Day: February 21, 2011

Speech Sounds – Vowels

 

There are twenty vowel sounds in the Received Pronunciation of England (R.P.). These include twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs, belonging to different phonemes. They are illustrated with the following sets of words:

Pure Vowels (Monothongs):

  1.   even, see, teach, field, receive, machine, key, people
  2.   bit, ink, rich, begin, effect, matches, city, village, coffee
  3.   head, bed, nest, breath, feather, measure, many, bury, said
  4.   axe, cat, fan, tax, had, sad, rank,  band, man, bag, lack
  5.   arm, part, car, hard, pass, dance, bath, staff, calm, aunt, laugh
  6.   got, hot, ox, box, God, bottle, borrow, quality, want, cough, gone
  7.   all, corn, horse, morning, four, bought, door, law, walk, warm, daughter
  8.   put, book, good, room, wood, woman, cushion, full, sugar, bush, should
  9.   boot, two, shoe, rude, juice, music, food, tooth, lose, you, new, beauty
  10.   up, cup, gun, much, uncle, bundle, month, country, young, blood
  11.   fur, earn, word, girl, hurt, curse, serve, thirst, journey, surface
  12.   ago, about, forget, human, problem, liberty, drama, beggar, bigger,

Dipthongs (Vowel Glides):

  1.   aim, pain, play, day, gate, age, waste, rain, eight, they, great,
  2.   home, open, go, gold, blow, window, boat, soap, though
  3.   ice, bite, high, write, tidy, cry, cycle, five, die, child, buy
  4.   out, loud, cow, how, allow, shout, house, mouth, round,
  5.  oil, boil, boy, annoy, join,  coin, noise, point, voice
  6.  ear, fierce, near, real, cheer, zero, here, hear, severe
  7.  air, chair, care, share, bear, wear, prayer, their
  8.  poor, sure, surely, tour, during

Detailed Description of the vowel /i:/

The Vowels of English (R.P.): There are twenty vowel sounds in the Received Pronunciation of England (R.P.). These include twelve pure vowels and eight dipthongs, belonging to different phonemes.

Detailed description of the Vowels of RP

 

During the articulation of this sound, the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate, to an almost close position. The lips are spread, and thus it is a front close unrounded vowel.  It is a long vowel. The different spellings for this vowel are e, ee, ea, ie, i, ey, eo as in the words eve, tree, heat, piece, receive, police, key and people respectively. It can occur initially as in eat, medially as in beat, and finally as in see. Some more examples:

e – be, complete, even, immediate, these

ee – cheese, feed, green, free, knee, seed, eel

ea – beat, cream, dream, each, lead, reach, sea, tea, teach

ie – chief, field, relief, piece,siege

ei – deceive, receive, conceive, seize

i – machine, police, prestige, ski

 

 

Personification

Personification:

 A figure of speech wherein objects of nature, animals, inanimate objects or abstract ideas are treated as if they had a personality and were human beings. Examples:

  • The sea was singing songs.
  • The river glideth at his own sweet will.
  • The Ant said to the Grass-hopper.
  • The parrot sang sweet songs.
  • Melancholy marked him for her own.
  • Death lays his icy hands on kings.

Personification is usually expressed:

Through Verbs: Express feelings or actions connected with human beings.

  • The very walls will cry out against it.
  • The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night.
  • Anxiety is sitting on his face.
  • Earth felt the wound.
  • Woods rejoiced and welcomed him.
  • Mute nature mourns her worshipper.

Through Adjectives:

The raging storm, the angry sea, the hungry shore, the smiling land, the blushing rose, the sullen sky, the remorseless heat, furious waves, pitiless cold, etc.