Speech Work: Vowels – Monophthongs

Pure vowels are also known as monophthongs as they have a single sound in their pronunciation.

There are 12 pure vowels or monophthongs in English:

/i:/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /u:/, /e/, /ə/, /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑ:/ and /ɒ/.

Monophthong is a word that is derived from old Greek. Here ‘mono’ means one of single and ‘-pthong’ means sound or tone. The vowel will have exactly one sound or tone when spoken along with one mouth position.

Here are some examples;

1. /i:/ – Seen, bee, sheep, read, leaf, we, suite, deceit 

2. /ɪ/ – Sit, city, lady, pocket, wicked, symbol, carry

3. /e/ – deaf, any, many, leopard, bell, bed 

4. /æ/ – bank, cap, man, trap, apt, can, back

5. /ɑ:/ – staff, after, cart, mark, alms, glass, calf

6. /ɔ:/ – wall, warm, more, before, four, mourn

7. /ɒ/ – was, want, wash, pot, cot, trough

8. /u:/ – lose, move, moon, food, group, rule 

9. /ʊ/ – pull, bush, sugar, shook, wood, showed

10. /ʌ/ – sun, son, come, couple, flood, young 

11. /ʒ:/ – her, learn, search, work, nurse, journey 

12. /ə/ – woman, doctor, tailor, extra, pilot