Questions tagged [vowels]
Vowels sounds in English.
260 questions
172
votes
4
answers
232k
views
What is the plural form of "zero"?
I tried looking on Google, but there are some fairly contradictory results.
I thought I'd ask you guys so we could get an authoritative answer on the subject!
- 1,841
107
votes
7
answers
42k
views
Why is Nike pronounced "naikee" and not "naik"?
A word ending with e usually doesn't have a vowel at the end like bike and strike, so why is Nike different?
- 1,193
37
votes
10
answers
36k
views
How are 'marry', 'merry', and 'Mary' pronounced differently?
The way I pronounce these words is the same. Similarly for other words like these: I pronounce ferry and fairy the same, carrot and caret. Yet, dictionaries show different pronunciations for these ...
- 68.9k
34
votes
5
answers
178k
views
When is "Y" a vowel?
In school we are taught the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.
Today's XKCD got me thinking about when the letter Y is considered to be a vowel. I understand (perhaps incorrectly) that in ...
- 26.6k
31
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Why are there 4 ambiguous phonetic symbols in IPA representations of English?
I'm interested in phonetics in order to speak as properly as possible. And here's the thing, there are four vowels with ambiguous symbols:
The first problem is the sound [ɛ] like in dress: /drɛs/ ...
- 419
26
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Why do written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies?
Written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies. Consider what the written vowels in the romance languages represent. Also, for example, consider this simple comparison between a ...
- 6,107
25
votes
5
answers
9k
views
New Zealand pronunciation of "women" vs "woman"
I have read in a number of places that the NZ pronunciation of "women" must be rather peculiar. Quoting from just one such place:
For some years I've noted the tendency of Kiwis to pronounce "woman"...
- 97.6k
24
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Doesn't English have vowel harmony?
Perhaps I'm not educated in this subject, but if vowel harmony means "all the vowels in a word to be members of the same subclass" then does this mean that English has vowel harmony too? For instance, ...
- 1,614
20
votes
3
answers
6k
views
What is the difference between /ʌɪ/ and /aɪ/ in English?
Is there any difference between the two diphthongs in English IPA transcriptions?
If I search a word in the Cambridge dictionary, it gives /aɪ/ for both UK English and US English.
For example, the ...
user387044
18
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Why is "archaic" pronounced uniquely? Is the sequence -ɪɪ- only found in this word?
Before looking this word up, I have always rhymed it with cake i.e. /ɑːˈkeɪk/. But when I looked it up, it was actually /ɑː(r)ˈkeɪɪk/ with the sequence of a similar vowel repeated consecutively: -ɪɪ-
...
user387044
18
votes
3
answers
6k
views
What is the overlap between "Y" and "I"?
My son and I were reciting the Spanish alphabet recently. "Y" is i griega, which means "Greek i." This got me thinking about the English letter Y and its function in our alphabet.
All of the words ...
- 27.9k
17
votes
7
answers
10k
views
How can I practice differentiating between the /æ/ and /ɛ/ sounds in English phonology?
For a non-native English speaker like me, it's always been hard to sound /æ/ and /ɛ/ differently. For example, "salary" and "celery" are two words that I tend to pronounce ...
- 35.9k
16
votes
4
answers
18k
views
Pronunciation of "er" in "farmer" vs. "earth"
I'm confused about the difference in pronouncing "er" in words such as "farmer" and "earth". I hear them the same, but they have different phonetic symbols. Is there any difference in pronouncing "er" ...
- 261
15
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Why did 'y' disappear as an internal vowel in English spelling?
Why did the character 'y' disappear in favor of 'i' in English spelling? I've often noticed this replacement when merchants try to sell or advertise something as archaic or old-timey, writing wife as ...
- 22k
14
votes
1
answer
22k
views
Is pronouncing "The" as in "Thee" still correct in titles?
When saying the title of JRR Tolkien's masterpiece, which is the correct pronunciation (Yes, I know that they're spelled wrong, but I'm trying to emphasize the pronunciation):
Thuh Lord of thuh Rings ...
- 709
14
votes
4
answers
28k
views
Is there such a thing as an unvoiced vowel?
I can't think of any and google has not been helpful.
- 7,930
14
votes
2
answers
65k
views
Is "imbedded" a valid spelling of the word "embedded"?
I have seen this used on our marketing materials:
The technology imbedded in this solution will help improve productivity.
I was going to flag it as a spelling error, however Googling provided ...
