Spoken or sung language involves two contrasting types of sound - vowels and consonants. A vowel is a sound made by the voice without any form of stoppage or friction applied by the tongue or lips; these percussive sounds are the consonants. Vowels are commonly represented in English text by the letters A, E, I, O, U. Consonants, which can be ΓÇ£voicedΓÇ¥ ( very ) or ΓÇ£unvoicedΓÇ¥ ( Terry ) by everything else.
Modern English has come through a complex linguistic history. Among its many charming -or infuriating -oddities, consonants often masquerade as bits of vowels. For example the gh in bought and flight. Singers, however, are not concerned with how words are spelt, but rather with their phonetic structure. Their primary interest is in the production of vowels - the sounds produced by the vibrating vocal folds.
