Talk:Systematic Phonics/Syllable types

Diphthong and vowel team

The definition of diphthong is unsatisfactory. In phonetics, a diphthong is a glide between two vowel-positions. In this article, it is characterised as being new. How is the student to ascertain the novelty of a sound? If the article means that the "ea" in "beat" is a diphthong, then students will be being taught an irregular meaning of diphthong. In phonetics, the "ea" in "beat" is a monophthong. One assumes that the author would say that the "i" in "like" was not a diphthong because it was represented by just one letter, yet, phonetically, it is a diphthong.

One wonders if a vowel team is a phonetic dipthong, as in "fear" where a vowel-glide is represented by two letters. What, I wonder, would phonics make of "bear" where the same two letters represent a phonetic monophthong. Is the "ea" in "bear" a vowel team or a diphthong? It has two elements but makes one sound. Is that sound new in terms of the definition of the product of a diphthong?

And what on earth would phonics' zany vowel team/diphthong theory make of the vowel-cluster in "create"? Phonetically it is, in IMHO, a dieresis comprising a monophthong (/i/) and a diphthong (/ei/); or maybe it's a triphthong. Yet (poor old phonics) it's the same two letters as in "fear" and "bear".

Schwa

Saying that this is pronounced like "uh" is just plain wrong. It's as wrong as saying it's like "ah".

Long and short vowels

This section implies that the five vowel-letters have just two sounds each. This does not account for the fact that "a" makes different sounds in make, cat, father and about. This model also implies that English has just 10 vowel-sounds (or 11 if you include schwa) when it actually has around twice that number.

Four of the five vowels which this section calls long are actually diphthongs, characterised, not by the time it takes to pronounce them, but by the fact that they are a glide between two vowel-positions.

I cannot think that there is any evidence that what the section calls short vowels are harder to pronounce than, for example, diphthongs.


 * Also, "oo" is never pronounced the same way as the short "o" of not. Myk 21:04, 1 February 2006 (UTC)