- 331
13
votes
3
answers
66k
views
Why do people pronounce "Naomi" as "Niomi"?
The Wikipedia page for "Naomi (given name)" says once said "pronounced nay-oh-mee" which is how I pronounce my daughter's name, but quite often people pronounce it "nigh-oh-mee" (that is, with a long "...
- 243
13
votes
4
answers
74k
views
Why doesn't "ninth" have an "e", like "ninety"?
Is it just because "ninth" has only one syllable? That wouldn't make sense, though, because saying "NINE-ith" wouldn't be worse than saying "NINE-e-tee". If we were used to "nineth", we would have ...
- 57.8k
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why did John Wells need three lexical sets--NORTH, FORCE and THOUGHT--for the same vowel /ɔː/?
The standard Lexical sets for English were introduced by professor John Wells which are widespread. Each lexical set represents a vowel present in a number of words, for example: the THOUGHT vowel /ɔː/...
user387044
12
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Scottish, English, why not *Walish?
As the title question asks, and particularly in light of the Old English word wælisc apparently used to refer to "Welsh", when, why, and how did the English adjective meaning "of or relating to Wales" ...
- 6,236
12
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Syndrome: older pronunciation?
Recently, I was reading The Kenneth Williams Diaries, and in one entry he records correcting some pronouncing syndrome (rhyming with aerodrome) to rhyming with epitome.
I cannot find this ...
- 123
12
votes
8
answers
37k
views
The + vowel letter
I've been told that when "the" is proceeded by a vowel sound, like "apple" or "hour", it's pronounced as "thee" and not as "thu".
But after listening to a couple of songs, I noticed that sometimes ...
- 233
11
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Why doesn't English employ an H in front of Ares?
While watching the movie The Martian, a question arose regarding the name Ares:
Greek Gods were metaphrased into Latin when Romans took over. Ares (from the Greek Άρης) was now named Mars, and so on. ...
- 515
11
votes
3
answers
12k
views
Are there any other English syllables without vowels, besides "thm"?
As far as I knew*, all English syllables have a vowel sound and all of them are spelled accordingly, except for "thm" as in rhythm and algorithm. Are there any others? And are there any etymological ...
- 3,344
11
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Is there any rule for pronouncing words beginning with “re-”?
It’s hard for me to guess how to pronounce words beginning with re- correctly.
Sometimes it is /rɛ/ as in reference, but sometimes it is /ri/ as in report.
Is there any rule about this?
- 213
11
votes
6
answers
14k
views
Pronunciation of vowel in vague as [æ] instead of [eɪ]
I have a friend who pronounces the vowel in plague, vague, and bagel as [æ] instead of the standard [eɪ] (so plague rhymes with flag, for instance). Interestingly, he apparently can't tell the ...
- 19k
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Did the non-standard pronunciation of “gold” as "goold" come from an Old English sound change?
John Walker in his Critical Pronunciation Dictionary (1791) transcribes the pronunciation of the word “gold” as
go¹ld, or go²o²ld
which in modern transcription equates to /goʊld/ or /guːld/.
He ...
- 84.5k
10
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Do "map" and "cat" rhyme?
Do the words map and cat rhyme?
I'm of the opinion that they do because—even though they end with different sounds—the vowel sound is the same.
Please help settle a debate between my children and me.
- 305
10
votes
3
answers
73k
views
Is it "flotation" or "floatation"?
Is the difference between flotation and floatation a US/UK difference or something else?
I think I did see floatation in some physics book.
- 288
10
votes
3
answers
18k
views
Is the 'w' in 'cow' a vowel or a consonant? [duplicate]
Is the w in cow a vowel or a consonant?
Assuming it is considered a vowel, would it likewise be so in how?
I learned that the vowels are "a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y."
If w can be a vowel, what ...
- 641
10
votes
4
answers
508
views
Do any speakers have contrastive vowel qualities for the NURSE and lettER sets?
John Wells’ lexical sets are usually useful classifications for determining differences in the realizations of vowels across English accents. Two of the sets are the NURSE set, referring to a stressed ...
- 890
10
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Do Americans who have the cot–caught merger pronounce 'all', 'tall', 'Paul', etc. with the same vowel quality as 'lot'?
Do American English speakers who pronounce cot and caught as [kʰɑt] pronounce all, tall, Paul, etc. with the same vowel quality?
If my subjective experience is anything to go by, I feel like I've ...
