Vowels
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract . [1] Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant . Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length) . They are usually voiced , and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone , intonation and stress . The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis , meaning "vocal" (i.e. relating to the voice). [2] In English, the word vowel is commonly used to refer both to vowel sounds and to the written symbols that represent them. [3] There are five vowels: - A,E,I,O,U Does every language have vowels? Every language has vowels, but languages vary in the number of vowel sounds they use. While we learn A , E , I , O , U, and sometimes Y , English, depending on speaker and dialect, is generally considered to have at least 14 vowels. (Yeah, our spell