How To Tell Apart LONG and SHORT VOWELS: Tutorial

Can you tell the difference between a long vowel and a short vowel? Let's test that, and then let me tell you an easy way to do it and how you can improve your ability to reproduce such differences.

There are two complementary definitions of vowel, one phonetic and the other phonological.

In the phonetic definition, a vowel is a sound, such as the English "ah" /ɑː/ or "oh" /oʊ/, produced with an open vocal tract; it is median (the air escapes along the middle of the tongue), oral (at least some of the airflow must escape through the mouth), frictionless and continuant.[4] There is no significant build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as the English "sh" [ʃ], which have a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract.
In the phonological definition, a vowel is defined as syllabic, the sound that forms the peak of a syllable.[5] A phonetically equivalent but non-syllabic sound is a semivowel. In oral languages, phonetic vowels normally form the peak (nucleus) of many or all syllables, whereas consonants form the onset and (in languages that have them) coda. Some languages allow other sounds to form the nucleus of a syllable, such as the syllabic (i.e., vocalic) l in the English word table [ˈtʰeɪ.bl̩] (when not considered to have a weak vowel sound: [ˈtʰeɪ.bəl]) or the syllabic r in the Serbo-Croatian word vrt [ʋr̩̂t] "garden".
The phonetic definition of "vowel" (i.e. a sound produced with no constriction in the vocal tract) does not always match the phonological definition (i.e. a sound that forms the peak of a syllable).[6] The approximants [j] and [w] illustrate this: both are without much of a constriction in the vocal tract (so phonetically they seem to be vowel-like), but they occur at the onset of syllables (e.g. in "yet" and "wet") which suggests that phonologically they are consonants. A similar debate arises over whether a word like bird in a rhotic dialect has an r-colored vowel /ɝ/ or a syllabic consonant /ɹ̩/. The American linguist Kenneth Pike (1943) suggested the terms "vocoid" for a phonetic vowel and "vowel" for a phonological vowel,[7] so using this terminology, [j] and [w] are classified as vocoids but not vowels. However, Maddieson and Emmory (1985) demonstrated from a range of languages that semivowels are produced with a narrower constriction of the vocal tract than vowels, and so may be considered consonants on that basis.[8] Nonetheless, the phonetic and phonemic definitions would still conflict for the syllabic /l/ in table or the syllabic nasals in button and rhythm.

[Aerostarm]

Not this is real language tutorial content, these are my favourite kinds of videos you make. Where you look at language features and help people learn them.

[corinna]

When I started learning Finnish, the long and short vowels were definitely a bit tricky, as well as the single and double consonants. But I got used to it really quickly and it became second nature. The biggest pronunciation challenge was/is the rolled R. It took forever to say it properly and I still have problems with it sometimes, but at least now it's a lot easier.

[samplesample]

I can differentiate them in hearing and have no problems pronouncing these correctly as long as they're stressed. What is really putting me off are unstressed long vowels 😅

[doggy]

Japanese has a very important one. Shōjo with a long first vowel means "teenage girl" but shojo with the short first vowel means "virgin".

[gabriellawrence]

The language that made me truly grasp long/short vowell distinction was Persian. I started listening to recordings of Persian poetry and I noticed that the long vowel wasn't necessarily the stressed syllable (this is different for languages like Arabic). Previously to that I have learned Hungarian, but even though my vowel quality was good, my length was indistinguishable. If you're Brazilian like me, pay attention at how cariocas speak, they make a very clear distinction between their long and short vowels.

[oyoo]

6:59 worth noting that in many dialects of English, including several in Scotland, Northern England and India, many diphthongs, including the one in the example you provided with "game" become long monophthongs in stead, i.e. /ge:m/; it's a fairly common phenomenon in English (as well as various dialects of other Germanic languages too).

[LadyNogard]

Such a useful video, many thanks! Long vowels are a bit of a foreign concept for native Spanish speakers. On a different note, the difference between 'apple' and 'evil' in Latin made me giggle... Reminds me of certain stories where both are linked 😄

[NaturalLanguageLearning]

I completely agree with everything you said. This is really important both for speaking and comprehension but can also be frustrating because, for whatever reason (probably insecurity and ignorance) a lot of language learners seem to hate the idea of having to learn pronunciation, because "there's nothing wrong with my accent".
Like you said, best thing to do:
1.Lots of listening
2.Listening and repeating drills
3.Record yourself and listen to it next to the native audio for comparison
Attention to detail is very important for this.
Choosing a specific native speaker you want to sound like and imitating them is a good idea as well and it can make this exercise fun. Treat it like a performance, not just saying some words you've learnt.

