As I said I don’t know much about the topic, I presented my thoughts.
well correction English has 20 vowels, depending on dialect
Vanshaj@lemmy.world 8 months ago
False@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I think the guy you responded to was making a joke about how some native English speakers talk
WoahWoah@lemmy.world 8 months ago
No, they were pointing out that, even though English doesn’t use a separate symbol to each phonemic vowel sound, there are 20 distinct vowel phonemes. If we have each its own letter, there would be 20 vowels in English.
merc@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Vowel has 2 definitions that conflict.
One definition is the letters ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’ (and sometimes ‘y’). The other is the speech sound without any blockage or constricting of the vocal tract. Vowel letters are used in written English to indicate vowel sounds, but because English is a pain in the ass, there’s no 1 to 1 match between the 5(ish) vowel letters and the 20+ vowel sounds.