Throughout the English Is Power columns over recent months, the primary objective has been to give the many Manila Bulletin readers and others in the education system, a much better understanding of the English language.  Week by week, the somewhat unique characteristics of English have been explained and its special attributes have been highlighted.

A key factor that has repeatedly come to the fore is the importance of vowels. Understandably then, the 4S Approach To Literacy And Language teaching methodology stresses that whether it be in the development of superior pronunciation or enhancing personal spelling skills, it is essential to know that Vowels Are Vital.

All syllables have at least one vowel

A special characteristic of English words and the syllables of which they are comprised, is that they must all contain at least one vowel,  that is, “a, e, i, o, u” or the semi-vowel “y”.  The 4S KEYS teach:

(1) Words and syllables must have at least one vowel.

(2) Stand-alone vowels are usually ‘long’.

There are many words in the English language where the name of a consonant is pronounced as their initial sound, for example, ge-ography, de-fend, em-barrass. When these words are pronounced, only the name of the consonant that begins the word is usually heard and that is where spelling problems can begin.

It is important to know and to remember that when a word begins with a syllable which, when pronounced purely, seems to say the name of a consonant, such as the sound “d” in demand, “b” in because or “P” in Peter, the voiced consonant in the syllable must be accompanied by a vowel e.g. defy, artist and tripped - NOT “dfy, rtist or trippd”.  The exception to this rule is “rhythm” when pronounced as two syllables, i.e. “rhy/thm”.

Consider these words:

de-pend   be-fore    ce-de de-feat  be-have  tee-totaller     ce-dar  ge-ology

en-try  Ja-cob    Kay  ge-ography  pe-nal    Ja-son ka-pok  ef-fect

en-ergy em-bassy el-igible ef-fort en-ter em-ploy el-ement ar-rest

al-pine ex-amine  Jay es-sence  ar-gue al-cohol ex-ample

es-cape ex-pert ex-perience  ar-chery el-ephant el-der

de-fer ex-it  ar-tist de-pose

The rule requiring at least one vowel in a word or syllable also applies to final syllables in words as well as to single syllable words, e.g. re-ci-pe, o-kay, Moun-tie, han-dy, hap-pen-ed – shy, my, fly. Learners need to be taught that a major difference between consonants and vowels is that while a consonant cannot be a syllable on its own, a vowel can.

It also needed to be understood by learners that a syllable can be comprised of what is called a Stand-Alone Vowel, e.g. “I”, “a”, “O” and - e-ven, a-viary, i-tem, o-val, u-topia, u-nit, a-cre, a-gent, I-bis, i-vory, a-pex, o-pen, i-cing, u-niform, etc.

In contrast, a syllable cannot just be a “stand-alone” consonant.  Understandably, this rule, does not apply to abbreviations, e.g. T.V., M.P., Mt. Etna, Makati Av., Gordan Rd., etc.

Once it is known that a syllable must have at least one vowel, initial syllables in particular, look odd when they are written without a vowel, e.g. “dfy” instead of “defy”, “Pter” instead of “Peter”.

Spelling mistakes still occur especially with words that should end in “ed”. This is often because of the  pronunciation, e.g. saying “strippt” instead of “stripped”. This problem also occurs because similar sounding words can end in “t”, e.g. “conscript”.

Vowel position is important

As we have learned before, the position of a vowel in a word can send a vital signal to a learner as to how the word is correctly pronounced.

Consider and compare the words “comma” and “coma” and “dinner” and “diner”.

In the case of both “comma” an “dinner”, another well-known 4S Key comes into play reminding learners that ‘Double Consonants usually split”.  The moment they do, that is, as “com/ma” and “din/ner” the first vowel in the first syllable is “closed off” by a consonant and therefore makes its regular, softer sound as in “cot” and “dip’.

In contrast, in “coma” and “diner”, the first syllable ends in a vowel and is “open”, i.e. “co/ma” and “din/ner” and therefore the vowel almost always makes a “long” sound as in “open” and “idea”.

Again, we need to remember two of the very first 4S Keys that were introduced in this column that related to the sounds vowels make because of their position in words, that is - When two vowels come together in a word, the first one is usually “long” and the second one is silent, e.g. “boat”, and  -When a word ends in a vowel, it is usually silent and the preceding one is “long”, e.g. “ride”.

(The author Keith W. Wright is a former politician, an educator and the director of the Australian International Language Academy. He is currently working with the Active E-Learning Technology Foundation to improve the English literacy skills of the academe, studentry and the Filipino workforce.

E-mail youth@mb.com.ph).