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2.1 
Segmental Phonology 
Segmental phonology deals with units of sounds also known as phonemes. 
Phonemes - are units of spoken language that make differences between words and can 
be analyzed. (Kelly 2000, 3
;
Crystal 2002, 466) In reference to David Crystal 
´phoneme´ is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. (2003, 
466) Gerald Kelly claims that “This set of phonemes consists of two categories: vowel 
sounds and consonant sounds.” (2000, 2) 
2.1.1 Vowels 
Vowel sounds - from a phonological point of view, vowels are sounds typically 
occurring at the middle of a syllable. From a phonetic point vowels are sounds 
produced by an articulation having little or no constriction of the mouth passage, at 
least not enough to produce “audible friction” during normal speech. (Crystal 2002, 
238
;
Kelly 2000, 29
;
MacCarthy 1978, 108) However, “there are cases (for example 
when pronouncing a word 
'
hay
'
) where the sound at the beginning of such a word does 
not obstruct the flow of air more than some vowels do.” (Roach 2002, 11) So that not 
only the way that they are produced 
[
so called ´production´
]
but also the context and 
position in which particular sounds can occur 
[
in other words ´distribution´ of sounds
]
must be taken into account as well. As Peter Roach states 
The most important difference between vowel and consonant is not the way 
they are made, but their different distribution, although the distribution of 
vowels and consonants is different for each language. (2000, 11) 
Generally it is agreed that all English vowel sounds are voiced. (Underhill 1994, 4
;
Roach 2000, 11-15) As the discussion concerning vowels is broad, this area was 
narrowed and for the purpose of the research English vowels are classified as ´single 
vowel sounds´, ´short vowels´, ´long vowels´, ´diphthongs´, and ´triphthongs´.