open and closed vowels

Language

2022

We explain what open and closed vowels are, examples in words and how they form diphthongs, triphthongs and hiatuses.

The vowels are open or closed depending on how they are pronounced.

What are the open and closed vowels?

It is known as open and closed vowels, or also strong and weak vowels or low and high vowels, respectively, to the two types of vowels that distinguish the phonetics international, depending on the ways in which the sound it is made in the speech apparatus.

Remember that, unlike consonants, vowels are uninterrupted sound emissions, that is, not articulated, that emerge together with the column of air, with the oral cavity more or less open. There are five vowels in Spanish: “a”, “e”, “i”, “o” and “u”, and they can be divided into open and closed, as follows:

  • Open, strong or low vowels. They are those that are made by placing the tongue in the lower part of the mouth, in its lowest possible position, thus expanding the oral cavity to produce the vowel sound. In Spanish, the open vowels are “a”, “e” and “o”, although in some classifications the “e” can be considered as a middle or intermediate vowel.
  • Vowels closed, weak or high.They are those that are made without the need for a great breadth of the oral cavity, so the tongue is placed in a higher position inside the mouth, without converting the sound into friction (as in fricative consonants). In Spanish, the closed vowels are “i” and “u”.

Examples of words with open and closed vowels

Here is a short list of examples of words with each of the open and closed vowels:

Words with open vowels:

  • Words with “a”: scorpion, soul, basil, saffron, shortcut, hammock, wash, mother, battle, cape, carving, spider, flatten, attack, party, gallant, praise.
  • Words with "e": plague, toilet, perennial, that, toiletry bag, this, three, read, emerge, spit, eden, fish, train, retainer, merquén, semen, believe, wish, thirst.
  • Words with "o": cough, fat, two, chicken, gold, blunt, other, way, rub, how, smelly, bears, waiter, wolf, rolo, joyous, sonorous, monologue, comfortable, autumn.

Words with closed vowels:

  • Words with “i”: sin, bikini, go, end, divide, simile, print, live, vine, nor, influence, zinc, picnic, difficult, civil.
  • Words with "u": a, you, humus, light, su, pus, cross, surf, lupus, club, tulle, south, voodoo, tutu.

Diphthong

Is named diphthong to an acoustic phenomenon that consists of a sound chain formed by two contiguous vowels, which constitute the same syllable and therefore cannot be pronounced separately. For diphthongs to occur, the two vowels must be next to each other and must be, in Spanish, necessarily one of the following cases:

  • Increasing or ascending diphthongs, when they are formed by a weak or closed vowel and then a strong or open vowel, as in the case of: dirty, travel, dead, assiduous or how much.
  • Declining or descending diphthongs, when they are formed by a strong or open vowel and then a weak or closed vowel, as in the case of: liana, cielo, idiota, suave, quota or tale.
  • Homogeneous diphthongs, when they are formed by two weak or closed vowels, as in the case of: you were or widow.

More in:Diphthong

Triphthong

In a similar way to diphthong, triphthong is an acoustic phenomenon in which three vowels make up the same syllable and are therefore pronounced consecutively and inseparably. These cases are rarer than those of the diphthong, and in Spanish they are necessarily formed by the union of a weak vowel, a strong and a weak vowel, in that precise strict order.

Examples of words with tripthong are: Uruguay, semiautomático, guaiquerí, vieira, despiseéis or reliáis.

Hiatus

If the diphthong is the union in the same syllable of two contiguous vowels, the hiatus is the opposite: the separation of two contiguous vowels in different syllables, due to their sound forces. For this to happen, in Spanish, there must be four possible scenarios:

  • Two strong vowels in a row, as in the cases of creditor, fall, feat, theater, foami or lion.
  • A strong vowel followed by a weak one with an accent, since in these cases the extra intonation of the accent "breaks" the diphthong, as in the cases of: frying, corn, ear, lute or Seoul.
  • A weak vowel with accent followed by a strong one, that is, the same previous case, but with the vowels in another order, as in: cold, philosophy, accent or cockatoo.
  • Two identical weak vowels in a row, as in the case of: Shiite, Duunviro.
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