Definition and Examples of Vowels in English

Definition and Examples of Vowels in English Written English has a 26-letter alphabet. Of the 26, 20 are proper consonants, five are proper vowels, and one, the letter Y, can either be either a consonant or a vowel depending on usage. The proper vowels are A, E, I, O, and U. Coming from the Latin word for voice, vowels are the part of speech that is created by the relatively free passage of breath through the larynx and the mouth. When the mouth is obstructed during speech production- most often by the tongue or teeth- the resulting sound is a consonant. One Vowel, Many Pronunciations Vowels comprise the  principal sounds of syllables and form a major category of phonemes which are the distinct sets of sounds that allow a listener to distinguish one word from another  in speech.  Standard spoken English  has approximately 20 distinct vowel sounds, although regional dialectal variations account for more. As you can imagine, with each one potentially symbolizing multiple sounds on any written page, vowels letters are kept busy. How a vowel is pronounced in English depends very much on who is pronouncing it and where they hail from. There are currently as many as 160 distinct English-language dialects worldwide. For example, Standard American English has fewer vowel distinctions than Standard Southern British English, so while a Londoner from Mayfair would likely pronounce the words merry, marry, and Mary in three distinctly different ways, for the majority of Americans all three sound pretty much the same. With 29, England has the largest number of distinct dialects, and that doesnt even take dialects from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, The Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands into account. The United States has 27 recorded dialects; India clocks in at 14 distinct dialects, followed closely by Ireland with 13, and Australia with 9. Long and Short Vowels In the English language, each of the vowels can be pronounced more than one way, but the two most common variations are long pronunciation and short pronunciation. These variations are often represented by typographical signs: a curved  symbol  above a vowel represents short pronunciation: ÄÆ', Ä•, Ä ­, Ã… , Ã… ­, while long  pronunciation  has by a horizontal line above the  vowel: Ä , Ä“, Ä «, Ã… , Ã… «. Vowels that have long pronunciations are most often modified by a secondary vowel thats generally silent. In words such as late or tune, the letter e is added to modify the main vowel sound, while in words such as goat or beat, the modifying vowel is the letter a, and in words such as night, knight, flight, and right, the long vowel i is modified by the letters gh. Fast Facts: Examples of Short and Long Vowel Pronunciation The Letter A- Short pronunciation: My hat sat on the mat. (hÄÆ't, sÄÆ't, mÄÆ't); Long Pronunciation: He ate the date on my plate. (Ä te, dÄ te, plÄ te)The Letter E- Short pronunciation: She let her pet get wet. (lÄ•t, pÄ•t, gÄ•t, wÄ•t); Long Pronunciation: His feet beat a neat retreat. (fÄ“et, bÄ“at, nÄ“at, rÄ“trÄ“at)The Letter I- Short pronunciation: Spit out that pit and I quit! (spÄ ­t, pÄ ­t, quÄ ­t); Long Pronunciation: The site of the bite from the mite was red. (sÄ «te, bÄ «te, mÄ «te.)The Letter O- Short pronunciation: That spot on the pots got rot. (spÃ… t, pÃ… t, gÃ… t, rÃ… t); Long Pronunciation: I wrote the quote on the note. (wrÃ… te, quÃ… te, nÃ… te)The Letter U- Short pronunciation: He cut the nut with a knife from his hut. (nut, cut, hut); Long Pronunciation: The mute on his lute was acute. (lÃ… «te, mÃ… «te, acÃ… «te) Vowel Pronunciation Rulebreakers While long and short are the most common vowel pronunciations, many words with vowel combinations do not follow these rules. For example, doubling the o in the word moon produces a long u (Ã… «) sound, while the y in duty not only modifies the u to an ew sound but rather than being silent, is pronounced as its own syllable with a long e (Ä“) sound. Words that must be pronounced on a case by case basis- such as aardvark, height, and diet- can be even more confusing for those first learning English. Using Phonetics to Pronounce Vowels Correctly As challenging as it may be to learn every correct vowel pronunciation with so many rules and exceptions, theres actually a fairly easy-to-learn system that can help to guide you. Phonetics is the branch of  linguistics  that deals with how  speech  is produced and offers a system of written symbols that represents each component sound in a language. Learning phonetics is an extra step in knowing how to pronounce words correctly but its not difficult and the results can be well worth the effort. In fact, actors often use phonetics to break words down into component sounds when they are required to speak in a dialect or accent that is not a reflection of their native voice.

