2.2 Vowel and consonant
The words voweland consonantare very familiar ones, but when we study the
sounds of speech scientifically we find that it is not easy to define exactly what they mean.
The most common view is that vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the
flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. A doctor who wants to look at the back
of a patient’s mouth often asks them to say “ah”; making this vowel sound is the best way
of presenting an unobstructed view. But if we make a sound like s, dit can be clearly felt
that we are making it difficult or impossible for the air to pass through the mouth. Most
people would have no doubt that sounds like s, dshould be called consonants. However,
there are many cases where the decision is not so easy to make. One problem is that some
English sounds that we think of as consonants, such as the sounds at the beginning of the
words ‘hay’ and ‘way’, do not really obstruct the flow of air more than some vowels do.
Another problem is that different languages have different ways of dividing their sounds
into vowels and consonants; for example, the usual sound produced at the beginning of
the word ‘red’ is felt to be a consonant by most English speakers, but in some other languages (e.g. Mandarin Chinese) the same sound is treated as one of the vowels.
2.2 Vowel and consonant
The words voweland consonantare very familiar ones, but when we study the
sounds of speech scientifically we find that it is not easy to define exactly what they mean.
The most common view is that vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the
flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. A doctor who wants to look at the back
of a patient’s mouth often asks them to say “ah”; making this vowel sound is the best way
of presenting an unobstructed view. But if we make a sound like s, dit can be clearly felt
that we are making it difficult or impossible for the air to pass through the mouth. Most
people would have no doubt that sounds like s, dshould be called consonants. However,
there are many cases where the decision is not so easy to make. One problem is that some
English sounds that we think of as consonants, such as the sounds at the beginning of the
words ‘hay’ and ‘way’, do not really obstruct the flow of air more than some vowels do.
Another problem is that different languages have different ways of dividing their sounds
into vowels and consonants; for example, the usual sound produced at the beginning of
the word ‘red’ is felt to be a consonant by most English speakers, but in some other languages (e.g. Mandarin Chinese) the same sound is treated as one of the vowels.
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