Let’s Learn To Say Vowels

Vowel sounds

Vowel sounds are produced when the air from the lungs flows through the throat and oral area without any obstruction.

The air flows continuously vibrate the vocal fold to produce sounds. If the vocal folds stop vibrating, no sounds are produced.

The figure below shows the air flows to produce vowel sounds.

Figure the airflows to produce vowels
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Vowels category

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Generally, there are eight vowel sounds in modern Malay language. The sounds are divided into three groups. These groups are depending on the sound production of each vowel.

Front vowels : [i], [e], [ε], [a]
Central vowels : [ə]
Back vowels : [o], [u], [כ]

Production of vowel sounds

Sound production of each vowel is different and depends mainly by the shape of the mouth. The shapes of the lip can be rounded, or flat and the location of the tongue can be either in the front, central or the back of the mouth.

The closure of nasal cavity avoids the air from exiting the nostrils that may produce hypernasality.

The figure below shows the mouth structure that involves in the production of vowel sounds.

Figure of the moth structure
Source www.bukharis.net

Figure of flat and rounded lips
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Details giving below describe the differences of how different vowel sounds are produced.

Vowel	Type	How to produce vowel	Example
[i]	Front close vowel	Flat lips Frontal tongue lifted as high as possible toward the hard palate but not touching it.	Ikan Bila Tali
[e]	Front partially close vowel	Flat lips Frontal tongue lifted as high as possible towards the gum	Enak Teleng Tauge
[ε]	Front partially open vowel	Flat lips Frontal tongue lifted halfway towards the gum	Esa Belek Tauge
[a]	Front open vowel	Flat lips Frontal lips downward as low as possible	Awan Kadar Siapa
[ə]	Central vowel	Flat shapes in between flat and rounded Frontal tongue lifted upward toward the hard palate but not touching it	Emak Penat Sosialisme
[u]	Back close vowel	Rounded lips Back of the tongue lifted as high as possible towards the soft palate but not touching it	Ubat Bulat Batu
[o]	Back partially close vowels	Rounded lips Back of the tongue lifted as high as possible towards the soft palate but not touching it	Orang Tolong Koko
[כ]	Back partially open vowel	Rounded lips Back of the tongue lifted low halfway	Ombak Bolot Teko

Video:

Reference

Roslan Daud, (2012). Penghasilan Bunyi Vokal. Diambil dari pbahasa.dbp.my/wordpress/?p=207assignment.oum.edu.my./uploadasg/HBML1203SMP/18544/691121115118_151346_final.pdf, pada 1 September 2015