Vocales Frontales En Inglés

English Front Vowels
1    [i] Long i
Please say the words 'eat', 'ease', or 'eel', concentrating on the vowel sound.  You make this vowel with the front of your tongue touching the back of yourlower front teeth.
According to IPA standards, the phonetic symbol for this vowel sound is [i].  Here are some transcription examples:
eat'     [it]
leech  [liʧ] (or[lič]) sanguijuela
sheep  [ʃip]
2    [æ] Diagraph
To get you to say the next vowel we will analyze, we will start by doing a 'jaw movement exercise'.  To begin, please say the vowel [i] (as in 'sheep' again).  Now, without stoppingyour vocalization take hold of your jaw and slowly pull it down, to lower it.  Pull your jaw down till your mouth is as wide as it can go.
The vowel will change, as you lower your jaw.  In fact, asyour jaw opens wider and wider (with your tongue position roughly the same), you will say a range of different vowels.  With your mouth open wide, you will probably have said the vowel that appears inthese words:  'had', 'bat', 'match'.
The vowel is obviously made with the tongue low.  The tip of the tongue is relatively forward in the mouth (though not as far forward as for [i]). So,altogether, [it is a 'front vowel'.  The IPA standards use the following phonetic symbol for this sound:  [æ]. In English this vowel is often (but not always) spelled with 'a'.  Here are some transcriptionexamples:
'fat'     [fæt]
'Matt'   [mæt] 
'clap'    [klæp]
If you are drawing the symbol [æ], first make an upside down 'e', then join that to a right-side-up 'e'. 
3     [eI]
Now please repeat the'jaw lowering' exercise.  This time, as you lower your jaw, explore the vowel space for front vowels between [i] (the highest front vowel) and [æ] (the lowest).  Can you identify which vowel occurs atroughly the middle height, half-way in between [i] and [æ]?
One main English vowel that occurs at this height is the one in these words:  'hate', 'bait', 'made', and 'weigh'. This is a mid front...