- 1,898
10
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Difference between /ʌ/ and /ə/ in English IPA
If someone who is a linguistics expert could explain this to me in a way I can understand, I'd really appreciate it. I get that /ʌ/ is used on stressed vowels and /ə/ on reduced vowels, but they sound ...
- 103
10
votes
1
answer
29k
views
Difference between IPA ɚ, ɹ, and ɝ
Wanting to be more Californian and trying to correct my accent, I'm looking at the sound for mother, in the North America column. What is the difference between IPA symbols for ɚ, ɹ, and ɝ. (ɝ is not ...
- 221
10
votes
1
answer
554
views
Why does "appropriate" (and also "duplicate", "deliberate" etc) have a different vowel in their adjective/noun and verb forms?
TL;DR
There are adjectives/nouns--verb pairs in which the adjectives/nouns have weak vowel in the last syllable and the verb has strong for example:
duplicate (adj): /ˈdjuːplɪkət/
duplicate (v.): /...
user387044
9
votes
2
answers
47k
views
Why is 'an' used with 'an honour'?
Why is 'an' used with 'an honour'? Isn't 'an' limited to the vowels?
- 4,775
9
votes
1
answer
6k
views
How is "gone" pronounced?
I'm a native Spanish speaker who's trying to grasp some of the subtleties of (American) English pronunciation. I think the sounds that give me the most trouble are the triplet of low back vowels: /ɑ/, ...
- 302
9
votes
4
answers
11k
views
Online rhyme dictionary/rhyming resource that lists rhymes by vowel sound (assonance)
Anyone know of an online rhyming dictionary or rhyme resource that lists rhymes by vowel sound (assonance)? RhymeZone.com doesn't have such an option.
- 971
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why doesn't the silent "e" work on "infinite"? [duplicate]
Why doesn't the silent "e" work on the word "infinite"?
What I mean is, why does mate have a long "a", but infinite has a short "i"?
- 207
8
votes
3
answers
10k
views
What exactly is the "schwa" sound?
What exactly is the "schwa" sound? As a non-native speaker, I hear this sound as not being a pure and clean sound. I mean I know that every vowel sound may vary depending on whether the syllable is ...
- 215
8
votes
4
answers
61k
views
What is the use of "w" as Semi-vowel?
In English alphabet, there are five (5) Vowels- a, e, i, o and u. And there are two (2) more letters- y and w, which are called Semi-Vowels. In the word "cry", y is considered as Semi-vowel.
...
- 237
8
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Sound changes of "wild" and "wilderness" [duplicate]
I'm having a heated a discussion with a friend and we cannot really get on the same level.
In the original pronunciation of the word wild, the "i" was the short sound that we have in the word ...
- 89
8
votes
1
answer
20k
views
Why is "Yosemite" spelled that way?
I'm not a native English speaker, but sometimes I get the feeling that the pronunciation of English words is random.
Why is "Yosemite" is pronounced as "Yoh-Sem-Ee-Tee" and written as "Yosemite" and ...
- 89
8
votes
2
answers
17k
views
Participle of "center/centre" in UK English — "centring"? Seriously? [closed]
As an American, I was never shocked to see the word "center" spelled as "centre." It didn't bother me at all. Honestly.
But then I saw the participle of it spelled as "centring" as opposed to "...
- 395
8
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Why is it 'speaking'/'speech' instead of 'speeking'/'speech' or 'speaking'/'speach'?
Why is it speaking/speech instead of speeking/speech or speaking/speach?
- 856
8
votes
1
answer
277
views
Did English have any alphabet or writing before it adopted Latin?
I wonder if the English language had any writing or script before the adoption of Latin.
This question came about in a conversation I had with a friend about the writing of vowels in English. ...
- 195
8
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Why are only some "u" words pronounced with a glide in American English?
In most words with a long U that doesn't start a syllable, it is pronounced /uː/. Examples: student, reduce, introduce. However, in some words (such as music, mule, human) it is pronounced /juː/. I've ...
- 1,514
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How do I know if I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift?
I grew up in Kalamazoo, MI, where (according to Wikipedia and other sources), many speakers have something called the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS). So I'm trying to figure out if I'm one of them.
...
- 15.5k
7
votes
4
answers
127k
views
How do we differentiate long vowels from short vowels in English
I was finding a school for my toddler. I saw this new theory called long vowels and short vowels
The teacher talk about apple, which she read something like "eiple" and the hat, which she claims use ...
- 2,085