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class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Phonemic vowel length</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Phonemic_vowel_length-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-By_language" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#By_language"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>By language</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-By_language-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle By language subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-By_language-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-In_English" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_English"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1</span> <span>In English</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_English-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Contrastive_vowel_length" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Contrastive_vowel_length"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1.1</span> <span>Contrastive vowel length</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Contrastive_vowel_length-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Allophonic_vowel_length" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Allophonic_vowel_length"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1.2</span> <span>Allophonic vowel length</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Allophonic_vowel_length-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-"Long"_and_"short"_vowel_letters_in_spelling_and_the_classroom_teaching_of_reading" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#"Long"_and_"short"_vowel_letters_in_spelling_and_the_classroom_teaching_of_reading"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1.3</span> <span>"Long" and "short" vowel letters in spelling and the classroom teaching of reading</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-"Long"_and_"short"_vowel_letters_in_spelling_and_the_classroom_teaching_of_reading-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Origin" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Origin"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Origin</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Origin-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Notations" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Notations"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Notations</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Notations-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Notations subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Notations-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Latin_alphabet" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Latin_alphabet"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1</span> <span>Latin alphabet</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Latin_alphabet-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-IPA" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#IPA"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1.1</span> <span>IPA</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-IPA-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Diacritics" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Diacritics"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1.2</span> <span>Diacritics</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Diacritics-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Additional_letters" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Additional_letters"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1.3</span> <span>Additional letters</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Additional_letters-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Other_signs" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Other_signs"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1.4</span> <span>Other signs</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Other_signs-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-No_distinction" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-3"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#No_distinction"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1.5</span> <span>No distinction</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-No_distinction-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Other_writing_systems" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Other_writing_systems"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.2</span> <span>Other writing systems</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Other_writing_systems-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" 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href="https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirder_vogalennek" title="Hirder vogalennek – Breton" lang="br" hreflang="br" data-title="Hirder vogalennek" data-language-autonym="Brezhoneg" data-language-local-name="Breton" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Brezhoneg</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vokalquantit%C3%A4t" title="Vokalquantität – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Vokalquantität" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_larga" title="Vocal larga – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Vocal larga" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eu mw-list-item"><a href="https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokalen_iraupen" title="Bokalen iraupen – Basque" lang="eu" hreflang="eu" data-title="Bokalen iraupen" data-language-autonym="Euskara" data-language-local-name="Basque" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Euskara</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D8%B4%D8%B4_%D9%88%D8%A7%DA%A9%D9%87" title="کشش واکه – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="کشش واکه" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantit%C3%A9_vocalique" title="Quantité vocalique – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Quantité vocalique" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gl mw-list-item"><a href="https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonxitude_voc%C3%A1lica" title="Lonxitude vocálica – Galician" lang="gl" hreflang="gl" data-title="Lonxitude vocálica" data-language-autonym="Galego" data-language-local-name="Galician" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Galego</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%AA%A8%EC%9D%8C%EC%9D%98_%EA%B8%B8%EC%9D%B4" title="모음의 길이 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="모음의 길이" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantit%C3%A0_vocalica" title="Quantità vocalica – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Quantità vocalica" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ms mw-list-item"><a href="https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepanjangan_vokal" title="Kepanjangan vokal – Malay" lang="ms" hreflang="ms" data-title="Kepanjangan vokal" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Melayu" data-language-local-name="Malay" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Melayu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E6%AF%8D%E9%9F%B3" title="長母音 – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="長母音" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iloczas" title="Iloczas – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Iloczas" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantidade_voc%C3%A1lica" title="Quantidade vocálica – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Quantidade vocálica" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%B8_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5" title="Долгие и краткие гласные – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Долгие и краткие гласные" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_length" title="Vowel length – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Vowel length" 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0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}</style><table class="box-More_citations_needed plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This article <b>needs additional citations for <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verification</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Vowel_length" title="Special:EditPage/Vowel length">improve this article</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.<br /><small><span class="plainlinks"><i>Find sources:</i> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?as_eq=wikipedia&q=%22Vowel+length%22">"Vowel length"</a> – <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=%22Vowel+length%22+-wikipedia&tbs=ar:1">news</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?&q=%22Vowel+length%22&tbs=bkt:s&tbm=bks">newspapers</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks:1&q=%22Vowel+length%22+-wikipedia">books</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Vowel+length%22">scholar</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22Vowel+length%22&acc=on&wc=on">JSTOR</a></span></small></span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">September 2015</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1257001546">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme) div:not(.notheme){background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table tr{display:table-row!