Rule #2, Spanish vowels are PURE

Did you know that the 5-vowel system is the most common vowel system in the world? The next two are the 6 and the 7-vowel systems. Now, you can count English vowels in whatever way you like, but there will be only one result: the English vowel system is by far one of the less common and more complex types. Amazingly, babies acquire the complete vowel system earlier than the consonant system, usually by the age of 2. Regrettably, I´m assuming we´re all a bit older than that, and learning the English vowels, for me, was a pain in the butt, just like learning the Spanish vowels will be a pain in the butt for you. Let´s recap those Spanish vowels rules:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

So, what do we mean by "pure"? When asked to describe the Spanish vowels, one of my students said: "Suenan igual a como se escriben". Well... not very technical, but true nonetheless. I´ll give you some definitions, you pick the one that suits you the best:

Pure vowels are monophthongs.
Pure vowels have one and only one tongue position.
Pure vowels do not glide from one vowel sound to another.
Pure vowel´s initial and final articulations are relatively fixed.

And yes, Spanish vowels are pure, while, according this Wikipedia article, "In the English language, there are in practice relatively few monophthongs". Still, what does this mean?

It means that whenever you say "no", you´re producing a vowel glide, the quality of which pretty much depends on the type of English accent you´ve got. A vowel glide, again according this Wikipedia article, is "a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement, or glide, from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme".

Switching back to Spanish, what does this mean? Well, it means that if, when saying "mono", the two /o/ sounds do not come out with the same quality, you´re probably sounding like a tourist.

Every vowel in Spanish is produced with one and only one vowel sound.

And that´s what we mean when we say that Spanish vowels are pure.

It´s not that hard, really, but it does involve some work. What kind of work exactly? I´m glad you asked, because that means you haven´t read this blog much. To produce the Spanish vowels properly, you just have to apply stronger tension to the muscles around your mouth (one of the main features of the Spanish base of articulation, remember?).


So... what about diphthongs, you ask? Of course there are diphthongs in Spanish, silly! But that´s a story for another post.-

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