Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Silent e, Bossy r and The Schwa


Meaning: Silent e rule primarily means that in words where “e” comes at the end of a word, the vowel in the middle has a long sound. We have studied many CVC words with short vowels, just by adding silent e at the end of these words, the vowels become long. As always, there are exceptions to every rule. Let’s look at some examples below; 

Short a (CVC) to long a (CVC-e) words:
The sound of the short vowel is represented by the symbol, /ă/. The sound of the long vowel a says its own name represented by the symbol, /ā/. In the below examples:
*a stands for short vowel a (/ă/)
*a stands for long vowel a (/ā/)
a.     mat becomes mate,
b.     rat becomes rate,
c.     fat becomes fate,
d.     cap becomes cape,
e.     gap becomes gape,
f.      can becomes cane,
g.     van becomes vane,
h.     pan becomes pane,
i.      man becomes mane,
j.      hat becomes hate,
k.     mat becomes mate,
l.      fad becomes fade,
m.    mad becomes made,
n.     tap becomes tape,
o.     pal becomes pale,
p.     sag becomes sage,
q.     wag becomes wage,
r.      rag becomes rage.

Short i (CVC) to long i (CVC-e) words:
The sound of the short vowel i is represented by the symbol, /ĭ/. The sound of the long vowel i says its own name, represented by the symbol, /ī/. In the below examples:
*i stands for short vowel i (/ĭ/)
*i stands for long vowel i (/ī/) 
a.     rid becomes ride,
b.     hid becomes hide,
c.     fin becomes fine,
d.     pin becomes pine,
e.     win becomes wine,
f.      rip becomes ripe,
g.     pip becomes pipe,
h.     bit becomes bite,
i.      kit becomes kite,
j.      sit becomes site.

Short o (CVC) to long o (CVC-e) words:
The sound of short vowel o is represented by the symbol, /ŏ/. The sound of the long vowel o says its own name represented by the symbol, /ō/. In the below examples:
*o stands for short vowel o (/ŏ/)
*o stands for long vowel o (/ō/)
a.      con becomes cone,
b.      cod becomes code,
c.      rod becomes rode,
d.      nod becomes node,
e.      wok becomes woke,
f.       not becomes note,
g.      hop becomes hope.

Short u (CVC) to long u (CVC-e) words:
The sound of short vowel u is represented by the symbol, /ŭ/. The sound of the long vowel u says its own name, is represented by the symbol, /ū/. In the below examples:
*u stands for short vowel u (/ŭ/)
*u stands for long vowel u (/ū/)
a.      cub becomes cube,
b.      tub becomes tube,
c.      cut becomes cute,
d.      hug becomes huge,
e.      us becomes use,
f.      fus becomes fuse.

Exceptions to the Silent e rule: 
As to every rule, there are few exceptions to the silent e rule where it is not applicable:
1.   Whenever there are double consonants present in any words, the middle vowel is short. 
a.      later (Long vowel)-latter (Short Vowel), 
b.     diner (Long vowel)-dinner (Short Vowel)

2.   Rule breaker problem word list below: 
a.      none
b.      come,
c.      love
d.      dove
e.      some
f.       give
g.      gone
h.      prove
i.       have
j.       are
k.      clue
l.       blue.

3.  3.   Words ending with u or v: Most English language words, never end with the letter v or u. In such words, the letter e is always added at the end.
a.     dove
b.     love
c.     give
d.     prove
e.     have
f.      blue
g.     clue
        Exceptions
a.     flu
b.     menu
c.     tofu.
R- controlled vowels 
Meaning:  When a vowel is followed by the consonant r. the r changes the sound that the vowel usually would have made, into a completely new sound. Since the r dominates or controls the sound of the vowel, this process is sometimes referred to as the “Bossy r” or r- controlled vowels.
The vowels (a, e, i, o and u) are followed by an r making the letter combinations, (ar, er, ir or, ur). Let’s see the impact of r on these vowels:

Vowels e, i and u: When “r” comes after the vowels e, i, and u, these vowels are usually, neither long nor short but make an /er/ sound denoted as (/ər/) when controlled by r.
E.g. er-her; ir- third, skirt; ur-curd, fur.

Vowel o: When “r” comes after the vowel o, i.e.  when o is controlled by r, it makes three sounds as described below:
1.     It is pronounced like the /er/ sound denoted as (/ər), e.g. word. 
2.     It is pronounced like a short o sound, e.g. for and nor.
3.     It is pronounced like a long o sound, e.g. fork, fort, and score. 

Vowel a: When “r” comes after the vowel a, i.e. when a is controlled by r, it makes three sounds as described below:
1.     It is pronounced like the /ar/ sound e.g. scar, scarf, far, car, park,
2.     It is pronounced like the /air/ sound e.g. pear, care, scare, bear,
3.     It is pronounced like the /ir/ sound e.g. ear, fear.

Exceptions to the r-controlled rule: When r is followed by another letter r, the previous vowel in the word is often short.
1.     marry (short a),
2.     ferry (short e), 
3.     hurry (short u).
R-controlled vowels word list:
ar
er
ir
or
ur
far
herd
bird
fork
fur
car
jerk
girl
pork
surf
bar
sister
skirt
cork
purple
scar
brother
flirt
dorm
hurt
par
germ
birth
corn
blur
smart
canister
shirt
born
purse
shark
dinner
dirt
thorn
Thursday

The Schwa
Any vowel a, e, i, o and u, can use the schwa sound like a low tone short u sound. This is similar to the short u sound, but generally unstressed or low tone. The vowel in this context does not either make its usual short or long sounds. It is represented as an inverted e. Its symbol notation is /ə/. Let’s see some words where the schwa is used, along with its phonetic decoding.

Word
Phonetic decoding
Comments
about
/+/b/+/ow/+/t/
The vowel a marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
away
/+/w/+/ā/
The vowel a marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
shaken
/sh/+/ā/+/k/+/ə/+/n/
The vowel e marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
sister
/s/+/ĭ/+/s/+/t/+r/
The vowel e marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
pencil
/p/+/ĕ/+/n/+/s/+/+/l/
The vowel e marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
honey
/h/+/+/n/+/ē/
The vowel o marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
money
/m/+/+/n/+/ē/
The vowel o marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
monkey
/m/+/+/n/+/k/+/ē/
The vowel o marked in bold makes the schwa sound.
supply
/s/+/+/p/+/l/+/ī/
The vowel u marked in bold makes the schwa sound.

 To make reading fun and clearer, it is very essential to know the above three concepts really well.


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