Welcome back! Have you checked out my Accent Reduction classes yet?
The Roman alphabet has five letters that represent vowels; a, e, i, o, & u, but in spoken American English there are approximately 15 vowel sounds. Linguists and many pronunciation teachers use phonetic symbols to represent these 15 sounds.
Please keep in mind that all dictionaries and pronunciation books do not use the same phonetic symbols. However, they will have a symbol key that explains the symbols that they use. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the symbols used when you start to use a new dictionary or pronunciation text.
Here are some examples taken from the book titled Mastering the American Accent.
/i/ as in seat
/ɪ/ as in sit
/eɪ/ as in cake
/ɛ/ as in met
/æ/ as in cat
/ɑ/ as in father
/ə/ as in bun
/ɔ/ as in law
/oʊ/ as in boat
/ʊ/ as in wood
/u/ as in two
/ər/ as in heard
/aɪ/ as in mine
/aʊ/ as in mouse
/ɔɪ/ as in boy
The best place to see and hear the articulation of all the American English vowel sounds is on the University of Iowa’s Phonetics website.
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