English Vowels: History of the Alphabet and Reading Rules

For students of English, the ability to read is a big difficulty, since the vowels in English are not pronounced in the same way as they are written. For proper reading, you need to follow the transcription. It shows how the vowels are read in English.

History of the English alphabet

According to the official version, the English alphabet is 500 years older than Russian. Before the arrival of Christians, the ancestors of modern Englishmen used runic writing. In the IX century Anglo-Saxons officially began to use the Old English Latin letter, which consisted of 20 Latin letters, 2 runes and 2 modified Latin graphemes.

Until the eleventh century there were attempts to order the English alphabet, but they were unsuccessful, because along with the new letter the Saxons also used the old-runic alphabet.

Today the English alphabet includes 26 characters:

• English vowels - 5 letters;
• English consonants - 21 letters.

It should be noted that the letters Y and R stand apart, because, depending on the position in the word, they can designate both a consonant and a vowel sound.

Why do I need to know the English alphabet?

Knowledge of not only writing, but also pronunciation of letters is an important condition for students of English. Why? The fact is that the writing and pronunciation of English words do not match, because their record does not obey any rules. Therefore, carriers often resort to so-called spelling (from the word spell) - spelling. This difference in English is easy to understand by writing the surname Smith (Smith), which, in addition to the popular spelling, can have such options:

• Smithe;
• Smythe;
• Smyth,
• Psmith.

The pronunciation of all surnames is the same.

The skill of spelling is necessary for all English-speaking people, so from the school begins the formation of the ability to quickly spell words. For example, in the lessons of geography, the teacher, without requests from the students, names new geographic names for them. Similarly, any other teacher enters, if a difficult or unfamiliar word is encountered in the lesson.

Therefore, when learning English, you need to pay due attention to the formation of the skill of spelling, in which without knowledge of the alphabet can not do.

How are the vowels pronounced in English?

English vowels, depending on the position in the word, can be short and long. This means that the short ones are simply pronounced and analogous to the Russian vowels, and the second ones should be pronounced longer, almost sing or pronounce as if you need to know where to put the accent. When pronouncing, it is extremely important to observe this rule, since the meaning of the word depends on it. For example, in the word ship, the sound [u] is pronounced as in the word "willow". In the word sheep (sheep) of the phoneme [and] it is pronounced long, as if it is necessary to stress it.

English vowels are divided into:

• Short vowel sounds - mother (mother, mother), map, pencil, cup, pot.
• Long vowels - father, soon, soon, dawn, bee.
• Diphthongs - 2 vowel English letters that are pronounced as one phoneme - fuel, bow, coat, fine.

By what rules are the vowels read?

English vowels, in contrast to consonants, are subject to a variety of reading rules:

• Rules of closed and open syllables (z.s. and o.s.);
• Vowel + r;
• Vowel + r + vowel;
• Combination of vowels under stress.

Knowing these rules, you can develop the skill of virtually error-free reading without knowing transcription. Consider the rules of reading 5 vowels and the letter Y with examples of words with the transcription of Russian letters.

Open - a syllable that ends with a vowel, even if it's mute. Mute in English is the letter E, which at the end of the word is not readable. In this case, the vowel is pronounced as it is called in the alphabet. Closed - a syllable that ends with a consonant.

• Note ([note]) - note;
• Nose (nose) - nose;
• Rice (rice) - rice;
• Type ([тайп]) - print;
• Shy (shay) - stewful, modest;
• He ([chi]) - he;
• Name (name) is the name;
• Same ([sejm]) - the same;
• The nine (nine) are nine;
• Fume (smoke) - smoke;
• Cap ([cap]) - the cap;
• Pen ([pen]) - the handle;
• Lot (lot) - a lot;
• Sit (sit) - sit, sit down;
• My ([May]) is mine, mine, mine, mine;
• Nut (nut) is a nut.

The vowel + r - the vowel is pronounced lingeringly.

• Card ([ка: д]) - the card;
• Fork ([фо: к]) - plug;
• Turn ([to: n]) - turn, turn;
• Girl ([гö: л]) - the girl, the girl;
• Byrd ([бэ: д]) - English surname.

The vowel + r + vowel - the letter r is not pronounced, and the vowels are pronounced together as one sound.

• Rare ([rea]) - rare;
• Pure ([пйуэ]) - pure;
• Here ([chie]) - here;
• Fire (fire);
• Store ([one hundred:]) - store;
• Tyre ([taye]) - tire.

A separate group consists of vowels English letters, which go in pairs and are called diphthongs. The diphthongs with examples are shown in the picture below.

In this article, we examined the basic rules of how the vowel letters are read in English. The main thing when learning a language is practice, and in order to learn how to read English, you must pay attention daily to the formation of reading and spelling skills.