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1151960987">body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox table{display:table}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox caption{display:table-caption}</style><table class="infobox" style="width: 16em;"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="background: #f2f2ce;">Long</th></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background: #ffffe6;"><span style="font-size: 5em; line-height: 1.2em; vertical-align: super; font-weight: normal;"><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">◌ː</span></span></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/IPA_Number" class="mw-redirect" title="IPA Number">IPA Number</a></th><td class="infobox-data">503</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background: #ffffe6;">Encoding</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Entity <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r886047488">.mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal}</style><span class="nobold">(decimal)</span></th><td class="infobox-data"><code>&#720;</code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Unicode <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886047488"><span class="nobold">(hex)</span></th><td class="infobox-data">U+02D0</td></tr></tbody></table> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1257001546"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1151960987"><table class="infobox" style="width: 16em;"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="background: #f2f2ce;">Half-long</th></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background: #ffffe6;"><span style="font-size: 5em; line-height: 1.2em; vertical-align: super; font-weight: normal;"><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">◌ˑ</span></span></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/IPA_Number" class="mw-redirect" title="IPA Number">IPA Number</a></th><td class="infobox-data">504</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background: #ffffe6;">Encoding</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Entity <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886047488"><span class="nobold">(decimal)</span></th><td class="infobox-data"><code>&#721;</code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Unicode <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886047488"><span class="nobold">(hex)</span></th><td class="infobox-data">U+02D1</td></tr></tbody></table> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1257001546"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1151960987"><table class="infobox" style="width: 16em;"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="background: #f2f2ce;"><a href="/wiki/Extra-short" class="mw-redirect" title="Extra-short">Extra-short</a></th></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background: #ffffe6;"><span style="font-size: 5em; line-height: 1.2em; vertical-align: super; font-weight: normal;"><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">◌̆</span></span></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/wiki/IPA_Number" class="mw-redirect" title="IPA Number">IPA Number</a></th><td class="infobox-data">505</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header" style="background: #ffffe6;">Encoding</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Entity <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886047488"><span class="nobold">(decimal)</span></th><td class="infobox-data"><code>&#774;</code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Unicode <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r886047488"><span class="nobold">(hex)</span></th><td class="infobox-data">U+0306</td></tr></tbody></table> <p>In <a href="/wiki/Linguistics" title="Linguistics">linguistics</a>, <b>vowel length</b> is the perceived length of a <a href="/wiki/Vowel" title="Vowel">vowel</a> sound: the corresponding physical measurement is <a href="/wiki/Length_(phonetics)" title="Length (phonetics)">duration</a>. In some languages vowel length is an important <a href="/wiki/Phonemic" class="mw-redirect" title="Phonemic">phonemic</a> factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, for example in <a href="/wiki/Arabic_phonology#Vowels" title="Arabic phonology">Arabic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Czech_phonology" title="Czech phonology">Czech</a>, <a href="/wiki/Dravidian_languages" title="Dravidian languages">Dravidian languages</a> (such as <a href="/wiki/Tamil_language" title="Tamil language">Tamil</a>), some <a href="/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages" title="Finno-Ugric languages">Finno-Ugric languages</a> (such as <a href="/wiki/Finnish_phonology#Length" title="Finnish phonology">Finnish</a> and <a href="/wiki/Estonian_phonology" title="Estonian phonology">Estonian</a>), <a href="/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Vowels" title="Japanese phonology">Japanese</a>, <a href="/wiki/Kyrgyz_phonology" title="Kyrgyz phonology">Kyrgyz</a>, <a href="/wiki/Samoan_language#Phonology" title="Samoan language">Samoan</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Xhosa_language#Vowels" title="Xhosa language">Xhosa</a>. Some languages in the past likely had the distinction even though their descendants do not, with an example being <a href="/wiki/Latin_phonology#Vowels" class="mw-redirect" title="Latin phonology">Latin</a> and its descendent <a href="/wiki/Romance_languages" title="Romance languages">Romance languages</a>. </p><p>Whether vowel length alone changes word-meanings in <a href="/wiki/English_language" title="English language">English</a> depends on the particular dialect; it is able to do so in a few <a href="/wiki/Non-rhotic" class="mw-redirect" title="Non-rhotic">non-rhotic</a> dialects, such as <a href="/wiki/Australian_English" title="Australian English">Australian English</a>, <a href="/wiki/Lunenburg_English" title="Lunenburg English">Lunenburg English</a>, <a href="/wiki/New_Zealand_English" title="New Zealand English">New Zealand English</a>, <a href="/wiki/South_African_English" title="South African English">South African English</a>, and possibly some <a href="/wiki/English_language_in_Southern_England" title="English language in Southern England">Southern British English</a>, and in a few rhotic dialects, such as <a href="/wiki/Scottish_English" title="Scottish English">Scottish English</a> and <a href="/wiki/Ulster_English" title="Ulster English">Northern Irish English</a>. It also plays a lesser phonetic role in <a href="/wiki/Cantonese" title="Cantonese">Cantonese</a>, unlike in other <a href="/wiki/Varieties_of_Chinese" title="Varieties of Chinese">varieties of Chinese</a>, which do not have phonemic vowel length distinctions. </p><p>Many languages do not distinguish vowel length phonemically, meaning that vowel length does not change meaning. However, the amount of time a vowel is uttered can change based on factors such as the phonetic characteristics of the sounds around it, for instance whether the vowel is followed by a voiced or a voiceless consonant. </p><p>Languages that do distinguish vowel length phonemically usually only distinguish between <b>short vowels</b> and <b>long vowels</b>. Very few languages distinguish three phonemic vowel lengths; some that do so are <a href="/wiki/Estonian_language" title="Estonian language">Estonian</a>, <a href="/wiki/Luise%C3%B1o_language" title="Luiseño language">Luiseño</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Mixe_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Mixe language">Mixe</a>. However, languages with two vowel lengths may permit words in which two adjacent vowels are of the same quality: Japanese <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">ほうおう</span></span>, <span title="Japanese-language romanization"><i lang="ja-Latn"><a href="/wiki/H%C5%8D%C5%8D" class="mw-redirect" title="Hōō">hōō</a></i></span>, "phoenix", or <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Ancient Greek</a> <span title="Ionic Greek-language text"><span lang="grc">ἀάατος</span></span> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[a.áː.a.tos]</span>,<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> "inviolable". Some languages that do not ordinarily have phonemic vowel length but permit vowel <a href="/wiki/Hiatus_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hiatus (linguistics)">hiatus</a> may similarly exhibit sequences of identical vowel phonemes that yield <i>phonetically</i> long vowels, such as <a href="/wiki/Georgian_language" title="Georgian language">Georgian</a> <span title="Georgian-language text"><span lang="ka">გააადვილებ</span></span>, <span title="Georgian-language romanization"><i lang="ka-Latn">gaaadvileb</i></span> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="ka-Latn-fonipa"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/Georgian" title="Help:IPA/Georgian">[ɡa.a.ad.vil.eb]</a></span>, "you will facilitate it". </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Related_features">Related features</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Related features"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Stress_(linguistics)" title="Stress (linguistics)">Stress</a> is often reinforced by allophonic vowel length, especially when it is lexical. For example, <a href="/wiki/French_language" title="French language">French</a> long vowels are always in stressed syllables. <a href="/wiki/Finnish_language" title="Finnish language">Finnish</a>, a language with two phonemic lengths, indicates the stress by adding allophonic length, which gives four distinctive lengths and five physical lengths: short and long stressed vowels, short and long unstressed vowels, and a half-long vowel, which is a short vowel found in a syllable immediately preceded by a stressed short vowel: <i>i-s<b>o</b></i>. </p><p>Among the languages with distinctive vowel length, there are some in which it may occur only in stressed syllables, such as in <a href="/wiki/Alemannic_German" title="Alemannic German">Alemannic German</a>, <a href="/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic" title="Scottish Gaelic">Scottish Gaelic</a> and <a href="/wiki/Egyptian_Arabic" title="Egyptian Arabic">Egyptian Arabic</a>. In languages such as <a href="/wiki/Czech_language" title="Czech language">Czech</a>, <a href="/wiki/Finnish_language" title="Finnish language">Finnish</a>, some Irish dialects and <a href="/wiki/Classical_Latin" title="Classical Latin">Classical Latin</a>, vowel length is distinctive also in unstressed syllables. </p><p>In some languages, vowel length is sometimes better analyzed as a sequence of two identical vowels. In <a href="/wiki/Finnic_languages" title="Finnic languages">Finnic languages</a>, such as Finnish, the simplest example follows from <a href="/wiki/Consonant_gradation" title="Consonant gradation">consonant gradation</a>: <i>haka → haan</i>. In some cases, it is caused by a following <a href="/wiki/Chroneme" title="Chroneme">chroneme</a>, which is