Vowel Phonemes in English and Bahasa Melayu

Supplementary materials for the course: Reading in English for Young Learners in Malaysia for TELL2

‘Long’ and ‘Short’ Letter Sounds

The ‘long’ sound is like the letter name, and may be a long vowel or actually a diphthong.

The ‘short’ sound is NOT like the letter name.

English “Long ‘a’ ”, “Short ‘a’ ”

ant/æ/ a

baby tape snailtray

/eɪ/ a a-e ay ai

Short ‘a’:

Long ‘a’ diphthong Sounds like the letter name

Bahasa Melayu: ‘a’

a ar carbanana

/ɑ:/

Sounds like the other English letter ‘a’

English “Long ‘e’ ”, “Short ‘e’ ”

/e/ e eabed bread

e ea ee ey y/i:/

Forget-me-not

me

beach

tree key

pony“Long ‘e’ ” sounds like the letter name.

“Short ‘e’ ”

/e/ e eabed bread

English “Short ‘e’ ” is the same as one of the BM ‘e’ s.

Bahasa Melayu: ‘e’

There are two phonemes for ‘e’:

the sounds/ə/ and /e/

e ea ee ey y/i:/

Forget-me-not

me

beach

tree

key pony

English “Long ‘e’ ” is the same as the BM ‘i’

Bahasa Melayu: ‘i’

/ı/ i etin

rocket

i i-e igh

y/ɑı/

tiger kite

light

fly

English “Long ‘i’ ”, “Short ‘i’ ”

Long ‘i’: diphthong

Sounds like the letter name

Short ‘i’:

/ɒ/ o wafrog swan

o o-e ow ew

/əʊ/ oa

go

boat

note

snow

sew

English “Long ‘o’ ”, “Short ‘o’ ”

Long ‘o’:

diphthong

Sounds like the letter name

Short ‘o’:

Bahasa Melayu: ‘o’

Sounds like English “Short ‘o’ ”

/ɒ/ o wafrog swan

oo ew ue/u:/ moon

screw

glue

u/ʌ/ obus glove

English “Long ‘u’ ”, “Short ‘u’ ”

Long ‘u’: diphthong Sounds like the letter name

Short ‘u’:

Bahasa Melayu: ‘u’

oo/ʊ/ ubook bull

In English, it’s another kind of “Short ‘u’ ”.

another English Vowel Sound

or au aw oor/ɔ:/ a

fork ball sauce

saw door

It’s like a lengthened “Short ‘o’ ”

(other) English Diphthongs (1)

/eə/ air arehair

square

ear eerear deer

/ɪə/

/ʊə/ oor

moor

ourtourist

urecure

urjury

/ɑʊ/ ow

oucow

house

/ɔı/ oy

oitoy coin

(other) English Diphthongs (2)

er ir or ur/ɜ:/

fern shir

tworm

fur

The Long ‘er’This is similar to the second ‘e’ phoneme in BM.

In English it is found in stressed syllables and words with one syllable.

The Schwa

/ə/

er ar or ure

teacher

collar doctor measure

a e i o u

zebra

garden

fossil

lion

circus

In an unstressed syllable the vowel sound is often replaced by ‘schwa’. It is shorter than the similar BM sound.