REVIEW OF MONOPHTHONGS

 

Topic:              Review of Monophthongs

Content:

            The English vowel sounds are twenty five in number. These vowels consist of twelve monophthongs and eight diphthongs and five triphthongs . 

The monophthongs refers to a single vowel sound. They are twelve in number. They can be sub-divided into long and short vowel sounds:

 The short vowel sounds are seven (7). They are:

/ I /

‘a’        -           village, adage

‘e’        -           before, women, English

‘u’        -           business, busy, minute

‘ei’       -           foreign

‘ui’       -           build, guilt

‘y’        -           symbol, lynch, myth

‘O’       -           women

‘I’        -           sit, pig, big, pit, kid

/e /

‘a’        -           many, any

‘ou’      -           said

‘ay’      -           says

‘e’        -           bed, peg, egg, net.

‘ea’      -           dead, bread, head

‘ue’      -           guess, guest

‘eo’      -           leopard, jeopardy, Geoffrey

‘ie’       -           friend

‘u’        -           bury

/ æ /    

‘a’        -           pat, hat, track, bag, trap

‘ai’       -           plait

/ ɒ/

‘a’        -           watch, want, what

‘ou’      -           cough, trough

‘au’      -           laurel, because, sausage

‘o’        -           cot, cod, pot, hot

‘ow’     -           knowledge

/ ʊ /

‘o’        -           woman, bosom, wolf

‘oo’      -           book, took, wood, wool

‘ou’      -           would, should, could

‘u’        -           pull, bull, put, sugar

/ ʌ /

‘o’        -           mother, colour, money

‘oe’      -           does

‘ou’      -           country, tough, double

‘oo’     -          blood, flood,

‘u’        -           cut, hut, but, much     

 

                                                 

                   The Schwa sound

/ə/

‘ae’      -           away, above, ago

‘er’       -           daughter, brother

‘or’      -           doctor, monitor

‘our’    -           clamour, colour, favour

 The long vowel sounds are five (5). They are:

/ iː /

‘uay’    -           quay

‘ae’      -           Caesar, aesthetic

‘e’        -           mete, procedure, eve,

‘ee’      -           peel, meet, seek,

‘ae’      -           heat, seat, meat

‘ai’       -           machine, prestige

‘ei’       -           receive, deceive

‘ie’       -           relieve, believe

‘oe’      -           foetus, amoeba

‘ui’       -           suite

‘eo’      -           people

 

/ ɑː /

‘a’        -           father, pass, vase

‘ar’       -           car, park, mark

‘ear’     -           heart

‘er’       -           clerk, sergeant

‘al’       -           palm, calm, half

‘au’      -           laugh, aunt

 

/ ɜː/

‘er’       -           germ, verve, fertile,

‘ear’     -           learn, yearn, pearl

‘ir’       -           shirt, skirt, firm

‘ur’      -           burn, turn, curl, burden

‘our’    -           journey, mourners, courtesy.

 

/ ɔː/

‘a’        -           water, wall, talk

‘aw’     -           hawk, awe, law

‘au’      -           laud, caught, daughter

‘oa’      -           board, roar, hoard

‘ou’      -           bought, sought, fought

‘or’      -           fork, north, stoke

‘oo’      -           door

‘o’        -           floral, Florence

‘our’    -           count, bourdon

‘ar’       -           warm, war, wharf

 

/ uː/

‘eu’      -           feudal, leukaemia

‘ew’     -           ewe, stew, blew

‘o’        -           move, tomb, prove

‘oe’      -           shoe

‘ou’      -           soup, coup, youth

‘oo’      -           pool, tooth, school

‘u’        -           tune, rude, prune

‘ue’      -           sue, cue, blue

‘ui’       -           juice, fruit, suit

 

 

Evaluation:    Identify the vowel sounds underlined in the words below:

Perm                            /   /     Money / /

Gracious                      /   /

Brother                        /   /

Nuisance                     /   /

Quality                                    /   /

Psalm                           /   /

Crack                           /   /

Jeopardy                      /   /      

People                         /   /