etymologically a consonant: <i>jää</i> "ice" ← <a href="/wiki/Proto-Uralic" class="mw-redirect" title="Proto-Uralic">Proto-Uralic</a> *<i>jäŋe</i>. In non-initial syllables, it is ambiguous if long vowels are vowel clusters; poems written in the <a href="/wiki/Kalevala_meter" class="mw-redirect" title="Kalevala meter">Kalevala meter</a> often syllabicate between the vowels, and an (etymologically original) intervocalic <i>-h-</i> is seen in that and some modern dialects (<i>taivaan</i> vs. <i>taivahan</i> "of the sky"). Morphological treatment of <a href="/wiki/Diphthong" title="Diphthong">diphthongs</a> is essentially similar to long vowels. Some old Finnish long vowels have developed into diphthongs, but successive layers of borrowing have introduced the same long vowels again so the diphthong and the long vowel now again contrast (<i>nuotti</i> "musical note" vs. <i>nootti</i> "diplomatic note"). </p><p>In Japanese, most long vowels are the results of the phonetic change of <a href="/wiki/Diphthong" title="Diphthong">diphthongs</a>; <i>au</i> and <i>ou</i> became <i>ō</i>, <i>iu</i> became <i>yū</i>, <i>eu</i> became <i>yō</i>, and now <i>ei</i> is becoming <i>ē</i>. The change also occurred after the loss of intervocalic phoneme <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/h/</span>. For example, modern <i>Kyōto</i> (<a href="/wiki/Kyoto" title="Kyoto">Kyoto</a>) has undergone a shift: <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/kjauto/<span class="wrap"> </span>→<span class="wrap"> </span>/kjoːto/</span>. Another example is <i>shōnen</i> (<i>boy</i>): <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/seuneɴ/<span class="wrap"> </span>→<span class="wrap"> </span>/sjoːneɴ/<span class="wrap"> </span>[ɕoːneɴ]</span>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Phonemic_vowel_length">Phonemic vowel length</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Phonemic vowel length"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>As noted above, only a relatively few of the world's languages make a <a href="/wiki/Phoneme" title="Phoneme">phonemic</a> distinction between long and short vowels. Some families have many such languages, examples being the <a href="/wiki/Dravidian_languages" title="Dravidian languages">Dravidian languages</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages" title="Finno-Ugric languages">Finno-Ugric languages</a>. Other languages have fewer relatives with vowel length, including <a href="/wiki/Arabic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabic language">Arabic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a>, <a href="/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic" title="Scottish Gaelic">Scottish Gaelic</a>. There are also older languages such as <a href="/wiki/Sanskrit_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Sanskrit language">Sanskrit</a>, <a href="/wiki/Biblical_Hebrew" title="Biblical Hebrew">Biblical Hebrew</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Latin" title="Latin">Latin</a> which have phonemic vowel length but no descendants that preserve it. </p><p>In Latin and Hungarian, some long vowels are analyzed as separate phonemes from short vowels: </p> <table> <tbody><tr> <td width="50%" valign="top"> <table class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"> <caption>Latin vowels </caption> <tbody><tr> <th rowspan="2">  </th> <th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Front_vowel" title="Front vowel">Front</a> </th> <th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Central_vowel" title="Central vowel">Central</a> </th> <th colspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Back_vowel" title="Back vowel">Back</a> </th></tr> <tr> <th>short</th> <th>long </th> <th>short</th> <th>long </th> <th>short</th> <th>long </th></tr> <tr> <th><a href="/wiki/Close_vowel" title="Close vowel">High</a> </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɪ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iː/</span> </td> <td colspan="2">  </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʊ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uː/</span> </td></tr> <tr> <th><a href="/wiki/Mid_vowel" title="Mid vowel">Mid</a> </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɛ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eː/</span> </td> <td colspan="2">  </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɔ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/oː/</span> </td></tr> <tr> <th><a href="/wiki/Open_vowel" title="Open vowel">Low</a> </th> <td colspan="2">  </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/a/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/aː/</span> </td> <td colspan="2">  </td></tr></tbody></table> </td> <td width="50%" valign="top"> <table class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"> <caption>Hungarian vowels </caption> <tbody><tr> <th rowspan="3"> </th> <th colspan="4"><a href="/wiki/Front_vowel" title="Front vowel">Front</a> </th> <th colspan="1" rowspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Central_vowel" title="Central vowel">Central</a> </th> <th colspan="2" rowspan="2"><a href="/wiki/Back_vowel" title="Back vowel">Back</a> </th></tr> <tr> <th colspan="2">unrounded </th> <th colspan="2">rounded </th></tr> <tr> <th><small>short</small> </th> <th><small>long</small> </th> <th><small>short</small> </th> <th><small>long</small> </th> <th><small>long</small> </th> <th><small>short</small> </th> <th><small>long</small> </th></tr> <tr> <th><a href="/wiki/Close_vowel" title="Close vowel">High</a> </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/i/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iː/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/y/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/yː/</span> </td> <td> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/u/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uː/</span> </td></tr> <tr> <th><a href="/wiki/Mid_vowel" title="Mid vowel">Mid</a> </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɛ/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eː/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ø/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/øː/</span> </td> <td> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/o/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/oː/</span> </td></tr> <tr> <th><a href="/wiki/Open_vowel" title="Open vowel">Low</a> </th> <td colspan="4"> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/aː/</span> </td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɒ/</span> </td> <td> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p>Vowel length contrasts with more than two phonemic levels are rare, and several hypothesized cases of three-level vowel length can be analysed without postulating this typologically unusual configuration.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Estonian_language" title="Estonian language">Estonian</a> has three distinctive lengths, but the third is <a href="/wiki/Suprasegmental" class="mw-redirect" title="Suprasegmental">suprasegmental</a>, as it has developed from the allophonic variation caused by now-deleted grammatical markers. For example, half-long 'aa' in <i>saada</i> comes from the agglutination *<i>saa+tta+k */sɑːtˑɑk/</i> "send (saatta-) +(imperative)", and the overlong 'aa' in <i>saada</i> comes from *<i>saa+dak</i> "get+(infinitive)". As for languages that have three lengths, independent of vowel quality or syllable structure, these include <a href="/wiki/Dinka_language" title="Dinka language">Dinka</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mixe_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Mixe language">Mixe</a>, <a href="/wiki/Yavapai_language" title="Yavapai language">Yavapai</a> and <a href="/wiki/Wichita_language" title="Wichita language">Wichita</a>. An example from Mixe is <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[poʃ]</span> "guava", <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[poˑʃ]</span> "spider", <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[poːʃ]</span> "knot". In Dinka the longest vowels are three <a href="/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)" title="Mora (linguistics)">moras</a> long, and so are best analyzed as overlong e.g. <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/oːː/</span>. </p><p>Four-way distinctions have been claimed, but these are actually long-short distinctions on adjacent syllables.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (May 2011)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> For example, in <a href="/wiki/Kikamba_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Kikamba language">Kikamba</a>, there is <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ko.ko.na]</span>, <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[kóó.ma̋]</span>, <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ko.óma̋]</span>, <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[nétónubáné.éetɛ̂]</span> "hit", "dry", "bite", "we have chosen for everyone and are still choosing". </p><p><br /> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="By_language">By language</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: By language"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_English">In English</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: In English"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1251242444"><table class="box-Tone plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-style ambox-Tone" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/40px-Edit-clear.svg.png" decoding="async" width="40" height="40" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/60px-Edit-clear.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/80px-Edit-clear.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="48" data-file-height="48" /></span></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section's <b>tone or style may not reflect the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles#Tone" title="Wikipedia:Writing better articles">encyclopedic tone</a> used on Wikipedia</b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> See Wikipedia's <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles#Tone" title="Wikipedia:Writing better articles">guide to writing better articles</a> for suggestions.