STORM SHADOW said:
Finally!
You guys are plain silly if you think S is good for cutting or mass.
Fuck consonants, you gotta use vowels.
PLEASE!
Vowels differ from consonants in that there is no noticable obstruction in the vocal tract during their production. Air escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth and/or nose.
If you try saying aaaaa, iiiii, uuuuu, eeeeee, oooooo to yourself you should be able to feel that, although your tongue moves about your mouth, it never actually obstructs the airflow. You should also be able to feel that the position of the tongue changes for each of those vowels.
Vowels are determined by changes in position of the lips, tongue and palate. These changes can be very slight and difficult to detect. The vowel chart attempts to map the positions of the tongue and jaw in articulating vowels. It is worth mentioning that, as it is so difficult to determine the exact position of the lips, tongue and palate, there is no single agreed upon vowel chart.
In English, vowels can also glide into one another to form diphthongs and even triphthongs.
Vowels are far more difficult to transcribe than consonants and are also an extremely important area of English phonology as they make up the greatest difference between English varieties.
In a nutshell.
Rugger