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Front vowels are produced with the tongue held far in front of the mouth, creating a clear and bright sound. There are nine recognized front vowel sounds, but only five are used in English. The long “e” and “a” and the short “i”, “e” and “a”. The position of the tongue is crucial for producing these sounds, and it can be a challenge for non-native speakers. The long “e” is the highest front vowel, while the short “a” is the lowest. Different spellings can be found for each vowel sound in English.
A front vowel is a particular type of sound used in speech or in the human announcement of certain vowels. It gets its name because, in order to articulate these sounds, the tongue must be held far in front of the mouth. They are sometimes called “bright vowels” because they sound clearer or brighter than those that form when the tongue is further back. One of the keys to successfully producing a frontal vocal sound is for the tongue to maintain its anterior position without causing a narrowing of the vocal tract. If such a constriction occurs, this creates a consonant sound, not a vowel sound. Most of the time the correct tongue position has to be learned through practice and can be a challenge for non-native speakers of the languages that use it. There are nine front vowel sounds recognized in the International Phonetic Alphabet, although only five are used in the English language. These are the long “e” and “a” and the short “i”, “e” and “a”.
Basics of creating these sounds
To produce this type of vowel the tongue must naturally move forward in the mouth, but in most cases the tip must remain low, usually about even with the lower front teeth. Various vowel sounds are produced in part by varying the span of the tongue; this creates three types of vowels: high, high-mid, low-mid, and low. Specific front vowels can be contrasted with back vowels, which are made with the tongue placed as far back in the mouth as possible.
Along E
The highest front vowel, meaning that the tongue is arched more towards the gumline, is the long “e”. There are 23 different spellings of the long ‘e’ sound in English and it can be found in words like ‘eats’, ‘debris’ and ‘people’. Being the higher and more frontal vowel, the long “e” is rarely mispronounced, even by those learning English later in life, and normally occurs early in children’s speech.
Long A
The long “a” is normally considered in the medium-high category. Examples can be found in words such as “eaten”, “paper” and “tray”. There are 36 different spellings of this vowel in English, but the most common is the letter “a”. Speakers tend to have few problems with this sound due to the position of the tongue.
i short
The short “i” sound is also another example. Words like “ship,” “it,” and “hit” are all common English words that use this vowel sound. In English there are 33 different accepted spellings for this sound. The tongue does not sit as high in the mouth as with a long “e” or “a”, so it is often more difficult for children and non-native speakers to master the short “i” sound.
my short
In the low-mid front vowel range is the short ‘e’ sound used in words like ‘bed’, ‘head’ and ‘get’. The common spelling is the letter “e,” but it has 19 different English variants. This vowel is influenced by dialect and is often very problematic for non-native speakers, particularly if they are trying to learn to recognize different regional pronunciations of certain words and terms.
to short short
The last sound considered in the front vowel category of the mouth in English is the short “a” sound. Some examples are “at”, “ride” and “plaid”. The most common spelling is “a”, but it has 13 different variations in English. The short “a” is considered a low vowel because the tongue is not normally arched and the mouth opens more for this sound. This is the vowel most commonly mispronounced by English-speaking children and is not a common sound in many languages of the world.