</span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">October 2018</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Contrastive_vowel_length">Contrastive vowel length</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Contrastive vowel length"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In many varieties of English, vowels contrast with each other both in length and in quality, and descriptions differ in the relative importance given to these two features. Some descriptions of <a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">Received Pronunciation</a> and more widely some descriptions of <a href="/wiki/English_phonology" title="English phonology">English phonology</a> group all non-diphthongal vowels into the categories "long" and "short", convenient terms for grouping the many vowels of English.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Daniel_Jones_(phonetician)" title="Daniel Jones (phonetician)">Daniel Jones</a> proposed that phonetically similar pairs of long and short vowels could be grouped into single phonemes, distinguished by the presence or absence of phonological length (<a href="/wiki/Chroneme" title="Chroneme">chroneme</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The usual long-short pairings for RP are /iː + ɪ/, /ɑː + æ/, /ɜ: + ə/, /ɔː + ɒ/, /u + ʊ/, but Jones omits /ɑː + æ/. This approach is not found in present-day descriptions of English. Vowels show allophonic variation in length and also in other features according to the context in which they occur. The terms <i>tense</i> (corresponding to <i>long</i>) and <i>lax</i> (corresponding to <i>short</i>) are alternative terms that do not directly refer to length.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In <a href="/wiki/Australian_English_phonology" title="Australian English phonology">Australian English</a>, there is contrastive vowel length in closed syllables between long and short <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/e/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɐ/</span>. The following are <a href="/wiki/Minimal_pair" title="Minimal pair">minimal pairs</a> of length: </p> <table style="margin-left: 1em;" cellspacing="3"> <tbody><tr> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈfeɹiː/</span> <i>ferry</i></td> <td></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈfeːɹiː/</span> <i>fairy</i> </td></tr> <tr> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈkɐt/</span> <i>cut</i></td> <td></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈkɐːt/</span> <i>cart</i> </td></tr></tbody></table> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Allophonic_vowel_length">Allophonic vowel length</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Allophonic vowel length"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In most varieties of English, for instance <a href="/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" title="Received Pronunciation">Received Pronunciation</a> and <a href="/wiki/General_American" class="mw-redirect" title="General American">General American</a>, there is <a href="/wiki/Allophony" class="mw-redirect" title="Allophony">allophonic</a> variation in vowel length depending on the value of the consonant that follows it: vowels are shorter before voiceless consonants and are longer when they come before voiced consonants.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Thus, the vowel in <i>bad</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/bæd/</span> is longer than the vowel in <i>bat</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/bæt/</span>. Also compare <i>neat</i> <span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt" lang="en-fonipa"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'n' in 'nigh'">n</span><span title="/iː/: 'ee' in 'fleece'">iː</span><span title="'t' in 'tie'">t</span></span>/</a></span></span> with <i>need</i> <span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt" lang="en-fonipa"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="'n' in 'nigh'">n</span><span title="/iː/: 'ee' in 'fleece'">iː</span><span title="'d' in 'dye'">d</span></span>/</a></span></span>. The vowel sound in "beat" is generally pronounced for about 190 milliseconds, but the same vowel in "bead" lasts 350 milliseconds in normal speech, the voiced final consonant influencing vowel length. </p><p><a href="/wiki/Cockney_English" class="mw-redirect" title="Cockney English">Cockney English</a> features short and long varieties of the closing diphthong <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊ]</span>. The short <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊ]</span> corresponds to RP <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɔː/</span> in morphologically closed syllables (see <a href="/wiki/Thought_split" class="mw-redirect" title="Thought split">thought split</a>), whereas the long <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊː]</span> corresponds to the non-prevocalic sequence <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɔːl/</span> (see <a href="/wiki/L-vocalization" title="L-vocalization">l-vocalization</a>). The following are minimal pairs of length: </p> <table style="margin-left: 1em;" cellspacing="3"> <tbody><tr> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfɔʊʔ]</span> <i>fort/fought</i></td> <td></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfɔʊːʔ]</span> <i>fault</i> </td></tr> <tr> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈpɔʊz]</span> <i>pause</i></td> <td></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈpɔʊːz]</span> <i>Paul's</i> </td></tr> <tr> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈwɔʊʔə]</span> <i>water</i></td> <td></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈwɔʊːʔə]</span> <i>Walter</i> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p>The difference is lost in running speech, so that <i>fault</i> falls together with <i>fort</i> and <i>fought</i> as <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfɔʊʔ]</span> or <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfoːʔ]</span>. The contrast between the two diphthongs is phonetic rather than phonemic, as the <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/l/</span> can be restored in formal speech: <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfoːɫt]</span> etc., which suggests that the underlying form of <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfɔʊːʔ]</span> is <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈfoːlt/</span> (John Wells says that the vowel is equally correctly transcribed with ⟨<span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA" lang="und-Latn-fonipa">ɔʊ</span>⟩ or ⟨<span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA" lang="und-Latn-fonipa">oʊ</span>⟩, not to be confused with <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r920966791">.mw-parser-output span.smallcaps{font-variant:small-caps}.mw-parser-output span.smallcaps-smaller{font-size:85%}</style><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">GOAT</span> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʌʊ/,<span class="wrap"> </span>[ɐɤ]</span>). Furthermore, a vocalized word-final <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/l/</span> is often restored before a word-initial vowel, so that <i>fall out</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[fɔʊl<span class="wrap"> </span>ˈæəʔ]</span> (cf. <i>thaw out</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[fɔəɹ<span class="wrap"> </span>ˈæəʔ]</span>, with an <a href="/wiki/Intrusive_r" class="mw-redirect" title="Intrusive r">intrusive <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/r/</span></a>) is somewhat more likely to contain the lateral <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[<a href="/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_lateral_approximant" class="mw-redirect" title="Voiced alveolar lateral approximant">l</a>]</span> than <i>fall</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[fɔʊː]</span>. The distinction between <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊ]</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊː]</span> exists only word-internally before consonants other than intervocalic <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/l/</span>. In the morpheme-final position only <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊː]</span> occurs (with the <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">THOUGHT</span> vowel being realized as <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔə<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>ɔː<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>ɔʊə]</span>), so that <i>all</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊː]</span> is always distinct from <i>or</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔə]</span>. Before the intervocalic <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/l/</span> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɔʊː]</span> is the banned diphthong, though here either of the <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r920966791"><span class="smallcaps smallcaps-smaller">THOUGHT</span> vowels can occur, depending on morphology (compare <i>falling</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈfɔʊlɪn]</span> with <i>aweless</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈɔəlɪs]</span>).