ABSTRACT

Vowels and consonants are the ‘building blocks’ of pronunciation and this chapter provides an overview of how the vowel and consonant sounds of English are produced. Supported by a series of vivid figures, tables and accompanying prose discussions, it describes in detail how the sounds of English are produced, including the voice, place and manner of articulation for each of the consonant sounds, as well as widely recognized labels for classifying vowel sounds. The chapter also explains how and why the formation of vowels and consonants may vary depending upon the phonological context in which a sound appears, particularly owing to different regional and national varieties of English. After introducing the basic inventory of vowel and consonant phonemes, the chapter reviews and describes some of the more frequent vowel and consonant allophones that English speakers use. Finally, the chapter points out how important phonemes are for intelligibility and concludes with some practical recommendations for pronunciation teaching and learning.