The document discusses vowels and diphthongs. It defines vowels as speech sounds produced without significant constriction in the vocal tract, and notes they do not have a place or manner of articulation. Vowels can be divided based on voicing, tongue position (front, central, back), tongue height (high, mid, low), rounding (rounded, unrounded), and length (long, short). Diphthongs are two-part vowels where the quality changes within a single syllable, like in "boy", while monophthongs have only one part. Diphthongs can be analyzed as a sequence of two vowels or a vowel glide. Semi-vowels are sounds like /j/ in

1. Vowels
and
Diphthongs

2. VOWELS
• Vowel is a speech sound
produced without significant
constriction of the air flowing
through the mouth.

3. • Vowels are produced with a relatively
open vocal tract.
• Vowels do not have place and manner of
articulation.
• Vowels are almost always voiced.
• Vocal fold vibration is the source for
vowel sounds.
• The standard descriptors for consonants
(place, manner, and voicing) are not
helpful when we want to describe
vowels.

4. Vowel sounds can be divided into
sets in a number of different ways.
1.In terms of voicing. In English, all
vowels are voiced (except when
whispering), but some languages,
such as Japanese, have voiceless
vowels as well.

5. 2.In terms of which part of the tongue
is raised, distinguishing between front
vowels (as in eat), in which the tongue is
positioned forward in the mouth, central
vowels (as in cup), and back vowels (as
in coop), in which the tongue is
positioned towards the back of the
mouth.

6. 3.In terms of how high the tongue
is raised, distinguishing between
high vowels (or close vowels) as in
beat, mid vowels (or half-close
vowels) as in bait, and low vowels
(or open vowels) as in bat.

7. 4.In terms of whether or not the
vowel is tense or lax

8. 5.In terms of whether or not the lips are
rounded (as in shoe) or unrounded (as in
she). In English, rounding is allophonic
(back vowels are rounded; front vowels
are not), but some languages (such as
French) contain front rounded vowels
and some others (such as Turkish)
contain back unrounded vowels.

9. 6.In terms of length, distinguishing
between long vowels such as in knee and
short vowels as in knit. In English, length
is allophonic (tense vowels are long; lax
vowels are short), but some languages
distinguish between vowels that are the
same in quality and only different in
length.

12. • Broadly speaking, there are two
types of vowels in English, namely,
monophthongs and diphthongs.
• Diphthongs are two-part vowels,
whereas monophthongs have only
one part.

13. DIPHTHONG
• Diphthong is a vowel in which there
is a change in quality during a single
syllable, as in the English words boy,
buy, bow.
• Diphthongs can be analyzed as a
sequence of two vowels or as vowel
glide

14. • Semi-Vowel is a speech sound (a
consonant) which is produced by allowing
the airstream from the lungs to move
through the mouth and/or nose with only
very slight friction.
• For example, in English the /j/ in /jes/ yes is
a semi-vowel.
• In terms of their articulation, semi-vowels
are very like vowels, but they function as
consonants in the sound system of a
language.