This is known as a long vowel sound, because it says the ânameâ of the letter. The same goes for the other vowels. A short vowel sound is a vowel sound that does not follow this rule. When reading a word that uses a short vowel sound, will say the sound that the letter can make that is not its actual name. So in the case of âA,â the word âmainâ might have a long âAâ sound because we pronounce the âAâ as /Ä/, whereas the word âmanâ has a short vowel sound.
Gill arches supporting the gills in a pike. Branchial arches, or gill arches, are a series of bony loops present in fish, which support the gills. As gills are the primitive condition of vertebrates, all vertebrate embryos develop pharyngeal arches, though the eventual fate of these arches varies between taxa.
In mammals and birds, the hyoid is still more simplified. All basal vertebrates breathe with gills. The gills are carried right behind the head, bordering the posterior margins of a series of openings from the esophagus to the exterior. Each gill is supported by a cartilagenous or bony gill arch. Bony fish have three pairs of arches, cartilaginous fish have five to seven pairs, and primitive jawless fish have seven. The vertebrate ancestor no doubt had more arches, as some of their chordate relatives have more than 50 pairs of gills.