[PSPaloma.]

Best English tutorial I've ever seen 🥺❤❤

[karelvorster]

The problem is not to recognize long vowels but to know where they are and why. I haven't seen any video so far that does the job.

[mr.stonestar]

Oh mio dio fra hai fatto un sacco di visualizzazione nel video in cui hai recensito il canale di latino, solo perché sei entrato dinamicamente in scena nella tua intro, camminando dal lato dello schermo per poi sederti sulla sedia, mentre negli altri video eri statico, già seduto e salutando con la mano già in posizione. La natura di questo meccanismo mi rabbrividisce alquanto, comunque buona fortuna per aver trovato il codice dell'algoritmo di YouTube, questa conoscenza ti porterà sicuramente molte visualizzazioni anche su questo secondo canale.

[Glossologia]

My favorite minimal pair in Latin is occīdere (to cut down/kill) vs occidere (to fall down/die). Both are stressed on the same (antepenultimate) syllable, the length of the i is the only difference.

[PC_Simo]

Another reminder of just, how conservative a language Finnish is: We have lots of these minimal pairs that are, specifically, distinguished by the quantity of the vowel; like: _”Tuli”_ (with a short ”U”; meaning: ”Fire”) vs. _”Tuuli”_ (with a long ”Ū”; meaning: ”Wind”); or: _”Tapan”_ (with both short ”A”:s; meaning: ”I kill”) vs. _”Tapaan”_ (with a long 2nd ”Ā”; meaning: ”I meet”); or _”Ku”_ (with a short ”U”; a colloquial form of ”Kun”, meaning: ”When”/”As”, or ”Kuin”, meaning: ”Like”) vs. _”Kuu”_ (with a long ”Ū”; meaning: ”Moon” or: ”Month” (in vernacular)); etc. 😅🇫🇮

[rdand]

I do appreciate every last one of your videos on either channel. The long/short distinction in English was taught to me differently; it doesn't contradict what you've said, but it also makes sense. Simply put, long vowels say their names, and short vowels make a different sound; the letter r usually affects a short vowel sound. The letter o, short or long, is the exception, which is why "for" and "fore", sound the same, regardless of spelling. Also, coming from the south Bronx, NY, I can tell you that there are two forms of the short a, which closely resembles how the British use the short a. For example, in the phrase "last apple", both a's are short, but the a in "last" is different than the a in "apple". You can use either a British or a New York accent, and you'll clearly hear this. I never found out why this is, but it is.

[christopherellis]

Full fool, hit heat, hut heart, shed shared, hurt herd

[gracieallen]

As an American this is different from the long and short vowels I was taught as a child, where long vowels say their name and short vowels have a different sound ate and apple

[SpartanWolf]

As someone who teaches vowels for English only, this was a neat little video to see a common problem from other languages. However, especially when I am teaching the concept for very young kids (around 5 - 8 year olds, ) I have a much "simpler" method for teaching the difference between long vowels and short vowels: If the vowel sounds like the letter itself, that is a long vowel; if it doesn't sound like the letter, it's a short vowel. (The trickiest words are the ones that use the letter O, but they make a slightly modified long or short U sound, ex. book and boot.)

The reason I do this is pretty obvious: Instead of having to remember a dozen different short vowels for EACH letter (ah, an, am, at...) you only need to remember what the five long vowel sounds like (A.) This also helps avoid phonic problems due to words that seem to follow similar spelling rules such as having a silent e at the end, ex. skate vs apple, or words where the same spelling can yield different vowel sounds, ex. read versus knead.

To my knowledge, and maybe this changes for other language, any vowels that use an R- or L- controlled vowels are technically neither long nor short vowels. If there are only two options (again, keeping it simple for elementary ages, ) they will be grouped into the short category because they don't make the long vowel sounds.

[afiiik]

I've noticed a lot of Czech learners confuse Czech long vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú) for stressed vowel. In Czech, stress is always on the first syllable. In fact, Czech vowels sound a lot like Latin vowels.

[faz]

To me the second long vowel in words like amare, finire, vedere sounds not just longer, but also slightly more open. This is much more evident in Dutch where the long versions of a, e, i, o, u (when not at the end of a syllable written as aa, ee, ie, oo, uu) are pronounced much more open.

[Gabrieloneiroi]

Thai is another language that has short and long vowels. You might want to check it out. Really love yor channel.