Letter: Vowel play Published 23 April 2008 From Nancy Hoar, Western New England College The great vowel shift did not involve the shortening or the forward movement of vowels, as Michael Erard ...

English has 44 different sounds that fall into the following categories: consonants, digraphs, diphthongs, vowels and r-controlled vowels. Just to clarify some terms: a digraph is a sound that ...

This makes the need for explicit phonics instruction in Urdu even more critical, particularly in teaching diacritic (a sign indicating a difference in pronunciation) vowel sounds.