The great vowel shift did not involve the shortening or the forward movement of vowels, as Michael Erard says (29 March, p 28). Only the long vowels shifted – upwards – or became diphthongs (two ...

In this final round, all answers are words that contain three or more of a single vowel—and only that vowel. Strap on your bikinis and muumuus, and crank up the Bananarama!

We learn about 6 vowel letters and the numerous sounds we make when using them. In English, we have 5 (well, sometimes 6) vowel letters, but way more vowel sounds. That’s where the IPA can help us! We ...

In most languages, including English, vowels that occur next to nasal consonants (m, n, and ng in English) are produced as slightly or entirely nasal. I saw this as phonetically interesting. In my ...