Phonoloyg: Monophthongs

Monophthongs

Monophthongs are vowel sounds that have a single, stable sound quality. They do not change or glide from one vowel sound to another within the same syllable. Unlike diphthongs, which combine two vowel sounds, monophthongs maintain one consistent sound throughout the pronunciation.

Key Characteristics of Monophthongs:

• Single Vowel Sound: Only one vowel sound is heard.
• Stable and Pure: The sound doesn’t change or move in the mouth during pronunciation.

• Here are some monophthong examples with the vowel sounds bolded for clarity:

  1. /ɪ/ – bit, sit, kit
  2. /iː/ – seat, meet, green
  3. /e/ – bed, red, pen
  4. /æ/ – cat, bad, hat
  5. /ʌ/ – cup, luck, mud
  6. /ɒ/ (British English) – dog, hot, top
  7. /ɔː/ – law, door, floor
  8. /ɑː/ – father, car, hard
  9. /ʊ/ – book, look, foot
  10. /uː/ – food, blue, moon
  11. /ɜː/ – bird, her, word (British English)
  12. /ə/ – sofa, banana, about