T 5 /3: ə aI aU/ (13-16)

13.    / 3: /  -----  mid-central, tense, half-round, retroflexed (with tongue 

                   tip up and back)

It has the same speech sound as the letter cluster ‘ear’ in the word ‘early’.

ear  --  earl, early, earn, earnest, earth, earthworm,                                       

       

        er  ---  alert, certain, emerge, fern, fertile, herd, jerk, nerve, 

                  nervous, perch, person, serve,                                             

        ir  ---  bird, birth, birch, chirp, firm, first, girl, mirth, sir, stir, third,

        ur  ---  burn, church, curl, fur, furniture, further, gurgle, hurdle,  

                   lurk, purple, murmur, nurse, turkey, turn, urban,      17.

14.  /  ə    /  -----  mid-central, lax, unround to half-round

It has the shorter speech sound than /  3: /.  Any of the ‘aeiou’ may have this sound in the unstressed syllable like the letter ‘a’ in the word ‘ago’.  (The stressed syllable is the syllable that  we pronounce with louder sound and higher pitch.)

 a  ---  abet, abide, aboard, abort, about, above, abreast, ago, alike,

          alive, accord, account, accrue, accuse, across, China,

        ar ---  beggar, calendar,

        e  ---  basement, client, celery, sharpen, cholera, diet

er ---  chamber, chaser, chatter, clever, teacher, chequer, choker, 

         father, brother, mother,

        re ---  centre, metre

        i  ---  charity, chastity

        o ---  champion, chevron, handsome, ransom                                       

        or ---  sensor, doctor, actor,

        u  ---  Celsius, census, century, cherub, consensus

        ure  -- brochure, agriculture, architecture, culture, picture, texture,

15.  /  aI  / is a diphthong.  

It is the combination of the phonemes /  a   / and     /  I   /.  It has the same speech sound as the letter ‘I’.                 (18)

        i  ---  advise, bicycle, climb, climate, diet, dive, drive, five, sign, 

        ice ---  I, ice, dice, device, lice, mice, nice, rice, advice, vice, price,

               

        ide ---  bide, bride, glide, hide, ride, side, stride, tide, decide, wide,

                               

        ife  ---  life, wife, strife,

               

        igh(t)  ---  bright, fight, flight, high, might, night, right, sigh, sight,

                        thigh, tight, plight, light,

                       

        ike  ---  bike, dike, like, mike, spike,

                               

ile   ---  bile, mile, smile, tile, vile, while,

                               

ime ---  chime, dime, lime, time, brime, crime,

       

        ind  ---  behind, bind, blind, find, grind, hind, kind,

                               

ine  ---  brine, divine, dine, fine, line, mine, nine, pine, vine, wine, 

            twine,

                               

ite   ---  bite, finite, kite, mite, rite, site, white, write

                                 

ie   ---  die, lie, pie, tie,

y   ---  buy, by, deny, dry, fly, fry, my, pry, ply,                

16.  / aU / is a diphthong. 

It is the pairing of the phonemes /  a  / and /  U   /.

It has the same speech sound as the letter cluster ‘ow’ in the word ‘cow’.  

        ou  ---  bound, count, found, ground, round, sound, blouse, house, 

                   mouse, cloud, loud, mound, noun, pound, proud, our, sour,

        ow  ---  *bow, brow, brown, cow, crowd, down                         (19)

                    town, clown, crown, owl, fowl, gown, how, now, powder, 

                    power, towel, tower