<sup id="cite_ref-aoe_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-aoe-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In Cockney, the main difference between <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɪ/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɪə/</span>, <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/e/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eə/</span> as well as <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɒ/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɔə/</span> is length, not quality, so that <i>his</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɪz]</span>, <i>merry</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈmɛɹɪi]</span> and <i>Polly</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈpɒlɪi<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>ˈpɔlɪi]</span> differ from <i>here's</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɪəz<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>ɪːz]</span>, <i>Mary</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈmɛəɹɪi<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>ˈmɛːɹɪi]</span> and <i>poorly</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ˈpɔəlɪi<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>ˈpɔːlɪi]</span> (see <a href="/wiki/Cure-force_merger" class="mw-redirect" title="Cure-force merger">cure-force merger</a>) mainly in length. In broad Cockney, the contrast between <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æ/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æʊ/</span> is also mainly one of length; compare <i>hat</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[æʔ]</span> with <i>out</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[æəʔ<span class="wrap"> </span>~<span class="wrap"> </span>æːʔ]</span> (cf. the near-RP form <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[æʊʔ]</span>, with a wide closing diphthong).<sup id="cite_ref-aoe_9-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-aoe-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id=""Long"_and_"short"_vowel_letters_in_spelling_and_the_classroom_teaching_of_reading"><span id=".22Long.22_and_.22short.22_vowel_letters_in_spelling_and_the_classroom_teaching_of_reading"></span>"Long" and "short" vowel letters in spelling and the classroom teaching of reading</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: "Long" and "short" vowel letters in spelling and the classroom teaching of reading"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">"Short i" redirects here. For the Cyrillic letter, see <a href="/wiki/Short_I_(Cyrillic)" title="Short I (Cyrillic)">Short I (Cyrillic)</a>.</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">"Short a" redirects here. For the classification in Minor League Baseball, see <a href="/wiki/Class_A_Short_Season" title="Class A Short Season">Class A Short Season</a>.</div> <p>In the teaching of English, vowels are commonly said to have a "short" and a "long" version. The terms "short" and "long" are not accurate from a linguistic point of view—at least in the case of Modern English—as the vowels are not actually short and long versions of the same sound; the terminology is a historical holdover due to their arising from proper vowel length in <a href="/wiki/Middle_English" title="Middle English">Middle English</a>. The phonetic values of these vowels are shown in the table below. </p> <table class="wikitable"> <tbody><tr> <th>letter</th> <th>"short"</th> <th>"long"</th> <th>examples </th></tr> <tr align="center"> <th>a </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eɪ/</span></td> <td><i>mat</i> / <i>mate</i> </td></tr> <tr align="center"> <th>e </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɛ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iː/</span></td> <td><i>pet</i> / <i>Pete</i> </td></tr> <tr align="center"> <th>i </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɪ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/aɪ/</span></td> <td><i>twin</i> / <i>twine</i> </td></tr> <tr align="center"> <th>o </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ɒ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/oʊ/</span></td> <td><i>not</i> / <i>note</i> </td></tr> <tr align="center"> <th>oo </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʊ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uː/</span></td> <td><i>wood</i> / <i>wooed</i> </td></tr> <tr align="center"> <th>u </th> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʌ/</span></td> <td><span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/juː/</span></td> <td><i>cub</i> / <i>cube</i> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p>In some types of phonetic transcription (e.g. <a href="/wiki/Pronunciation_respelling" title="Pronunciation respelling">pronunciation respelling</a>), "long" vowel letters may be marked with a macron; for example, ⟨ā⟩ may be used to represent the IPA sound <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eɪ/</span>. This is sometimes used in dictionaries, most notably in <a href="/wiki/Merriam-Webster" title="Merriam-Webster">Merriam-Webster</a><sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (see <a href="/wiki/Pronunciation_respelling_for_English#Traditional_respelling_systems" title="Pronunciation respelling for English">Pronunciation respelling for English</a> for more). </p><p>Similarly, the short vowel letters are rarely represented in teaching reading of English in the classroom by the symbols ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, o͝o, and ŭ. The long vowels are more often represented by a horizontal line above the vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, o͞o, and ū.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Self-published_sources" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability"><span title="The material near this tag may rely on a self-published source. (April 2021)">self-published source?</span></a></i>]</sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Origin">Origin</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Origin"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Vowel length may often be traced to <a href="/wiki/Assimilation_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Assimilation (linguistics)">assimilation</a>. In Australian English, the second element <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ə]</span> of a diphthong <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[eə]</span> has assimilated to the preceding vowel, giving the pronunciation of <i>bared</i> as <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[beːd]</span>, creating a contrast with the short vowel in <i>bed</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[bed]</span>. </p><p>Another common source is the vocalization of a consonant such as the <a href="/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative" title="Voiced velar fricative">voiced velar fricative</a> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[ɣ]</span> or <a href="/wiki/Voiced_palatal_fricative" title="Voiced palatal fricative">voiced palatal fricative</a> or even an approximant, as the English 'r'. A historically-important example is the <a href="/wiki/Laryngeal_theory" title="Laryngeal theory">laryngeal theory</a>, which states that long vowels in the <a href="/wiki/Indo-European_languages" title="Indo-European languages">Indo-European languages</a> were formed from short vowels, followed by any one of the several "laryngeal" sounds of <a href="/wiki/Proto-Indo-European" class="mw-redirect" title="Proto-Indo-European">Proto-Indo-European</a> (conventionally written h<sub>1</sub>, h<sub>2</sub> and h<sub>3</sub>). When a laryngeal sound followed a vowel, it was later lost in most Indo-European languages, and the preceding vowel became long. However, Proto-Indo-European had long vowels of other origins as well, usually as the result of older sound changes, such as <a href="/wiki/Szemer%C3%A9nyi%27s_law" title="Szemerényi's law">Szemerényi's law</a> and <a href="/wiki/Stang%27s_law" title="Stang's law">Stang's law</a>. </p><p>Vowel length may also have arisen as an <a href="/wiki/Allophony" class="mw-redirect" title="Allophony">allophonic</a> quality of a single vowel phoneme, which may have then become split in two phonemes. For example, the Australian English phoneme <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æː/</span> was created by the incomplete application of a rule extending <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æ/</span> before certain voiced consonants, a phenomenon known as the <a href="/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_short_A#Bad–lad_split" class="mw-redirect" title="Phonological history of English short A">bad–lad split</a>. An alternative pathway to the phonemicization of allophonic vowel length is the shift of a vowel of a formerly-different quality to become the short counterpart of a vowel pair. That too is exemplified by Australian English, whose contrast between <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/a/</span> (as in <i>duck</i>) and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/aː/</span> (as in <i>dark</i>) was brought about by a <a href="/wiki/Open_vowel" title="Open vowel">lowering</a> of the earlier <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ʌ/</span>. </p><p><a href="/wiki/Estonian_language" title="Estonian language">Estonian</a>, a <a href="/wiki/Finnic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Finnic language">Finnic language</a>, has a rare<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="Is the rare thing really supposed to be length phonemicization by loss of allophony trigger; and not the shift from a two-length system into a three-length one? (December 2014)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> phenomenon in which allophonic length variation has become phonemic after the deletion of the suffixes causing the allophony. Estonian had already inherited two vowel lengths from <a href="/wiki/Proto-Finnic_language" title="Proto-Finnic language">Proto-Finnic</a>, but a third one was then introduced. For example, the Finnic imperative marker *<i>-k</i> caused the preceding vowels to be articulated shorter. After the deletion of the marker, the allophonic length became phonemic, as shown in the example above. