#103: Introduction to Other Vowels
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 103rd podcast, and our 17th video podcast.
The show today is the third and final Introduction to Vowels video. This show highlights the final five vowels, which, for lack of a better name, I call the other vowels .
Before watching this show, I highly recommend watching the Introduction to Long Vowels and Introduction to Short Vowels videos, since this episode refers back to them.
If you are a Pronuncian subscriber, which we appreciate mare than we can say, you can view the entire video by clicking Video Lessons in the Materials tab on Pronuncian.
Since I had to cut the show a bit to fit it under 10 minutes, let's get started. The five other vowel sounds are:
oo sound /u/, which is pronounced as ( oo sound ), and is the vowel sound in the word soon other u /ʊ/, which is pronounced as ( other u ), and is the vowel sound in the word put aw sound /ɔ/, which is pronounced as ( aw sound ), and is the vowel sound in the word dog oi sound /ɔɪ/, which is pronounced as ( oi sound ), and is the vowel sound in the word join ow sound /aʊ/, which is pronounced as ( ow sound ), and is the vowel sound in the word down
Here is a brief introduction to the five individual other vowel sounds.
oo sound /u/
The oo sound is pronounced as ( oo sound ). It is the vowel sound in the word soon . The letters oo are the best known spelling of the oo sound .
The oo sound is very similar to the long u sound. The only difference between the oo sound and the long u sound is that the long u sound begins with a quick y sound .
Listen to the difference:
oo sound ( oo sound ) soon long u ( long u ) cute
The oo sound can be spelled in all of the ways that the long u can be spelled, including u_e , ue , and ew . Note the following examples:
u_e spelling
oo sound : rude long u : cute
ue spelling
oo sound : blue long u : fuel
ew spelling
oo sound : chew long u : few
other u sound / ʊ /
The other u sound is pronounced as ( other u ). It is the vowel sound in the word put . The other u sound is confusing because it shares the single-vowel spelling with the short u sound and the oo spelling with the oo sound .
Notice the similar u spelling while listening to the difference between the other u ( other u ) and the short u ( short u ):
other u ( other u ) put short u ( short u ) sun
Notice the similar oo spelling while listening to the difference between the other u ( other u ) and the oo sound ( oo sound ):
other u ( other u ) good oo sound ( oo sound ) soon
aw sound / ɔ /
The aw sound is pronounced as ( aw sound ). It is the vowel sound in the word dog . The aw sound has many different spellings, and only the two most common spelling are mentioned here: aw and o.
Examples of the aw sound when it is spelled as aw , include the following:
saw , raw , and law .
The aw sound can also be spelled as a single letter o between two consonants. This can be quite confusing because the o spelling has three possible pronunciations: aw sound , short o , and long o .
Notice the similar o spelling while listening to the difference between the other u ( other u ), the short o ( short o ), and long o ( long o ):
aw sound ( aw sound ) dog short o ( short o ) top long o ( long o ) most
Two-sound vowels
Two-sound vowels (also called diphthongs) include a w sound or a y sound during their pronunciation. The final two other vowel sounds, the ow sound ( ow sound ), and the oi sound ( oi sound ) are two-sound vowels.
ow sound /a ʊ /
The ow sound ends in a brief w sound and is pronounced as ( ow sound ). It is the vowel sound in the word down . The ow sound can be spelled ow or ou . The ow spelling is confusing because it can be pronounced as the ow sound or the long o sound.
Notice the similar ow spelling while listening to the difference between the ow sound ( ow sound ) and the long o ( long o ):
ow sound ( ow sound ) down long o ( long o ), known
The ow sound can also be spelled ou as in the words house , out , and count .
oi sound / ɔɪ /
The oi sound ends in a brief y sound and is pronounced as ( oi sound ). It is the vowel sound in the word join . The oi sound is spelled oi and oy , and no other vowel sounds share those spelling.
Examples of words with the oi sound spelled oi include:
coin joint avoid
Examples of words with the oi sound spelled oy include:
boy joy annoy
Conclusion
The five other vowel sounds: oo sound , other u , aw sound , ow sound , oi sound , are the remaining sounds after discovering the long vowel and short vowel sounds.
In order to have a complete understanding of vowel pronunciation, it is important to be able to identify all fifteen vowel sounds. Multiple spellings for the same sound and shared spellings for different sounds should be understood so ESL/ELL students can make correct pronunciation assumptions. Only when all the vowel sound possibilities are established can ESL/ELL students be confident in their pronunciation skills.
