonant clusters'

LETS REVIEW

The simple Vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y.

The Diphthongs are ae, au, ei, eu, oe, uiIn the diphthongs both vowel sounds are heard, one following the other in the same syllable.

Consonants are either voiced (sonant) or voiceless (surd).

LETS REVIEW

Voiced consonants are pronounced with the same vocal murmur that is heard in vowels; voiceless consonants lack this murmur.

1.  The voiced consonants are b, d, g, l, r, m, n, z, consonantal i, and v. 

2. The voiceless consonants are p, t, c (k, q), f, h, s, and x.

LETS REVIEW

Double consonants are x (= cs) and z (= dz); h is merely a breathing. 

Mutes are pronounced by blocking entirely, for an instant, the passage of the breath through the mouth, and then allowing it to escape with an explosion (distinctly heard before a following vowel). Between the explosion and the vowel there may be a slight puff of breath (h), as in the Aspirates (ph, th, ch).

LETS REVIEW

Labials are pronounced with the lips, or lips and teeth. E.g. b,p,ph,m,v

Dentals (sometimes called Linguals) are pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching or approaching the upper front teeth. E.g.d,t,th,n,sz

Palatals are pronounced with a part of the upper surface of the tongue touching or approaching the palate. E.g. g, ch

LETS REVIEW

Fricatives (or Spirants) are consonants in which the breath passes continuously through the mouth with audible friction.E.g s,z

Nasals are like voiced mutes, except that the mouth remains closed and the breath passes through the nose.E.g c,g,q

LETS REVIEW

The vowels i and u serve as consonants when pronounced rapidly before a vowel so as to stand in the same syllable.Consonantal i has the sound of English consonant y; consonantal u (v) has the sound of English consonant w.

Consonantal i and u (v) are sometimes called Semivowels.

YOUTUBE LESSON

VOWELS & CONSONANTS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ATVX681P4