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notations">Notations<span class="anchor" id="Vowel_length_notation"></span></h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Notations"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Latin_alphabet">Latin alphabet</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Latin alphabet"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="IPA">IPA</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: IPA"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In the <a href="/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet" title="International Phonetic Alphabet">International Phonetic Alphabet</a> the sign <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">ː</span> (not a colon, but two triangles facing each other in an <a href="/wiki/Hourglass_shape" class="mw-redirect" title="Hourglass shape">hourglass shape</a>; Unicode <code class="mw-highlight mw-highlight-lang-text mw-content-ltr" style="" dir="ltr">U+02D0</code>) is used for both vowel and consonant length. This may be doubled for an extra-long sound, or the top half (<span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">ˑ</span>) may be used to indicate that a sound is "half long". A <a href="/wiki/Breve" title="Breve">breve</a> is used to mark an <a href="/wiki/Extra-short" class="mw-redirect" title="Extra-short">extra-short</a> vowel or consonant. </p><p>Estonian has a three-way <a href="/wiki/Phonemic_contrast" title="Phonemic contrast">phonemic contrast</a>: </p> <dl><dd><i>saada</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[saːːda]</span> "to get" (overlong)</dd> <dd><i>saada</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[saːda]</span> "send!" (long)</dd> <dd><i>sada</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[sada]</span> "hundred" (short)</dd></dl> <p>Although not phonemic, a half-long distinction can also be illustrated in certain accents of English: </p> <dl><dd><i>bead</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[biːd]</span></dd> <dd><i>beat</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[biˑt]</span></dd> <dd><i>bid</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[bɪˑd]</span></dd> <dd><i>bit</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[bɪt]</span></dd></dl> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Diacritics">Diacritics</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Diacritics"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Macron_(diacritic)" title="Macron (diacritic)">Macron</a> (ā), used to indicate a long vowel in <a href="/wiki/M%C4%81ori_language" title="Māori language">Māori</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hawaiian_language" title="Hawaiian language">Hawaiian</a>, <a href="/wiki/Samoan_language" title="Samoan language">Samoan</a>, <a href="/wiki/Latvian_language" title="Latvian language">Latvian</a> and many transcription schemes, including romanizations for <a href="/wiki/Sanskrit" title="Sanskrit">Sanskrit</a> and <a href="/wiki/Arabic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabic language">Arabic</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Hepburn_romanization" title="Hepburn romanization">Hepburn romanization</a> for <a href="/wiki/Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Yale_romanization_of_Korean" title="Yale romanization of Korean">Yale</a> for <a href="/wiki/Korean_language" title="Korean language">Korean</a>. While not part of their standard orthography, the macron is used as a teaching aid in modern <a href="/wiki/Latin" title="Latin">Latin</a> and <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greek_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Ancient Greek language">Ancient Greek</a> textbooks. Macron is also used in modern official <a href="/wiki/Cyrillic_script" title="Cyrillic script">Cyrillic</a> orthographies of some minority languages (<a href="/wiki/Mansi_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Mansi language">Mansi</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Kildin_Sami_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Kildin Sami language">Kildin Sami</a>, <a href="/wiki/Evenki_language" title="Evenki language">Evenki</a>).</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Breve" title="Breve">Breves</a> (ă) are used to mark short vowels in several <a href="/wiki/Linguistics" title="Linguistics">linguistic</a> transcription systems, as well as in <a href="/wiki/Vietnamese_language" title="Vietnamese language">Vietnamese</a> and Alvarez-Hale's orthography for <a href="/wiki/O%27odham_language" class="mw-redirect" title="O'odham language">O'odham</a>.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Acute_accent" title="Acute accent">Acute accent</a> (á), used to indicate a long vowel in <a href="/wiki/Czech_language" title="Czech language">Czech</a>, <a href="/wiki/Slovak_language" title="Slovak language">Slovak</a>, <a href="/wiki/Old_Norse_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Old Norse language">Old Norse</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hungarian_language" title="Hungarian language">Hungarian</a>, <a href="/wiki/Irish_language" title="Irish language">Irish</a>, traditional <a href="/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic" title="Scottish Gaelic">Scottish Gaelic</a> (for long [oː] ó, [eː] é, as opposed to [ɛː] è, [ɔː] ò) and pre-20th-century transcriptions of <a href="/wiki/Sanskrit" title="Sanskrit">Sanskrit</a>, <a href="/wiki/Arabic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabic language">Arabic</a>, etc. <ul><li>An <a href="/wiki/Apex_(diacritic)" title="Apex (diacritic)">apex</a>, which was a light acute accent that was angled lower and aligned with a letter's right, was used in <a href="/wiki/Classical_Latin" title="Classical Latin">Classical Latin</a>. (However, for I, a taller ꟾ was sometimes used instead.)</li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Circumflex" title="Circumflex">Circumflex</a> (â), used for example in <a href="/wiki/Welsh_language" title="Welsh language">Welsh</a>. The circumflex is occasionally used as a surrogate for the macrons, particularly in <a href="/wiki/Hawaiian_language" title="Hawaiian language">Hawaiian</a> and in the <a href="/wiki/Kunrei-shiki" class="mw-redirect" title="Kunrei-shiki">Kunrei-shiki</a> romanization of <a href="/wiki/Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a>, or in transcriptions of <a href="/wiki/Old_High_German" title="Old High German">Old High German</a>. In transcriptions of <a href="/wiki/Middle_High_German" title="Middle High German">Middle High German</a>, a system where inherited lengths are marked with the circumflex and new lengths with the macron is occasionally used.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grave_accent" title="Grave accent">Grave accent</a> (à) is used in <a href="/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic" title="Scottish Gaelic">Scottish Gaelic</a>, with a e i o u. (In traditional spelling, [ɛː] is è and [ɔː] is ò as in gnè, pòcaid, Mòr (personal name), while [eː] is é and [oː] is ó, as in dé, mór.)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ogonek" title="Ogonek">Ogonek</a> (ą), used in <a href="/wiki/Lithuanian_language" title="Lithuanian language">Lithuanian</a> to indicate long vowels.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)" title="Diaeresis (diacritic)">Trema</a> (ä), used in <a href="/wiki/Aymara_language" title="Aymara language">Aymara</a> to indicate long vowels.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Additional_letters">Additional letters</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: Additional letters"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><i>Vowel doubling</i>, used consistently in <a href="/wiki/Estonian_language" title="Estonian language">Estonian</a>, <a href="/wiki/Finnish_language" title="Finnish language">Finnish</a>, <a href="/wiki/Lombard_language" title="Lombard language">Lombard</a>, <a href="/wiki/Navajo_language" title="Navajo language">Navajo</a> and <a href="/wiki/Somali_language" title="Somali language">Somali</a>, and in closed syllables in <a href="/wiki/Dutch_language" title="Dutch language">Dutch</a>, <a href="/wiki/Afrikaans" title="Afrikaans">Afrikaans</a>, and <a href="/wiki/West_Frisian_language" title="West Frisian language">West Frisian</a>. Example: Finnish <i>tuuli</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈtuːli/</span> 'wind' vs. <i>tuli</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈtuli/</span> 'fire'. <ul><li>Estonian also has a rare "overlong" vowel length but does not distinguish it from the normal long vowel in writing, as they are distinguishable by context; see the example below.</li></ul></li> <li><i>Consonant doubling</i> after short vowels is very common in <a href="/wiki/Swedish_language" title="Swedish language">Swedish</a> and other Germanic languages, including English. The system is somewhat inconsistent, especially in loanwords, around consonant clusters and with word-final nasal consonants. Examples:</li></ul> <dl><dd><i>Consistent use:</i> <i>byta</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/²byːta/</span> 'to change' vs <i>bytta</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/²bʏtːa/</span> 'tub' and <i>koma</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/²koːma/</span> 'coma' vs <i>komma</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/²kɔma/</span> 'to come'</dd> <dd><i>Inconsistent use:</i> <i>fält</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈfɛlt/</span> 'a field' and <i>kam</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/ˈkamː/</span> 'a comb' (but the verb 'to comb' is <i>kamma</i>)</dd></dl> <ul><li>Classical <a href="/wiki/Milanese" class="mw-redirect" title="Milanese">Milanese</a> orthography uses consonant doubling in closed short syllables, e.g., <i>lenguagg</i> 'language' and <i>pubblegh</i> 'public'.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li><i>ie</i> is used to mark the long <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iː/</span> sound in <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a> because of the preservation and the generalization of a historic <i>ie</i> spelling, which originally represented the sound <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iə̯/</span>. In <a href="/wiki/Low_German" title="Low German">Low German</a>, a following <i>e</i> letter lengthens other vowels as well, e.g., in the name <a href="/wiki/Bernkastel-Kues" title="Bernkastel-Kues">Kues</a> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/kuːs/</span>.</li> <li>A following <i>h</i> is frequently used in <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a> and older <a href="/wiki/Swedish_language" title="Swedish language">Swedish</a> spelling, e.g., German <i>Zahn</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[tsaːn]</span> 'tooth'.