Difference between Vowels and Consonants Pronunciation wise

Definition

There are around twenty vowels and twenty-four consonants, depending on your accent and how thinly you slice them.

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Difference between Vowels and Consonants

A vowel is the foundation of a spoken syllable and is a spoken sound that is uttered with your lips somewhat open. An open mouthed sound is referred to as a consonant.

Consonants serve as syllable onsets and codas when we speak, dividing the continuous stream of vowels so that we don't sound like we just had four fillings placed at the dentist and the anesthetic is still acting.

All vowel sounds are voiced, unless you’re whispering or speaking Japanese, Quebecois, or a North American indigenous language like Comanche or Cheyenne.

Vowels are sounds produced with the mouth fairly open, and differ by mouth shape, for example “ee” is a high front vowel and “o” as in “got” is a low back vowel.

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Saying consonant sounds involves constricting airflow in different locations in your mouth by:

• briefly stopping then releasing the air (“p”, “b”, “t”, “d”, “k”, “g”),
• diverting the airflow and associated resonance to your nose (“m”, “n”, “ng”),
• squeezing the air through a narrow space (“th” as in “thin”, “th” as in “then”, “f”, “v”, “s”, “z”, “sh”, “zh” as in “vision”, “h”, and in posh dialects, “wh”),
• combining stopping then squeezing (“ch”, “j”), or
• narrowing the vocal tract (“w”, “y”, “r”, “l”).

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Conclusion

The next time a learner asks you which letters are vowels and which letters are consonants, try answering as follows:

• Vowels and consonants are sounds not letters,
• Vowels are the loud sounds that form the nuclei of each syllable, and consonants separate them.
• The letters B, C, D, F, J, K, M, N, P, Q, S, T, V, X and Z are mainly used to spell consonants,
• The letters A and O are mainly used to spell vowels, and
• The letters E, G, H, I, L, R, U, W, Y are used as/in spellings representing both vowels and consonants.

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