long vowel

phonetics

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

June 30, 2026

Quick Summary

In phonetics, a vowel is a speech sound produced with an open vocal tract, allowing air to flow freely without audible friction. Vowels are classified based on the position of the tongue (high, mid, low; front, back) and the shape of the lips (rounded or unrounded).12

A long vowel is a vowel sound that is articulated with greater muscular effort and has a longer duration than a lax vowel. These are also known as tense vowels. Vowels can be pure sounds (monophthongs) or gliding sounds (diphthongs), where the articulation moves from one position to another. For example, the vowel sound in "ice" is a diphthong.213

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

5 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Vulgar Latin
On the whole, long vowels became tense and short vowels lax, resulting in a wholesale change in the rhythm of the language. In the texts there is evidence of the confusion of ĭ and ē and of ŭ and ō that has occurred in the western Romance languages.…
Read More
On the whole, long vowels became tense and short vowels lax, resulting in a wholesale change in the rhythm of the language. In the texts there is evidence of the confusion of ĭ and ē and of ŭ and ō that has occurred in the western Romance languages.…
Read More