Inrtoduction

CHAPTER I. The nature of English vowels.

1. 
   General information and main features of English vowels
   

How do vowel sounds?
The letters a, e, I o, and u make up the language's fifteen vowel sounds. In vowel sound spellings, the letters y, w, and gh are also frequently employed. A vocal tract that is somewhat open is capable of producing vowel sounds. Contrarily, consonant sounds are produced by forcing air through a tiny aperture in the vocal tract or by accumulating air in the vocal tract before letting it out. Vowel sound classifications
Three categories can be used to classify vowel sounds:
Short vowels, which are the most frequent sound for a single vowel spelling, long vowels, which sound like the letter names, other vowels (the remaining vowel sounds)
Short vowel sounds are uttered for a shorter period of time than long vowel sounds. It is crucial for ESL/ELL/EFL students to understand that "long" and "short" do not refer to the duration of a vowel sound. In American classrooms and online, these outdated words are still frequently used. They are used in this context to give a vowel sound a name so that when the sound is explained, the name is utilized rather than the sound, which many beginning students are still unable to correctly hear. Short vowel sounds are typically written with a single letter at their most basic, while long vowel and other vowel sounds are typically written using combinations of characters. This is not a rigid guideline that should be followed when learning English.
Why is it difficult to enunciate vowel sounds?
Many English pronunciation spelling patterns allow for the use of two or more different pronunciations under the same spelling. For instance, the pronunciation of the letters 'e-a' in the words team (long e /i/) and death (short e //) differs. Along with understanding all possible pronunciations for each spelling, it is useful to remember the typical spellings for each vowel sound. There are numerous terms in the English language that are not pronounced as their spelling would indicate. These words are referred to as non-phonetic words and need to be learned separately. What do the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for English vowel sounds mean? There are 20 vowel sounds in English.
Short vowels in the IPA are:
/ɪ/ – fit /fiːt/, pick /piːk/, difficult /ˈdɪ.fɪ.kəlt/
/e/ – pet /pet/, sent /sent/, attention /əˈten.ʃən/
/æ/ – pat /pæt/, flat /flæt/, family /ˈfæ.mə.li/
/ʌ/ – cut /kʌt/ jump /dʒʌmp/, cover /ˈkʌ.vər/
/ʊ/ – put /pʊt/, book /bʊk/, cushion /ˈkʊ.ʃən/
/ɒ/ – pot /pɒt/, dog /dɒg/, hospital /ˈhɒs.pɪ.təl/
/ə/ – about /əˈbaʊt/, system /ˈsɪs.təm/, complete /kəmˈpliːt/.