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  • Articulation

Sounds of the Vowel Valley

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Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
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Antonio Fierro: On the vowel valley, I have all the vowel sounds of the English language. And we can start from a very tight smile, /ē/. Alright? And think about how is that sound made? How is that phoneme made? That's a tight smile, /ē/ ... I drop my chin just a little bit more /ĭ/, /ā/, /ĕ/, /ă/, /ī/, /ŏ/, /ŭ/, /aw/, /ō/, /oo/, /ōō/, and /ū/. But what about my diphthongs? /oy/, /ow/ ... And then my vowel-r's as well ... /er/, /ar/, /or/. And then there's that pesky schwa, /ə/, that can sound like a short 'i', I'm sorry, short 'u' ... /ŭ/ or this short 'i' ... /ĭ/.

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