A Walk in the WoRds : Linguistic Riddle Me This

We are little airy creatures,

All of different voice and features:
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you’ll find in jet,
T’other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within;
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.

What are we?

I just spotted this riddle by Jonathan Swift at Futility Closet and loved it so much I had to share.

Scroll down for answer.

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Vowels.

I love that he mentioned voice and features.

There are five vowels in the English alphabet, but the English language has approximately 20 vowel sounds depending on the speaker's dialect. All English vowels are voiced.

Here is the International Phonetic Alphabet chart for vowels.