</li> <li>In <a href="/wiki/Czech_language" title="Czech language">Czech</a>, the additional letter <i>ů</i> is used for the long U sound, and the character is known as a <a href="/wiki/Krou%C5%BEek" class="mw-redirect" title="Kroužek">kroužek</a>, e.g., <i>kůň</i> "horse". (It actually developed from the <a href="/wiki/Typographic_ligature" class="mw-redirect" title="Typographic ligature">ligature</a> "uo", which noted the <a href="/wiki/Diphthong" title="Diphthong">diphthong</a> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uo/</span> until it shifted to <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uː/</span>.)</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Other_signs">Other signs</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: Other signs"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Colon_(letter)" title="Colon (letter)">Colon</a>, <span class="nowrap">⟨꞉⟩</span>, from <a href="/wiki/Americanist_phonetic_notation" title="Americanist phonetic notation">Americanist phonetic notation</a>, and used in orthographies based on it such as <a href="/wiki/O%CA%BCodham_language" title="Oʼodham language">Oʼodham</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mohawk_language" title="Mohawk language">Mohawk</a> or <a href="/wiki/Seneca_language" title="Seneca language">Seneca</a>. The triangular colon <span class="nowrap">⟨ː⟩</span> in the <a href="/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet" title="International Phonetic Alphabet">International Phonetic Alphabet</a> derives from this.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interpunct#Letter" title="Interpunct">Middot</a> or half-colon, <span class="nowrap">⟨ꞏ⟩</span>, a more common variant in the Americanist tradition, also used in language orthographies.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Saltillo_(linguistics)#The_saltillo_letter" title="Saltillo (linguistics)">Saltillo</a> (straight apostrophe), used in <a href="/wiki/Mi%EA%9E%8Ckmaq_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Miꞌkmaq language">Miꞌkmaq</a>, as evidenced by the name itself. This is the convention of the Listuguj orthography (Miꞌgmaq), and a common substitution for the acute accent (Míkmaq) of the Francis-Smith orthography.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="No_distinction">No distinction</h4><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: No distinction"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Some languages make no distinction in writing. This is particularly the case with ancient languages such as <a href="/wiki/Old_English_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Old English language">Old English</a>. Modern edited texts often use macrons with long vowels, however. <a href="/wiki/Australian_English" title="Australian English">Australian English</a> does not distinguish the vowels <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æ/</span> from <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/æː/</span> in spelling, with words like 'span' or 'can' having different pronunciations depending on meaning. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Other_writing_systems">Other writing systems</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: Other writing systems"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In non-Latin writing systems, a variety of mechanisms have also evolved. </p> <ul><li>In abjads derived from the <a href="/wiki/Aramaic_alphabet" title="Aramaic alphabet">Aramaic alphabet</a>, notably <a href="/wiki/Arabic_alphabet" title="Arabic alphabet">Arabic</a> and <a href="/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet" title="Hebrew alphabet">Hebrew</a>, long vowels are written with consonant letters (mostly <a href="/wiki/Approximant_consonant" class="mw-redirect" title="Approximant consonant">approximant consonant</a> letters) in a process called <i><a href="/wiki/Mater_lectionis" title="Mater lectionis">mater lectionis</a> e.g.</i> in Modern Arabic the long vowel <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/aː/</span> is represented by the letter <i>ا</i> (<a href="/wiki/Aleph" title="Aleph">Alif</a>), the vowels <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uː/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/oː/</span> are represented by <i>و</i> (<a href="/wiki/Waw_(letter)" title="Waw (letter)">wāw</a>), and the vowels <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iː/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eː/</span> are represented by <i>ي</i> (<a href="/wiki/Yodh" title="Yodh">yāʼ</a>), while short vowels are typically omitted entirely. Most of these scripts also have optional diacritics that can be used to mark short vowels when needed.</li> <li>In <a href="/wiki/South-Asian" class="mw-redirect" title="South-Asian">South-Asian</a> <a href="/wiki/Abugida" title="Abugida">abugidas</a>, such as <a href="/wiki/Devanagari" title="Devanagari">Devanagari</a> or the <a href="/wiki/Thai_alphabet" class="mw-redirect" title="Thai alphabet">Thai alphabet</a>, there are different vowel signs for short and long vowels.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Ancient Greek</a> also had distinct vowel signs, but only for some long vowels; the vowel letters <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">η</span></span> (<a href="/wiki/Eta" title="Eta">eta</a>) and <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">ω</span></span> (<a href="/wiki/Omega" title="Omega">omega</a>) originally represented long forms of the vowels represented by the letters <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">ε</span></span> (<a href="/wiki/Epsilon" title="Epsilon">epsilon</a>, literally "bare <i>e</i>") and <i>ο</i> (<a href="/wiki/Omicron" title="Omicron">omicron</a> – literally "small <i>o</i>", by contrast with <i>omega</i> or "large <i>o</i>"). The other vowel letters of Ancient Greek, <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">α</span></span> (<a href="/wiki/Alpha" title="Alpha">alpha</a>), <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">ι</span></span> (<a href="/wiki/Iota" title="Iota">iota</a>) and <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">υ</span></span> (<a href="/wiki/Upsilon" title="Upsilon">upsilon</a>), could represent either short or long vowel phones.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Japanese_phonology" title="Japanese phonology">Japanese phonology</a>: <ul><li>In the <a href="/wiki/Hiragana" title="Hiragana">hiragana</a> syllabary, long vowels are usually indicated by adding a vowel character after. For vowels <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/aː/</span>, <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/iː/</span>, and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/uː/</span>, the corresponding independent vowel is added. Thus: <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">あ</span></span> (a), <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">おかあさん</span></span>, "okaasan", mother; <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">い</span></span> (i), にいがた "Niigata", city in northern Japan (usually <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">新潟</span></span>, in <a href="/wiki/Kanji" title="Kanji">kanji</a>); <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">う</span></span> (u), <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">りゅう</span></span> "ryuu" (usu. <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">竜</span></span>), dragon. The mid-vowels <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/eː/</span> and <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/oː/</span> may be written with <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">え</span></span> (e) (rare) (<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">ねえさん</span></span> (<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">姉さん</span></span>), neesan, "elder sister") and <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">お</span></span> (o) [<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">おおきい</span></span> (usu <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">大きい</span></span>), ookii, big], or with <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">い</span></span> (i) (<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">めいれい</span></span> (<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">命令</span></span>), "meirei", command/order) and <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">う</span></span> (u) (<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">おうさま</span></span> (<span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">王様</span></span>), ousama, "king") depending on etymological, morphological, and historic grounds.</li> <li>Most long vowels in the <a href="/wiki/Katakana" title="Katakana">katakana</a> syllabary are written with a special bar symbol <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">ー</span></span> (vertical in <a href="/wiki/Tategaki" class="mw-redirect" title="Tategaki">vertical writing</a>), called a <a href="/wiki/Ch%C5%8Don" class="mw-redirect" title="Chōon">chōon</a>, as in <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">メーカー</span></span> <i>mēkā</i> "maker" instead of <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">メカ</span></span> <i>meka</i> "<a href="/wiki/Mecha" title="Mecha">mecha</a>". However, some long vowels are written with additional vowel characters, as with hiragana, with the distinction being orthographically significant.</li> <li>Some analyses make a distinction between a long vowel and a succession of two identical vowels, citing pairs such as <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">砂糖屋</span></span> <i>satōya</i> 'sugar shop' <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[satoːja]</span> vs. <span title="Japanese-language text"><span lang="ja">里親</span></span>, <span title="Japanese-language romanization"><i lang="ja-Latn">satooya</i></span>, 'foster parent' <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[satooja]</span>. They are usually identical in normal speech, but when enunciated a distinction may be made with a pause or a <a href="/wiki/Glottal_stop" title="Glottal stop">glottal stop</a> inserted between two identical vowels.