lone vowel sounds across the globe

[Samuel Martin]

Hi everyone,

I'm under the impression that English is quite fussy in its pronunciation
of *a, e, i, o* and *u* and I'm hoping someone can open my horizons. I'm
only referring to the pronunciation of these vowels on their own, as when
you say the alphabet. As far as I know, these vowels are monophthongs in the
overwhelming majority of languages, yet in the English pronunciation many of
them are diphthongs (i and u for all anglophone countries at the very least)

French also pronounces *e* and *u* differently than most languages; as [ə]
and [y], respectively.

Is anyone aware of other languages except French and English who don't
adhere to the IPA [a] [e] [i] [o] [u] when simply speaking these vowels
sounds on their own?

Gratefully yours,

Samuel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/an-lang/attachments/20100713/e06313af/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
An-lang mailing list
An-lang at anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang