Sounds
The central vowel /ә/
This short sound is very common, It only occurs in unstressed syllables (ones said with almost no force). It is the vowel you normally hear in these common words: a, an, the, and, but, of. When you have to make this sound, your mouth should NOT be wide open.
Read the following words and phrases aloud. The unstressed syllables are shown in italics, and all contain /ә/:
| again | about | alone | away |
| Teacher | Mother | Tailor | Neighbour |
| an egg | the book | a glass of water | |
| at school | at home | Poor but happy |
Note that when the comes before another word beginning with a vowel, the sound is no longer /ә/ but /i/. Say the following:
He mixed the eggs together and poured them into the oil.
Vowel sounds present a considerable challenge to non-native speakers. Spoken English has an unusually high number of vowel sounds – from 5 written vowels (a, e, i, o, u) we produce 19 vowel sounds
Types of Vowel Sounds
A vowel sound is made by shaping the air as it leaves the mouth. There are four types of vowel in English:
- Short monothongs (2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12 in the diagram)
- Long monothongs (1, 6, 8, 9, 11 in the diagram)
- Diphthongs (13 – 19 in the diagram)
- Weak vowels (1, 2, 5 , 9 in the diagram)
Long and Short vowels
English distinguishes between the following sounds. Get the sounds wrong and it can affect the meaning. The main difference between these pairs of sounds is in their length. Listen and repeat
| Short vowels | Long vowels |
| /æ/ – hat, cat | /ɑ:/ – heart |
| /i/ – hit, ship | /i:/ – heat |
| /ɒ/ – shot, dog | /ɔ:/ – short |
| /Ʊ/ – put | /u:/ – boot |
| /ʌ/ – bud, bus | /ᴈ:/ – bird |
We have practised these sounds before in earlier classes but in this class, you don’t just learn the sound but the symbol that goes with which sound. Note that the colon (:) after each of the long sounds denotes length.
Look at the list below and pick out which one has a different vowel sound from the other
| A | B | C | D |
| Spit | Kit | Feet | Fit |
| Ham | Heart | Harm | Laugh |
| Shot | Spot | What | Fought |
| Shirt | Hurt | Front | Skirt |
| Food | Foot | Boot | Flute |
Using Phonetic Symbols
Here is a list of examples of how the long and short vowel sounds can be spelt. Listen and repeat:
/æ/ – Most words spell this sound with the letter ‘a’: man, stand, fan etc But not the word plait
/ɑ:/ – This sound also uses the letter ‘a’ sometimes followed by ‘r’ or ‘l’: father, class, cart, start, half, palm, etc. But note: laugh, guard and heart.
/i/ – Often spelt with the letter ‘i’: sit, stick, brick. But note: houses, enough, become, English, rhythm, sorry, many, lady, cities, private, orange, manage, busy, business, women, Monday.
/i:/ – be, she, street, these, sea, police, machine, niece, believe, ceiling, receive.
/ʌ/ – sun, son, one, some, young, flood, does.
/ᴈ:/ – term, learn, early, bird, girl, journey, world. Note too: colonel (sounds like kernel)
/ɒ/ – cost, hobby, watch, quality
/ɔ:/- sport, talk, walk, water, saw, four, fought, board, quarter, warn, taught, door, sure.
/Ʊ/ – put, push, sugar, wood, could, sgould, woman
/u:/ – do, who, soon, food, soup, through, tune, beautiful, true, stew, fruit, nuisance.
Practice:
1. Which of these sounds contain the /ɒ/ sound?
a. swan
b. guard
c. young
d. stone
2. the /ɔ:/ sound?
a. palm
b. what
c. talk
d. world
3. the /ɑ:/ sound
a. quality
b. caught
c. laugh
d. talk
Spoken English: The /i/ and /i:/ sounds
We are going to revise the two sounds above.
Listen to these two lists of words and repeat:
/i:/ /i/
| Eat | It |
| Feel | Fill |
| Heap | Hip |
| Sheep | Ship |
| Leaves | Lives |
| Seat | Sit |
| Beat | Bit |
| He’s | His |
| Least | List |
Many learners of English need to distinguish between these sounds properly. The problem lies with the /i/ sound of the words in column 2. Many Nigerian languages do not have this sound. So let us compare the two sounds. the /i:/ of the words in column 1 is generally quite long and your tongue muscles are very tense or strained as you say it. In contrast, the /i/ of the column 2 words is usually short. Your tongue is brought near the top of your mouth, but your tongue muscles are quite lax as you say it; there is no tension in them. When you say /i/, your mouth is slightly more open than when you say /i:/.
