Vowel Length - Short and Long Vowels in English

Short and Long Vowels in English

Vowel length (i.e., "long" and "short"), when applied to English, has several different related meanings.

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Famous quotes containing the words short, long, vowels and/or english:

    To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. It is not the part of men, but of fanatics, or of mathematicians, if you will, to say, that, the shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in want, or sitting high. Since our office is with moments, let us husband them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto
    the bitter in soul;
    Which long for death,
    Bible: Hebrew Job (l. III, 20–21)

    Playing “bop” is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
    Duke Ellington (1899–1974)

    So in Jamaica it is the aim of everybody to talk English, act English and look English. And that last specification is where the greatest difficulties arise. It is not so difficult to put a coat of European culture over African culture, but it is next to impossible to lay a European face over an African face in the same generation.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)