VOWELS
The 26 letters of the English alphabet fall into three classes when considered in regard to the sounds they stand for. Some of them have open sounds. While speaking them, our breath comes out of the mouth without being completely stopped anywhere. These letters are voiced letters and so they are called vowels.
Vowels are only five in number. They are a, e, i, o, and u.
These vowels are the very soul of English language. They help other letters of the alphabet to sound properly. Without them they cannot be spoken, in fact. Take two letters p and t. when written as pt, they cannot make any word. But if a vowel is combined with them, they can be spoken as different words:
Pat, pet, pit, pot, put, apt, opt etc.
A vowel is a letter standing for an open sound that can be spoken independently.
Two letters of the English alphabet have a peculiar quality. They are w and y. they stand in between the vowels and non – vowels. Observe the following examples:
w, y as non – vowels w, y as vowels
(a) was cow
wait dew
walk few
(b) yes my
years cry
yellow fly
It is clear from the above examples that y as a vowel sounds as long w and w as a vowel sounds as long u.
CONSONANTS
Take away the five vowels and two semi–vowels from the English alphabet. The remaining 19 letters do not have open sounds. They require the help of the vowels or semi – vowels to be spoken. They are called consonants or non – vowels.
A consonant is a letter that can sound with the help of some vowel or semi – vowel only.
Thus the 26 letters of the English alphabet can be put into three classes as under:
SYLLABLES
Observe the following:
a, go, pay, mute, try, use are some words. Most of them have only one vowel. Some have two vowels also. But each of them has only one vowel – sound. The second vowel e in the words ‘mute’ and ‘use’ gives no sound. So, each of these words has one syllable only.
A single vowel or a group of letters with one vowel – sound is called a syllable.
A word may have one, two, three, four or five syllables even. Observe the following examples:
1. I, a, may, talk (one syllable)
2. sai–lor, sis-ter, poin-ter, hap-py (two syllables)
3. to-mor-row, in-do-lent, un-der-stand (three syllables)
4. re-com-mending (four syllables)
5. re-com-mend-a-tory (five syllables)
