Long and short vowels
Traditionally, the vowels /eɪ iː aɪ oʊ juː/ (as in bait beet bite boat beauty) are said to be the "long" counterparts of the vowels /æ ɛ ɪ ɒ ʌ/ (as in bat bet bit bot but) which are said to be "short". This terminology reflects their pronunciation before the major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in England between 1350 and 1500.
Traditional English phonics teaching, at the preschool to first grade level, often used the term "long vowel" for any pronunciation that might result from the addition of a silent E (e.g., like) or other vowel letter as follows:
Letter
|
"Short"
|
"Long"
|
Example
|
A a
|
/æ/
|
/eɪ/
|
"mat" / "mate"
|
E e
|
/ɛ/
|
/iː/
|
"pet" / "Pete"
|
I i
|
/ɪ/
|
/aɪ/
|
"twin" / "twine"
|
O o
|
/ɒ/
|
/oʊ/
|
"not" / "note"
|
U u
|
/ʌ/
|
/juː/
|
"cub" / "cube"
|
A mnemonic was that each vowel's long sound was its name.
In Middle English, the long vowels /iː, eː, ɛː, aː, ɔː, oː, uː/ were generally written i..e, e..e, ea, a..e, o..e, oo, u..e. With the Great Vowel Shift, they came to be pronounced /aɪ, iː, iː, eɪ, oʊ, uː, aʊ/. Because ea and oo are digraphs, they are not called long vowels today. Under French influence, the letter u was replaced with ou (or final ow), so it is no longer considered a long vowel either. Thus the so-called "long vowels" of Modern English are those vowels written with the help of a silent e.
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