Podcasts, Typescripts, Interactive Quizzes and Language Forum: http://linguaspectrum.com Learn and Teach Online: http://linguaspectrumplus.com An essential part of an English student's learning process. If you learn phonetics, your pronunciation will improve dramatically and quickly. If you would like coaching on phonetics or pronunciation, please sign up for Private English Classes online at http://linguaspectrumplus.com Let's take a look at the first of the two close back vowel sounds on our British English IPA chart, shall we? Remember that the monophthongs are the pure vowels and they are found in the top left part of the chart. There are twelve monophthongs on the chart. Most English dialects have two close back vowels. The two close back vowels shown on our chart are represented by the /ʊ/ and the /u:/ symbols. Notice that the /u:/ symbol has two dots after it. As you know, this means that the vowel sound is a long vowel sound. Think of the /u:/ as the longer version of the /ʊ/. The /ʊ/ is called the near-close near-back rounded vowel and is found in words such as foot /fʊt/. The /u:/ is called the close back rounded vowel and is found in words such as goose /gu:s/. Let's take a quick look at some of these technical terms, shall we? The IPA prefers to use the terms close and open for vowels, while some linguists prefer the synonymous terms high and low. You might come across either term when reading about vowel sounds. The term close is the same as high, and the term open is the same as low. In this video, I will use the terms close and open. Close refers to the height of the tongue in the mouth. The opposite to close is open. Close means that the tongue is at its highest point, and this is why close vowels are also called high vowels. Open means that the tongue is at its lowest point, and this is why open vowels are also called low vowels. There are six heights to English vowels and they range from the close vowel, or high vowel, to the open vowel or low vowel. Near-close means that the tongue is in a similar position to a close vowel, but is less tense. Remember that we looked at tense and lax vowels in the last video? Well, a near-close vowel is a lax variant of the tense close vowel. A back vowel is a vowel sound made when the tongue is closest to the back of the mouth. The opposite of a back vowel is a front vowel. There are five degrees of backness in English vowels. When we talk about the position of a vowel we use the height and the backness to describe the position of the tongue. But we also use our lips to make sounds, and a third term used in describing a vowel is the shape of the lips. When describing a vowel sound, we can say whether the lips are rounded or unrounded. The vowel we are looking at in this video is a rounded vowel. This means that the lips form a circle when the sound is made. Let's take a look at some of the words that we find the near-close near-back rounded vowel /ʊ/ in. Remember that we are looking at RP pronunciation, or as close as my own accent is to it. Many regional dialects in England pronounce the /ʊ/ vowel sound slightly differently to RP English. The /ʊ/ vowel sound can be spelt in a number of different ways, but the sound never occurs in the final position in English words and rarely occurs in the initial position. We can spell this vowel sound with a double letter O, as in the words look /lʊk/, foot /fʊt/ and soot /sʊt/. Of course, you need to remember that not all words that have any of these letter combinations will have the /ʊ/ vowel sound. Take the word tool /tu:l/, for instance. It has the double letter O but it has the longer /u:/ vowel sound. The word door /dɔ:/ also has the double letter O, but it has the /ɔ:/ vowel sound, not the /ʊ/ sound. Don't forget that in many English words, identical sequences of letters can have very different sounds due to the irregularities of English spelling. We can also spell the /ʊ/ vowel sound with the letter U. In fact, this is the most common way of spelling the sound. Here are some words that use the letter U to spell the /ʊ/ sound. Bull /bʊl/, full /fʊl/, pull /pʊl/, pudding /ˈpʊdɪŋ/, and sugar /ˈʃʊgə/. But the letter U does not spell the vowel sound /ʊ/ in the words dull /dʌl/ or busy /ˈbɪzɪ/. And we can spell the vowel sound /ʊ/ with the single letter O, as in the words wolf /wʊlf/ and woman /ˈwʊmən/, but not in word /wɜ:d/, who /hu:/ or women /ˈwɪmɪn/. And there are several other less-common ways to spell the vowel sound /ʊ/. We can use double letter O followed by a consonant followed by a letter E. We find this in the word gooseberry /ˈgʊzbərɪ/, but not in the word goose /gu:s/. We can use the letters OR, as in the word worsted /ˈwʊstɪd/, a type of woollen /ˈwʊlɪn/ fabric.

• published: 15 Sep 2012
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