One vowel word sentences

A syllable is normally thought of as being a peak in sonority. Sonority can be understood as something like «musical loudness».

Vowels are considered to be more sonorous than consonants, because they are perceived as consisting of a pitch or note without any (or much) frication / turbulence. Pitch is that sense of a sound clearly having a high or low note. These sounds have periodic (regularly repeating) waveforms.

In English, the nasal consonants and the approximants /m, n, ŋ, l, r, w, j/ are thought to be the next most sonorant group of sounds. They also basically involve periodic wave forms, although there is some sort of obstruction meaning that the air doesn’t leave absolutely freely through the mouth.

Next there are sounds with pitch and turbulence together. So these have waveforms which are a mixture of periodic and aperiodic waves. In other words you will see a regular, repeating pattern overlaid by random messy waves (or you can think of it the other way round if you’d like). The important thing is that you get both of those together. So you get a messy frictiony sound like air escaping from a pipe overlaid with a kind of musical note. Some examples are /v, z, ʒ/

Lastly, you get sounds that have no pitch at all. They just involve turbulence in the air. You can think of these sounds literally as air escaping through a hole in a pipe. (This is actually exactly what they are!) Some examples are /f, s, ʃ/.

Syllabic consonants

Some syllables in English can be realised by an occurrence of one of the nasal consonants /m, n, ŋ/ (that last sound is the last sound in «sing») or the liquid approximants /l/ or /r/.

So, for example, the word bottle /bɒtl̩/ has two syllables. The first has the vowel /ɒ/. The second syllable often consists just of the sound /l/. It doesn’t have a vowel. We still perceive this as being a syllable even though it doesn’t have a vowel, because [l] is much more sonorant than [t]. So after the vowel /ɒ/ we have /t/, which isn’t at all sonorant — and then we get an increasing sonorance with the /l/. There are therefore two peaks of sonorance in this type of pronunciation of the word bottle. So we perceive two syllables. But there is only one true vowel.

Polysyllabic words with (potentially) only one vowel

Here’s a few words which are often pronounced with only one vowel. Once you spot the kind of pattern you’ll be able to think of thousands of others:

• button
• mitten
• prism
• chasm
• nettle
• angle

Short vowels sounds

Vowels= a, e, i, o, u
(and sometimes y )

Every English word has at least one vowel in it

Sometimes, those vowels say their “names”= the name of the letter as you say it in ABC’s. Those are called “long vowel” sounds.

Many times, however, those vowels have a different sound= a short vowel sound.

See below for practice saying each short vowel sound

a=sounds like the first sound in the word apple

e= sounds like the first sound in the word egg

i= sounds like the first sound in the words itty-bitty

o= sounds like the first sound in the word octopus

u= sounds like the first sound in the word up

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Wow!  Links to good Starfall online videos, for each short vowel sound

(click on links, below,  to hear the short vowel sounds. There are 2 different links for each short vowel sound.  In that website, they say the sounds out loud and you can listen to the short vowels sounds again and again)

short a =  a= (apple)
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-a/load.htm?f
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/song-sa/load.htm?f
short e = e= egg
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-e/load.htm?f
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/song-se/load.htm?f
short i = i = itty bitty
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-i/load.htm?f
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/song-si/load.htm?f
short o = o = octopus 
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-o/load.htm?f
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/song-so/load.htm?f
short u  = u = up 
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-u/load.htm?f
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/song-su/load.htm?f

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The short vowel sounds are in the middle of the words below.

Please practice:
say each short vowels sound by itself.
Then, please practice reading the lists of short vowel words.
(if that is too hard, just say the vowel sounds)
Please practice again and again.
The more you practice, the easier this will be.

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short a sound and words= the sound at the beginning of the word “apple”

Please practice:
read and say each word out loud,
look at the picture of that word to help you understand what that word means,
read the sentence about that word.
(if that is too hard, just practice the one word)
Read the words and sentences again and again and again.

The more you practice reading and saying these words again and again, the easier this will become

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short e sound and words= the sound at the beginning for the word egg

Please practice:
read and say each word out loud,
look at the picture of that word to help you understand what that word means,
read the sentence about that word.
(if that is too hard, just practice the one word)
Read the words and sentences again and again and again.

The more you practice reading and saying these words again and again, the easier this will become

~

short i sound and words= the sound at the beginning of “itty bitty”=
like the tiny dot above the i

Please practice:
read and say each word out loud,
look at the picture of that word to help you understand what that word means,
read the sentence about that word.
(if that is too hard, just practice the one word)
Read the words and sentences again and again and again.

The more you practice reading and saying these words again and again, the easier this will become

~

short o sound and words= the sound at the beginning for the word “octopus”

Please practice:
read and say each word out loud,
look at the picture of that word to help you understand what that word means,
read the sentence about that word.
(if that is too hard, just practice the one word)
Read the words and sentences again and again and again.

The more you practice reading and saying these words again and again, the easier this will become

~

short u sound and words= the sound at the beginning of the word “up”

Please practice:
read and say each word out loud,
look at the picture of that word to help you understand what that word means,
read the sentence about that word.
(if that is too hard, just practice the one word)
Read the words and sentences again and again and again.

The more you practice reading and saying these words again and again, the easier this will become

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