Unfortunately, two separate traditions have developed of identifying 'long' vowels.
So we include a table of the differences between short and long vowels, with examples in British ( RP) English usage. Users of AWE may come across it in their studies, and may find it helpful. (The traditional 'values' were established before the Great English Vowel Shift, reflecting a reality which no longer exists in any simple sense, and owe much to the teaching of Latin grammar.) The tradition is lengthy and honourable, and of value in explaining some features of spelling, for example. This distinction is not supported by modern phonetics, which has developed more scientific measurements and has been unable to demonstrate a systematic difference on the grounds of 'length' of pronunciation. The only vowel whose English name is pronounced as a pure vowel ( monophthong) is E ( IPA: /iː/) - the sound of the vowel written as 'I' in most European languages, and its symbol in the IPA.Ī distinction has traditionally been observed in the study of language, especially, for the purposes of AWE, in the English language, between so-called short and long vowels.
The names of A, I and O are pronounced as diphthongs ( IPA: /eɪ, aɪ, əʊ, /) that of U as a quasi-diphthong ( IPA: /juː/ - /j/ is described variously as a semi-vowel, and by phoneticians as a 'palatal approximant'. To illustrate the complexities and ambiguities, we may examine the names normally given to the vowel letters in English. Not only is the distinction not regarded as useful in the modern study of Linguistics as applied to English, but where it is still to be heard, in the classroom teaching of the English language to young native-speakers, where it has real uses, it is interpreted in some very different ways. To start a discussion of 'long' and 'short' vowels is to enter very muddy waters. For a note on how AWE organizes its group of articles on vowels, basically by aspects of sound and of writing, see category:vowels.
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