<Li> / ə / does not occur in stressed syllables . </Li> <Li> / ʒ / does not occur in word - initial position in native English words, although it can occur syllable - initially as in luxurious / lʌɡˈʒʊəriəs /, and at the start of borrowed words such as genre . </Li> <Li> / m /, / n /, / l / and, in rhotic varieties, / r / can be the syllable nucleus (i.e. a syllabic consonant) in an unstressed syllable following another consonant, especially / t /, / d /, / s / or / z / . Such syllables are often analyzed phonemically as having an underlying / ə / as the nucleus . See above under Consonants . </Li> <Li> The short vowels are checked vowels, in that they cannot occur without a coda in a word - final stressed syllable . (This does not apply to / ə /, which does not occur in stressed syllables at all .) </Li>

How many vowels are in the english language