Academic English Skills with Dr. Byrnes

English has two front, high vowels: /i/ and /ɪ/. They are produced at the front part of the tongue. The vowel /i/ is made with the highest tongue elevation, and so the mouth is almost closed without lips touching each other. English natives call the vowel /i/ the long-E sound. It is the most frontal vowel, making it a tense vowel. The other front, high vowel /ɪ/ is made with the front part of the tongue lowered slightly but not quite to the mid position. The mouth is slightly open. So /ɪ/ is called the mid-high front vowel. Also, the vowel is made slightly towards the central part of the mouth, making it a lax vowel.  Being able to pronounce /i/ and /ɪ/ correctly is very important since there are many pairable words that sound the same except for the vowel sounds. And some of these include swear words: bitch vs beach; piss vs peace; shit vs sheet. Non-native speakers may have experienced saying something like “I like to go to the bitch,” “I hope for world piss,” and “Where can I b...

In the previous section, we learned that there are about 15 vowel phonemes in standard American English. Our goal is to learn all these sounds so that we can say words correctly. So, in this section, we aim to find a way to study them systematically.  Since vowel sounds are produced without any obstructing part in the mouth, it can be hard to describe how to pronounce vowel sounds. Some methods suggested are the shape of the mouth and the distance between the lips. These methods are limited however since they do not explain what is really going on inside of the mouth.  Vowel diagram with lips and tongues Tongue height To describe the production of vowel sounds systematically, linguists employ two measures: the height of the tongue and the originating location of the sound in the mouth. The way we move and shape our tongue plays a big part in giving each vowel its own sound. When we pronounce a vowel, even a small change in the position of the tongue can make a difference in th...

Lecture notes 1. What is a Vowel? A vowel is a syllable core : Every spoken word beat (syllable) requires a vowel sound at its center, known as the nucleus. Vowels can stand alone : Unlike consonants, vowels can form full syllables without any surrounding sounds. Blurry boundaries : Linguistic rules change by language; English views the sound /ju/ as a consonant-vowel blend, while Korean views it as two vowels. 2. Why School Classification Fails The "Long/Short" myth : Schools teach that vowels are strictly long or short, but short vowels can actually last just as long phonetically. Missing sounds : The traditional 5-letter system completely ignores vital American sounds like /u/ (blue) and /ʊ/ (book). Multi-use letters : Single letters are forced to make completely unrelated sounds across different words. 3. English is Not Phonetic No fixed rules : Unlike a purely phonetic language like Korean, you cannot reliably sound out written English. Historical mixing : English is an...