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELabrune201245–46_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELabrune201245–46-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>In transcription: <i>ts<b>u</b>ki</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/tuki/</span> 'moon' vs. <i>ts<b>ū</b>ki</i> <span class="IPA nowrap" lang="und-Latn-fonipa" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">/tuuki/</span> 'airflow'.</li></ul></li> <li>In the Korean <a href="/wiki/Hangul" title="Hangul">Hangul</a> alphabet, vowel length is not distinguished in normal writing. Some dictionaries use a double dot, <span class="nowrap">⟨:⟩</span>, for example <span title="Korean-language text"><span lang="ko">무:</span></span> "<a href="/wiki/Daikon" title="Daikon">Daikon radish</a>".</li> <li>In the Classic <a href="/wiki/Maya_script" title="Maya script">Maya script</a>, also based on syllabic characters, long vowels in monosyllabic roots were generally written with word-final syllabic signs ending in the vowel -<i>i</i> rather than an echo-vowel. Hence, <i>chaach</i> "basket", with a long vowel, was written as <i>cha-chi</i> (compare <i>chan</i> "sky", with a short vowel, written as <i>cha-na</i>). If the nucleus of the syllable was itself <i>i</i>, however, the word-final vowel for indicating length was -<i>a</i>: <i>tziik</i>- "to count; to honour, to sanctify" was written as <i>tzi-ka</i> (compare <i>sitz' </i>"appetite", written as <i>si-tz'i</i>).</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=17" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gemination" title="Gemination">Gemination</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Length_(phonetics)" title="Length (phonetics)">Length (phonetics)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)" title="Mora (linguistics)">Mora (linguistics)</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=18" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Liddell, H. G., and R. Scott (1996). <i>A Greek-English Lexicon</i> (revised 9th ed. with supplement). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.1</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Odden, David (2011). The Representation of Vowel Length. In Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume, & Keren Rice (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell, 465-490.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFWells1982" class="citation book cs1">Wells, John C (1982). <i>Accents of English</i>. Cambridge University Press. p. 119.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Accents+of+English&rft.pages=119&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1982&rft.aulast=Wells&rft.aufirst=John+C&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFJonesRoachSetterEsling2011" class="citation book cs1">Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (2011). <i>The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary</i> (18th ed.). Cambridge. p. vii. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-15255-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-15255-6"><bdi>978-0-521-15255-6</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Cambridge+English+Pronouncing+Dictionary&rft.pages=vii&rft.edition=18th&rft.pub=Cambridge&rft.date=2011&rft.isbn=978-0-521-15255-6&rft.aulast=Jones&rft.aufirst=Daniel&rft.au=Roach%2C+Peter&rft.au=Setter%2C+Jane&rft.au=Esling%2C+John&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFWells2008" class="citation book cs1">Wells, J.C. 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Heffer. p. 63.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=An+Outline+of+English+Phonetics&rft.pages=63&rft.edition=9th&rft.pub=Heffer&rft.date=1967&rft.aulast=Jones&rft.aufirst=Daniel&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGiegerich1992" class="citation book cs1">Giegerich, H. (1992). <i>English phonology: an introduction</i>. Cambridge. p. para 3.3.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=English+phonology%3A+an+introduction&rft.pages=para+3.3&rft.pub=Cambridge&rft.date=1992&rft.aulast=Giegerich&rft.aufirst=H.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKluenderDiehlWright1988" class="citation book cs1">Kluender, Keith; Diehl, Randy; Wright, Beverly (1988). <i>Vowel-length Differences Before Voiced and Voiceless Consonants: An Auditory Explanation</i>. Journal of Phonetics. p. 153.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Vowel-length+Differences+Before+Voiced+and+Voiceless+Consonants%3A+An+Auditory+Explanation&rft.pages=153&rft.pub=Journal+of+Phonetics&rft.date=1988&rft.aulast=Kluender&rft.aufirst=Keith&rft.au=Diehl%2C+Randy&rft.au=Wright%2C+Beverly&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-aoe-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-aoe_9-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-aoe_9-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1041539562">.mw-parser-output .citation{word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}</style><cite id="CITEREFWells1982" class="citation book"><a href="/wiki/John_C._Wells" title="John C. Wells">Wells, John C.</a> (1982). <i>Accents of English</i>. Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466). Cambridge University Press. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1017%2FCBO9780511611759">10.1017/CBO9780511611759</a>. <a href="/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" class="mw-redirect" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-52128540-2" title="Special:BookSources/0-52128540-2">0-52128540-2</a><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fde.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Accents+of+English&rft.aulast=Wells&rft.aufirst=John+C.&rft.date=1982&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.volume=2%3A+The+British+Isles&rft.isbn=0-52128540-2&rft_id=info:doi/10.1017%2FCBO9780511611759"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span>.</cite></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/assets/mw/static/pdf/help/guide-to-pronunciation.pdf">"Guide to Pronunciation"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. Merriam-Webster<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2018-10-18</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Guide+to+Pronunciation&rft.pub=Merriam-Webster&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merriam-webster.com%2Fassets%2Fmw%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2Fhelp%2Fguide-to-pronunciation.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.actionfactor.com/pages/lesson-plans/v1.05-short-and-long-vowels.html#:~:text=The%20short%20vowels%20can%20represented,%2C%20%C4%AB%2C%20%C5%8D%2C%20%C5%AB.">"Short Vowels and Long Vowels Lesson Plan"</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Short+Vowels+and+Long+Vowels+Lesson+Plan&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.actionfactor.com%2Fpages%2Flesson-plans%2Fv1.05-short-and-long-vowels.html%23%3A~%3Atext%3DThe%2520short%2520vowels%2520can%2520represented%2C%252C%2520%25C4%25AB%252C%2520%25C5%258D%252C%2520%25C5%25AB.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.babel.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/media/downloads/grammar/NorthernMansi/Phonology/Northern-Mansi_Phonemes_unified.pdf">"OB-UGRIC LANGUAGES: CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURES, LEXICON, CONSTRUCTIONS, CATEGORIES TRANSLITERATION TABLES FOR NORTHERN MANSI : Counterparts of Cyrillic, FUT Counterparts of Cyrillic, FUT Cyrillic, FUT and IPA characters and IPA characters and IPA characters for Northern Mansi"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>Babel.gwi.uni-muenchen.de</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">30 May</span> 2018</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Babel.gwi.uni-muenchen.de&rft.atitle=OB-UGRIC+LANGUAGES%3A+CONCEPTUAL+STRUCTURES%2C+LEXICON%2C+CONSTRUCTIONS%2C+CATEGORIES+TRANSLITERATION+TABLES+FOR+NORTHERN+MANSI+%3A+Counterparts+of+Cyrillic%2C+FUT+Counterparts+of+Cyrillic%2C+FUT+Cyrillic%2C+FUT+and+IPA+characters+and+IPA+characters+and+IPA+characters+for+Northern+Mansi&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.babel.gwi.uni-muenchen.de%2Fmedia%2Fdownloads%2Fgrammar%2FNorthernMansi%2FPhonology%2FNorthern-Mansi_Phonemes_unified.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/s:Autore:Carlo_Porta" class="extiw" title="it:s:Autore:Carlo Porta">Carlo Porta</a> on the Italian <a href="/wiki/Wikisource" title="Wikisource">Wikisource</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTELabrune201245–46-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELabrune201245–46_14-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFLabrune2012">Labrune (2012)</a>, pp. 45–46.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <ul><li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLabrune2012" class="citation cs2">Labrune, Laurence (2012), <i>The Phonology of Japanese</i>, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-954583-4" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-954583-4"><bdi>978-0-19-954583-4</bdi></a></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Phonology+of+Japanese&rft.place=Oxford%2C+England&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=2012&rft.isbn=978-0-19-954583-4&rft.aulast=Labrune&rft.aufirst=Laurence&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AVowel+length" class="Z3988"></span></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Vowel_length&action=edit&section=19" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239549316">.mw-parser-output .refbegin{margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul{margin-left:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li{margin-left:0;padding-left:3.2em;text-indent:-3.2em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents ul,.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents ul li{list-style:none}@media(max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li{padding-left:1.6em;text-indent:-1.6em}}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-columns ul{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .refbegin{font-size:90%}}</style><div class="refbegin" style=""> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20051125044824/http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~tojan/rlang/finn2.htm">Some Features of the Vernacular Finnish of Jyväskylä</a></li></ul> </div> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output 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