Vowels

I have made a chart of vowels and diphthongs.

Usually, English vowels are taught as a series of "long" and "short" sounds.

This is grossly oversimplified and, frankly, wrong.

The wrongness causes loads of struggles for students.

Actually, English vowels are related via a series of tensions.

There are two vowels in each set.

A tension path is between the schwa point — central in the mouth — and an extreme point.

I will add more information here soon, but for now, please check out the graphics and this (unfinished) document:

Vowel Tension Paths — Google Docs page