So, how many vowels did you say ther are in English?

Hi Juan

If you know 11 vowels and 4 or so dipthongs, you use as many vowels as me. Maybe we have some differences, but we should be mutually understandable.

I only recognize
A Schwa, 10 normal vowels (6 soft, 4 long) and 5 Dipthongs.
6 soft are BUT, CAT, PET, PIT, POT/Father and PULL
4 hard are All/Paul/Dawg/Law, PEAT, Boat and POO/POOL
5 Dipthongs are BYE, BAY, BOY, HOW, Beautiful/Hugh/HUE/Few/new/cute

Soft vowels usually only found inside syllable between consonants, never stand alone. Hard vowels and Dipthongs are everywhere in a word.

As for your questions

I use Nasalized vowels instead of an "n" in a few french Loan words, but then I'm a Canadian.
Gran Prix
bien
I use the french dipthong for "OUI", but c'est toute

As for the Schwa, It is represents any unstressed minimal vowel sound, shorter than a short vowel. The whole point of a Schwa is that is is so short that it doesn't sound like anything. It is close to soft "e" or "u", but really it is anything.
You only have a Schwa usually in 3 locations. one of which is a problem.
1. Beginning of word or as a stand alone syllable. The word "a" is usually pronounced as a Schwa.
For example, alone, away, electricity, eraser, emergency, adopt, above
2. End of word (or syllable?) after a consonant as part of a consonant+Schwa syllable
For example, banana (first and last A), Lama, soda, Rhoda, Coca Cola, avocado (first O)
3. The problem one where a Schwa merges with a consonant, to create a syllabic consonant. Is it a Schwa or is it another form of the consonant?

For example, I write girl phonetically with a Schwa before the letter "L".
Examples, an, bottom, blossom, foal, coal, riot, twirl, fallen, Ryan, Mayan, picket, knowledge and foxes.

There was a big joke when I was young. The signs said, Be Alert and Drive with care. People would write underneath, Who wants be a Lert, anyway and I don't drive with just anybody.

only worked because a Lert and alert are pronunced exactly the same.

Surely, you jest.
I am not kidding and don't call me Shirley.

Regards, Paul V.

Paul,
Why did you included Eraser, Emergency and Electricity in "Word that begin with a schwa sound"?

Jeff,

It's common to hear those words pronounced with a schwa sound at the beginning.

Paul,

Are you a native speaker by any chance? I'm not, but I do my best to sound like one :-) I'm curious though to know what people think of my accent.

Vowels
BUT (^), BART (a:)
PAT (@)
PET (e), PERT (e:)
PIT (i), PEAT (i:)
POT (o), PORT (o:)
PULL (u), POOL (u:)
E in TIGER (..), I pronounce it like the A in BART (a:) but shorter. Although not confident that I pronounce it like a native speaker, it's more guess-work/mimicking than anything else.

Semi-vowels
YOU (ju:), BEAUTY (bju:ti)----> (j)
WOO (wu:)

Diphthongs
BYE (ai), BAY (ei), BOY (oi)
HOW (au), HOE (Ou)
HEAR(i..), HAIR(e..), TOUR(u..)

I can honestly claim of being able to distinguish 19 of the 20 vowels and diphthongs Tom has included in his ASCII Phonetic Alphabet. The only exception would be the schwa vowel which is the only one I'm unsure about.

<<6 soft are BUT(^), CAT(@), PET(e), PIT(i), POT(o)/Father(a:) and PULL(u)>>
Same here :-)

<<4 hard are All/Paul/Dawg/Law(o:), PEAT(i:), Boat(Ou) and POO/POOL(u:)>>
Almost the same as me because you are missing the ambiguious (..) vowel. What about the vowels in TURN and PERT (e:)? And I consider BOAT (Ou) to be a diphthong.

<<5 Dipthongs are BYE(ai), BAY(ei), BOY(oi), HOW(au) Beautiful/Hugh/HUE/Few/new/cute(j)>>

I recognise the sounds in HERE(i..), HAIR(e..), TOUR(u..) as diphthongs too.

<<
As for the Schwa, It is represents any unstressed minimal vowel sound, shorter than a short vowel. The whole point of a Schwa is that is is so short that it doesn't sound like anything. It is close to soft "e" or "u", but really it is anything.
You only have a Schwa usually in 3 locations. one of which is a problem.
1. Beginning of word or as a stand alone syllable. The word "a" is usually pronounced as a Schwa.
For example, alone, away, electricity, eraser, emergency, adopt, above
2. End of word (or syllable?) after a consonant as part of a consonant+Schwa syllable
For example, banana (first and last A), Lama, soda, Rhoda, Coca Cola, avocado (first O)
3. The problem one where a Schwa merges with a consonant, to create a syllabic consonant. Is it a Schwa or is it another form of the consonant?
>>
<<The whole point of a Schwa is that is is so short that it doesn't sound like anything. It is close to soft "e" or "u", but really it is anything.>>

Very true

The schwa in AWAY (..wei) sounds like a short (o:) --> (o:wei) to me
The schwa in ALONE (..lOun) sounds like a short (a:) --> (a:lOun) to me
I'm being very serious, they do sound like that to my ears. I was surprised to find out that initial A in AWAY was not (o:) when I looked it up in my dictionary. And equally as surprised when I realised the A in ALONE was not (a:). Tricky.

Jim,

<<
In my accent there are some long vowels which sound like long versions of short vowels.

A1) /i:/ sounds pretty much like a long version of /i/,
A2) /e../ sounds pretty much like a long version of /e/ &
A3) /a:/ sounds pretty much like a long version of /^/
A4) /e:/ sounds pretty much like a long version of /../ but
A5) /o:/ doesn't sound much like a long version of /o/ &
A6) /u:/ doesn't sound much like a long version of /u/.
>>

Cool, I think my accent is closest to the Australian one :-)

<<A4) /e:/ sounds pretty much like a long version of /../>>

I agree to a point because it does sound like that to me sometimes, especially when the linking-r occurs or when there is an S at the end. But when there is no linking-r or there is no S following the schwa it sounds to me like (^) or a short version of (a:). For example IDEA (aidi..)-->(aidi^) or (aidia:). With an S it sound like IDEAS (aidi..s) ---> (aidie:s) or IDEA OF (aidi..rof) --> (aidie:rof).

Hi Juan

You seem to be doing pretty good.
But even though I am a native speaker, I cant judge you accent when you say E in TIGER (..). If you pronounce it like the A in BART (a:) but much shorter, you would be close.
But this is non-Rhotic pronunciation and I have a Rhotic pronunciation of English.
So I am not confident that you pronounce it like a native speaker, unless I hear it.

In my accent /u:/ does sound much like a longer and stessed version of /u/.