1. Vowels in English and Arabic

2. What is a vowel sound?
Consonant sounds are mostly articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract,
vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically voiced.

4. Front /iː/ as in cream, seen, sea, see,
2. /ɪ/ as in bit, silly, pin, sit
3. /e/ as in bet, head, get, beg
4. /æ/ as in cat, dad, act, fact

5. Central
5. /ɜː/ as in earth, burn, firm 6. /ə/ as in about, clever, ago, teacher 7. /ʌ/ as in cut, nut, note: the vowel sound in not and what is not the same as that in cut and nut

6. Back Vowels
8. /u:/ as in boot, glue, moon 9. /ʊ/ as in put, soot, would, wood 10. /ɔː/ as in corn, born, horse 11. /ɒ/ as in pot, dog, plot, what, not 12. /ɑː/ as in hard, far, car, farm

7. Diphthongs & Triphthongs

8. Diphthongs: The term diphthong is derived from Greek.
It means “double sound” which is a glide from one vowel to another in the same syllable.
It behaves like a simple vowel in other respects.
They are called falling diphthongs because in them, the first element is more prominent.
Like long vowels, all of them are relatively longer when they occur before voiced sounds or finally.

9. There are 8 English diphthongs:
They can be subdivided into 2 categories:
1- Closing diphthongs:
Those diphthongs which have the close vowels /ᶷ/ & /ᴵ/
2- Centering Diphthongs:
Those diphthongs which have the central vowel /ᵊ/

11. Examples: 1 /eɪ/ Day, eight, afraid 2 /aɪ/ Buy, high, night, write 3
/ɔɪ/
Boy, toy, voice, enjoy 4
/əʊ/
Close, know, low 5
/aʊ/
Town, now, how, out 6
/ɪə/
Hear, here, ear /ɪə/ 7
/eə/
Hair, there, parent 8
/ʊə/
Sure

12. Triphthongs:
-A triphthong is a vowel glide with three distinguishable vowel qualities.
- Triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs described with /ᵊ/ added at the end.

13. Ending in/ᴵ/+ /ᵊ/ Ending in /ᶷ/+/ᵊ/
Triphthong ( Closing Diphthong + /ᵊ/)
Ending in/ᴵ/+ /ᵊ/ Ending in /ᶷ/+/ᵊ/

14. - In English, there are, said to be, five triphthongs formed by adding /ᵊ/ to the closing diphthongs.
Layer, player, mayor
Fire, higher, liar
royal, loyal
Lower, mower
Power, hour

15. English vowels vs Arabic vowels
Short vowels
English /i/
This short vowel is produced when the front of the tongue is in the half-close position, and the lips are spread .We find it in the word "hit".
Arabic /i/
This vowel is called "kasrah" in Arabic. It appears under the alphabet in this shape ( ِ ) as in, سِر "secret". The tongue in the half-close position forms /i/ vowel in Arabic. Here the lips are unrounded. This short vowel refers to the genitive case.

16. English /ʊ/
It is a short vowel. The central-back of the tongue is in half-close position and the lips are slightly rounded. It occurs in words like "book".
Arabic /u/
This is the Arabic ضمة, which is produced by the tongue in the half -close position with the rounded lips. In Arabic it is written as ( ُ ) above the alphabet like the word صُم "deaf". It is used to express the nominative case.

17. -Arabic /a/
This short vowel is represented byفتحة ( َ ) in Arabic. It signals accusative case as in أكل التفاحةَ

18. Long vowels English /iː/ Arabic- /ii/
If the front of the tongue is in close position, lips are unrounded. This comes out with the long vowel / iː/ that occurs in the word “see, sea, police".
Arabic- /ii/
This vowel is formed when we have the letter (y) ي preceded by the notation (ِ ) "kasrah'. For example, "fiil"فيل "elephant".

19. English-/uː/
This is a long vowel as in moon, rude.
Arabic-/uu/
This long vowel is formed by the prolongation letter (w) و preceded by the notation ( ُ ) ḍِammah. We find it in the word "ṭuul" طول "length".
Arabic /aa/
The third Arabic long vowel is formed by the prolongation letter (a)ا preceded by the notation ( َ ) fathah. It occurs in the word "qabala" قابل "met

20. /ay/ -َ ي as in بيت, أين, ليل /aw/ -َ و as in يوم, صوم, صوت
Arabic diphthongs
/ay/ -َ ي as in بيت, أين, ليل
/aw/ -َ و as in يوم, صوم, صوت

21. worn going fate Exercise 1: 1. here 6. sure 2. learn 7. worm 8. air
Write the symbol for the underlined vowel sounds:
1. here
6. sure
2. learn
7. worm
worn
8. air
going
9. wash
fate
10. hour

22. Exercise 2:
How many centering diphthongs are there in English?
Give two examples of the two back closing diphthongs?
Give two example of two Arabic long vowels which correspond to two English long vowels.