Vowel letter

A **vowel letter** is a letter that represents a vowel. A vowel is a speech sound in spoken language which is pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis.

For historical reasons there is a large mismatch between the number of vowels in English - which has up to twenty vowels (depending on the accent) - and the vowel *letters*, which are limited to **A** **E** **I** **O** **U**, and in some cases, **Y** (see below).

All vowel letters have 4 basic sounds: short sound, long sound, long rhotic monophthong and rhotic diphthong. They are shown here in five columns, because the so-called “short” sound (as in *trap)* is shown separately before /r/ (as in *carry).*

Two sounds of O (/ɔː/ and /o/) have merged in most part of the English speaking world, so O has only 3 basic sounds.

**IPA consonants**

Note that the words “long” and “short” are conventional names. For example /ɑː/*AmE* is a long sound, but it is called “short o”.

A

*See main article Decoding the letter A.*

The vowel letter **a** has six common pronunciations, as in the following examples:

* /æ/: and - bad - carry - happy - man - trap

* /æ/,*AmE* /ɑː/*BrE*: ask - glass - bath

* /ɑːr/: car - marble - start

* /eɪ/: day - face - same - rain - stay

* /eə/: aware - care - scare - square

* /ɔ/: ball - call - law - saw - talk - walk

* /ə/: about - America - England

Spelling anomalies
* /ɒ/: want - watch
* /ɒ,*BrE* ʌ*AmE*/: what - wasn’t
* /e/: any - many - said - says

E

*See main article Decoding the letter E.*

The vowel letter **e** has six common pronunciations, as in the following examples:

* /e/: cherry - get - pen - well

* /ɜː/: service - term - verb

* /iː/ me - she - theme

* /ɪə/: here - material - period

* /ɪ/: return - decide - debate

* /ə/: happen - model - problem - teacher

End of word
* At the end of the word the letter **e** is normally silent. See silent e.

Examples:
same - theme - time - bone - cute - type
* The letter **e** is pronounced at the end of one-syllable words in which no other vowel is present:

he - we - she
Spelling anomalies
* catastrophe - Chile - karate - recipe

E is also part of some digraphs.

* "ea" and "ee" as /iː/: see - speak - weak - week - three

* "ei" or "ey" as /eɪ/: eight - weight - they

* "eu" or "ew" as /juː/: dew - Europe - few - new

I

*See main article Decoding the letter I.*

The vowel letter **i** has five common pronunciations, as in the following examples:

* /ɪ/: think - fit - win
* /aɪ/: time - night - wine
* /aɪə/: desire - fire - hire
* /ɜː/: bird - first - girl
* /ə/: April - civil - cousin

O

*See main article Decoding the letter O.*

The vowel letter **o** has four common pronunciations, as in the following examples:

* /ɒ/: long*BrE* - off*BrE* - on - stop

* /ɔː/: for - long*AmE* - more - off*AmE* - short - thought

* /əʊ/: go - home - open - phone

* /ʌ/: come - love - Monday - money

Spelling anomalies
* /uː/: do - lose - move - to - two - who
* /ʊ/: woman
* /ɪ/: women

U

*See main article Decoding the letter U.*

The vowel letter **u** has four common pronunciations, as in the following examples:

* /juː/: unit - use - tune - university.

* /uː/: brutal - June - rule - truth.

* /ʌ/: fun - but - butter - summer.

* /ɜː/: turn - return - burn - Thursday.

Spelling anomalies
* busy - minute - sure

Y

*See main article Decoding the letter Y.*

The letter **y** corresponds to both a vowel and a consonant.

As a vowel it has two common pronunciations in English, as in the following examples:

* /aɪ/: try - fly - why - my

* /iː/ or /ɪ/: city - easy - tiny - ugly

As a consonant:

* /j/: yes - you - year

## References

1. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries: Ask the experts "Is the letter Y a vowel or a consonant?"