Phonemes

English sounds
 Vowels
Consonants
 Vowels are A, E, I, O, U
That is wrong answer. If it’s correct,
why do we say “a university” rather
than “an university” like “an
umbrella?” We have learnt that “an”
should come before a vowel.
So What is a vowel?
 Don’t translate a vowel as സ"രാkരം, but as
സ"രം (sound). Sound comes, when we open our
mouth, from lungs, through tongue and through
our lips. Vowels are sounds produced with open
vocal tract. They are അ, ഇ, ഉ, എ, ഒ. They are
short vowels. ആ, ഈ, ഊ, ഏ, ഓ are long vowels.
English has a, e, i, o, u to represent vowel sounds
(both long -ant- and short at). Some languages
like Arabic don’t have vowel letters, but vowel
markings
That makes sense. And “U” in university is a consonant (യ).
So we say “a university.” But “u” in umbrella is “അ.” So we
say an umbrella.

We say an MLA. Though “M” is a consonant letter, we have a

vowel sound at the start of “MLA” (എ)

What then is consonant?

 All other sounds except vowels are consonants.
Consonants need vowels to make the sound. That
is, ബ്, സ്, ക്, ഡ്, ഫ്,ഗ്, ഴ്, ഹ്, ജ്, ല്, മ്, ന്, പ്, റ്, സ്, @്,
വ്, v്, ച്, ജ്, ത്, ദ്, zF, ഷ്, are consonants and they
need vowels to make the sound
So vowels are 10 in number (5 short vowels and 5 long vowels),
Consonants are 24 in number. What are the rest of the ten
sounds?

They are diphthongs. In such sounds, we begin from one

vowel sound to end in another vowel sound
Vowels and
diphthongs