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