The EW-Sound
Semantically, I won’t argue whether this is a true diphthong or not. I don’t care. The primary thing is knowing that it is a sound combination that exists in English and is worth learning and understanding.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol for this sound is /ju/. So it’s a combination of [j] and [u].
In General American English and Canadian English, the [ju] sound is the sound in the word ‘EW’ or ‘NEW’.
Please remember, the [j] IPA symbol is the symbol to reflect the Y-sound.
SYMBOL
We’re going to compare the Consonant and Vowel charts.
On the IPA consonant chart, the [j] sound is identified as a voiced palatal approximant.
On the IPA vowel chart, the [u] is located on the right side of the chart.
The Color Vowel® Chart, created by Karen Taylor and Shirley Thompson in 1999, is another visual organizer for spoken English and represents how to learn and think about vowels. It refers to this sound as the ‘BLUE MOON’ sound or the BLUE vowel. Notice the consistent placement on the mid-right corner of each respective chart.
The Color Vowel® Chart, 5th Edition © 2019. ColorVowel.com. Used with Creative Commons licensing (CC BY-NC-ND).
SOUND
So, the EW-sound in NEW is different from the OO-sound in BOO. They are extremely close but the extra Y-sound at the beginning slightly alters the resulting sound.
Starting with the Y-sound, the tongue body touches the roof of the mouth at the palate. The tongue tip itself doesn’t have to touch the roof of the mouth. The mouth narrows to create a narrowed vocal tract without turbulent airflow. Your vocal cords vibrate. Air should not escape from your nose. Press the tongue against it with a forward motion. The tongue tip stays down, so the tip touches the back of the bottom front teeth. Then move into the OO as in BOO vowel [u] shape. The lips have to round and the tongue 75
lifts in the back. The front part of the tongue pulls away from the roof of the mouth.
FEATURES
The [j] sound feature are as follows.
Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate. The otherwise identical post-palatal variant is articulated slightly behind the hard palate, making it sound slightly closer to the velar [ɰ].
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only. No air escapes from teh nose.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The [u] sound features are as follows.
Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.
VISUAL REPRESENTATION
In English, the [ju] sound is reflected in spelling in many different ways.
U - use, January, United States
EU - feud
EW - few, view
EAU - beauty
LISTENING
Now, you need to be able to identify the sound; rhyming is an excellent way to match it properly. So, if you are not good already, start practicing rhyming and hearing the sound.
Pay attention to the slight diffence between the OO-sound and EW-sound in the two words.
| EW-Sound | OO-Sound |
|---|---|
| mute | moot |
| fuel | fool |
| feud | food |
I’m breaking down every single sound down for you so that you can learn how to produce each sound in English accurately. Sometimes, we’ll have easier sounds and sometimes we’ll have harder sounds.
If you’ve grasped this sound, then great! But if you’ve got a tip that might work for others, or you took a while to produce this sound correct but something clicked for you, let me know down below in the comments. My goal is to have a community know what to do when they’re stuck!
