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What is a long vowel10/11/2023 ![]() Listen to the different lengths of the sounds /ɪ/ and /iː/ from longest to shortest: LONGEST leave /liːv/ ![]() The consonant sound directly after a vowel sound will affect its length. English contains 6 single (monophthong) vowel sounds that are normally short(ish): /ɪ/ in PITĥ monophthong vowels that are normally a bit longer /iː/ in FEETĪnd 7 double position long vowels (diphthongs) which are normally slightly longer still: /eɪ/ in FAME,Įach of these sounds will change length in connected speech, for three main reasons, as we will now see: i) VOICING Generally speaking, some vowel sounds tend to be longer than others, but no vowel sound has a fixed length and many other factors affect length, as we are about to see. OK, let’s have a go everyone: SHIP, SHEEP. In a normal, (citation) context, in which no special intonation is added to the words, it is true that SHEEP will generally be a tiny bit longer than SHIP, but I really mean a tiny bit – a few milliseconds. The key difference is the lower position of the jaw and more central position of the tongue in /ɪ/ the position of the mouth is always different. ![]() So the /ɪ/ vowel sound in SHIP is not necessarily shorter than the /iː/ vowel in SHEEP, this is not then the main difference between them. ![]()
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