Minimal Pair /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/ The biggest difference between these two sounds is that /ɒ/ is a short vowel and /ɔ:/ is a long one. The mouth position is also slightly different, with the mouth in /ɔ:/ being slightly tighter and more rounded.
Some Ways of Spelling the /ɔ:/ Sound
ore, as in: chore, ore, pore, core, more, etc. our, as in: court, four, mourn, etc. oar, as in: hoarse, coarse, soar, hoard, oar, etc. oor, as in: door, floor, moor, etc.
/ʊ/is a high, back, lax vowel. To make it, your tongue should be lifted high in the mouth (slightly lower than /u/), and shifted toward the back. Keep your lips relaxed and slightly open. Then, vibrate your vocal cords as you push air out of your mouth.
The /oʊ/ sound is one of the twelve American English single vowel sounds. Note for geeks: the /oʊ/ sound is a high-mid, tense, back vowel.
/ɑɪ/ is a diphthong, which is a combination of two different vowel sounds. To begin, place your tongue low in your mouth, and shifted toward the back, to say /ɑ/. Then, as you vibrate your vocal cords, lift your tongue high in the mouth and shift it forward, to say /ɪ/.
The /ɪ/ vowel is a high-front sound. Your tongue should be positioned high in your mouth, and shifted toward the front. Your lips should be relaxed, and only slightly open. Vibrate your vocal cords with your mouth in this position.
It is similar to the ə sound, but the two little dots mean that it is a longer sounds. /ɜ:/ not /ə/. To produce the sound put your tongue low and in the center of your mouth and stretch out your lips, then make a long voiced sound with your mouth relaxed.
All vowels are made through the mouth and are voiced so you vibrate your vocal chords to make the sound. It is similar to the /u:/ sound, but it is shorter. /ʊ/ not /u:/. To produce the ʊ sound put your tongue close to the top and near the back of your mouth and make a short voiced sound with your mouth closed.
How to Produce /ɒ/? To produce it, drop the jaw just a little and round the lips, unlike the unrounded /ɑ/ sound. Push your lips together and make a short, voiced sound. As you can see in the picture, the mouth is slightly more open than the /æ/ sound and less rounded than when producing the /ɔ/ sound.
The ʃ sound is from the 'Consonants Pairs' group and it is called the 'Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant'.
The trend, is that in all cases, the British IPA would use ɒ , while American would use ɑ . Now from my perspective, this is correct, Americans tend to elongate and turn it into more of an "aw" sound, while British English tends to keep it sharper.
These are both low, tense vowels. However, /ɔ/ is a back, rounded vowel and /ɑ/ is a central, unrounded vowel. When you pronounce /ɔ/, your lips should form a circle. Note: Many American English speakers do not distinguish between these two vowels.
ɔ: is the vowel used in the English words "all," "fall," "walk," "autumn," etc. It is always given length, and is perhaps used more commonly in other languages, for example, Russian. To pronounce it, you must round your lips. ɒ is the vowel used in the English words "honest," "hot," "knot," "lot," etc.
Some common words containing /ɔːr/ include the following: with "or": afford - born - cork - for - force - fork - form - horse - ignore - important - lord - morning - nor - north - or - order - pork - report - short - sport - storm - support - sword.
The vowel /ʊ/ is the short or lax vowel as in words like hook. Positionally, it is a back high vowel, which occurs in a few other languages.
Tip: To produce this sound, start by widening your mouth. Afterward move your jaw and your tongue up a bit. Tip: To produce this sound, open your mouth wide. Spread your lips as you are producing the sound, and move your tongue and your jaw up.
Vowel /ᴂ / and /ɜ:/
This is a front vowel. To pronounce this vowel, the lips are slightly spread while the tip of the tongue touches the lower front teeth and the back of the tongue touches the upper back teeth. It is a short vowel. Take a look at how the sound occurs in spelling.
Minimal Pair /ɑ:/ and /ɜ:/
Both sounds are long single sounds but the mouth position is different, with /ɑ:/ having a much wider open mouth position. This is why your doctor asks you to say this sound to show him or her inside your mouth. /ɜ:/ is much more like the sound people make when they are disgusted.
The sounds /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ are both voiceless, alveo-palatal consonants. However, /tʃ/ is an affricate while /ʃ/ is a fricative. When you pronounce /tʃ/, the air in your mouth should stop (like a /t/) before it is released (like a /ʃ/).
These two are pronounced with exactly the same mouth position but /dʒ/ uses the voice, whereas /tʃ/ is just a sudden puff of air similar to a sneeze.
Ezh (Ʒ ʒ) /ˈɛʒ/, also called the "tailed z", is a letter the lower case form of which is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), representing the voiced postalveolar fricative consonant.