Finance - Securities Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Finance - Securities Analysis - Essay Example www.facebook.com and a home page will appear to request you to put in your credentials that are if you have an account in. Alternatively if, one does not have an account you can still register for one by following basic steps. Simply I can invest in facebook. This is because facebook can guarantee you a triple income of what you invested. By selling a single share at $38 facebook has a returning market cap of $104 billion. Just for the record, at the time of the actual IPO opening when NASDAQ was printing shares one could see them post at the Etrade Market Depth tab. Mind you, trade had actually not yet begun, and so what Etrade staff told me was "these were trades being entered". I believed that. The share prices ranged from ask and bid at 45 to 60, then jumped to 100, then 150 and finally 200. The asking price for FB at about 11:20 to 11:30 was 200 bucks. At some point this morning the SEC stopped trade because of short sellers. But whats getting missed is that many buyers, some of them had to be institutional, were willing to pay as much as 200 bucks a share on the IPO offering time. Why do I know this? Both the Market Depth tab and also NASDAQs staff member confirmed, this is "what customers were will ing to offer". NOW then, whats Facebooks valuation? The short sellers were trying to get the stock to below 30 dollars IMHO when SEC stepped in today the 21st. That indicates their willingness to resort to whatever means are necessary. This climate of criminality and greed is working against not only stock investors but also the USA itself. Holding 200 shares for a recovery, (NOT acquired the enormous price btw) and may buy more if they go down again tomorrow. On the 21st shares dropped to 33.00. They may fall more, but the markets too are in a moment of volatility regardless of the one Monday up to date. This was bank stimulated, and when the terrible news seeps back from across the pond again, right back to square

Canadian Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Canadian Government - Essay Example Canada is a democratic country, practicing what is known as the liberal form of democracy (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 8). This paper purports to discuss and analyze the different types of democratic governments in relation to the Canadian political system, highlighting some of the pros and cons of the practiced form. As already mentioned, the Canadian government is liberal in nature. Liberal democracy essentially imparts greater freedom to the public than is offered by the simple definition of democracy which merely empowers the general public to choose their political representatives through voting and elections (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 8). Liberal democracy ensures greater empowerment through three stipulations: the government works within a legally defined parameter and is checked by rules and laws, written in the form of a constitution; the public has freedom to gather and express political views through a free media and open access to information; and the political representati ves compete in a fair election where the public is free to choose amongst them through open voting (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 8). A democratic government, be it liberal or otherwise, can be of one of two basic forms: direct and representative or indirect. The direct form of democratic government is essentially what was practiced in the Greek politics, where the general public is literally given the power to choose and plan every law and policy that the government proposes and wishes to implement (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). These policies and laws are voted upon by the public, so that the voting system is not restricted merely to the election of the representatives (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). However, this system is not appropriate and practical for the modern day complex societies (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). Therefore, an indirect method of democracy is practiced whereby the public chooses their representatives who then make the appropriate laws and policies without public intervention (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). The government, in this case, is authorized to implement policies even by force, that is, through the use of the police and military, and other government agencies (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). The public chooses the representatives that it considers to best serve their interests (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). The parties prepare an agenda beforehand on the basis of which they fight the elections. This agenda is often the only way of predicting the party’s course of action once it is in authority (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). In turn, the government, at least that of Canada, is expected to be responsible, that is, it is answerable to the public, and has duties in the social and economic fields that it needs to fulfill to make the state a welfare state (Mintz, Tossutti, and Dunn 7). The representative form of democracy is