Spelling: /i:/
The /i:/ sound is usually spelled as ‘ee’ or ‘ea’ but in some other ways als. Read the following:
need, meet, chief, police, green, please, piece, machine, meat, these, believe, deceive.
Spelling: /i/
The following words all contain the /i/ sound, which is usually spelled ‘i’. Say them:
is, quick, little, did, which, bitter, this, with, politics, fit, give, Philip
When a word is spelled with ‘i …e’ the sound of ‘i’ is usually /ai/, but the following words should be said with /i/.
river, driven, favourite, genuine, promise.
There are some unusual spellings of /i/, which we find in some very common words. Say the following:
busy, business, minute, women, pretty
This sound is very often found in unstressed syllables where the spelling is ‘-ed’, ‘- ied’, ‘-et’, ‘-age’, ‘-ess’, ‘-ies’, ‘-ing’, and ‘-y’. Say the following:
wanted, carries, market, manage, useless, ended, ladies, bucket, going, quickly, village, married
Consonants Sounds – l, r, w, j.
Most Nigerian languages have both /l/ and /r/, but some do not and some Nigerian speakers confuse the /l/ and /r/ sounds in English. Here is some practice in pronouncing them.
The /l/ sound
To pronounce the /l/ sound, the very tip of the tongue touches the area behind your teeth, where this area begins to move upwards. Air passes on either side of the tongue. Listen and repeat:
The lorry was full of plants
The /l/ sound is always spelled with the letter ‘l’ or ‘ll’. Listen and repeat:
| Leave | Please | People |
| Letter | Close | Travel |
| Little | Splendid | Hospital |
Note, however, that the letter ‘l’ is silent in many words. Say the following, making sure not to introduce any /l/ sound:
| Half | Chalk | Stalk | Calm | Could |
| Halve | Talk | Talk | Psalm | Would |
| Calf | Walk | Folk | Balm | Should |
The /r/ sound
To pronounce the /r/ sound, you bring the tip of your tongue near to the fleshy region behind your teeth, but without touching it. Then you quickly draw the tip of the tongue backwards, and air passes out. So while for /l/ the tip of the tongue touches that fleshy region, for /r/ it does not. Listen and repeat:
Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.
The /r/ sound is always spelled with the letter ‘r’ or ‘rr’. Sometimes ‘r’ follows ‘w’ and sometimes it comes before ‘h’; these letters are silent. Listen and repeat:
| Resent | Present | Prevent |
| Reduce | Brief | Embrace |
| Write | Afraid | Rhythm |
The letter ‘r’ is often present after a vowel, but then it is generally silent. Say the following:
car lord sure fear herd fire
However, if a vowel sound follows (which may come at the beginning of a new word), the ‘r’ is sounded as /r/. Say the following:
a pair of shoes
for ever and ever
an hour of decision
the fire alarm
Listening Practice
| /r/ | /l/ |
| Royal | Loyal |
| Crown | Clown |
| Breed | Bleed |
| Grass | Glass |
| Lorry | Lolly |
Now read out these sentences
- Can you lend me your red leather box?
- Broken glass is scattered on the green grass
- The lawyer is loyal to the royal family
- The problem is probably insoluble
The /w/ sound
This is not a difficult sound. It occurs in all Nigerian languages. The lips are closely rounded.
A weary housewife
The /w/ sound is usually spelt ‘w’ but also as ‘u’ after ‘q’ and in some other words. Listen and repeat:
| W | U | Unusual |
| Worker | Quite | Language |
| Wonderful | Quick | Suite (Like sweet) |
The word choir is pronounced as if written ‘quire’.
The letter ‘w’ is silent in the following words: write, wrong, two, answer, sword.
The /j/ sound
Like /h/ and /w/, this sound occurs only before a vowel, at the beginning of a syllable. It is not a difficult sound.
A young Yoruba
The /j/ sound is often spelt ‘y’, sometimes ‘i’; ‘u’ often has /j/ before it. Listen , and repeat:
| Y | I | Before u |
| Yes | Opinion | Unit |
| Yellow | Interview | Huge |
| Youth | Onion | Failure |
The /j/ sound is also usually heard before ‘ew’. Say these words:
new knew few stew dew
However, do not try to put a /j/ when ‘ew’ follows ‘l’ or ‘r’. Say these words without any /j/ sound:
grew blew brew screw drew threw
From this you can see that ‘blue’ and ‘blew’ are pronounced in just the same way.
