The British English vowel system has 6 broad areas of the mouth where 2 monophthongs are produced - one being generally shorter, and one generally longer:
CLOSE AND FRONT - /ɪ/, /iː/
CLOSE AND CENTRAL - /ʊ/, /uː/
MID AND CENTRAL - /ʌ/, /əː/
MID AND BACK - /ɒ/, /ɔː/
MID AND FRONT - /ɛ/, /ɛː/
OPEN - /a/, /ɑː/
This isn't the only way of classifying the vowel sounds. You could, for example add further long monophthongs /ɪː/ and /ʊː/ instead of classifying /ɪə/ and /ʊə/ as diphthongs. This would give three monophthongs in two of the areas.
It's also important to note that the 'long' vowels will shorten before voiceless consonant sounds, particularly in the case of /iː/, making it a similar length to /ɪ/ in pairs like HEAT/HIT, so the position of the tongue is more important in all of these vowel sounds than any specific length.
The animation at the top shows the mouth movements for all of the words.
#pronunciation #vowelsounds #monophthongs #britishenglish
