Reference vowels used to describe the sounds of languages
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
X-rays of Daniel Jones' [i,u,a,ɑ].Highest tongue positions of cardinal front and back vowelsDiagram of relative highest points of tongue for cardinal vowelsThe "cardinal vowel quadrilateral", a more commonly seen schematic diagram of highest tongue positions of cardinal vowels
Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds of languages. They are classified depending on the position of the tongue relative to the roof of the mouth, how far forward or back is the highest point of the tongue, and the position of the lips (rounded or unrounded).
A cardinal vowel is a vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme position, either front or back, high or low. The current system was systematised by Daniel Jones in the early 20th century,[1] though the idea goes back to earlier phoneticians, notably Ellis[2] and Bell.[3]
^Jones, Daniel (1917). An English Pronouncing Dictionary. London: Dent.
^Ellis, A.J. (1845). The Alphabet of Nature. Bath.
⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. Cardinalvowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds of languages...
Such a diagram is called a vowel quadrilateral or a vowel trapezium. Different vowels vary in pitch. For example, high vowels, such as [i] and [u], tend...
determine a vowel's quality as distinguishing it from other vowels. Daniel Jones developed the cardinalvowel system to describe vowels in terms of the...
unrounded vowels. In the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each pair of vowels. There...
unrounded vowel, or low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. It is one of the eight primary cardinalvowels, not...
Look up Cardinal or cardinal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American...
vowel is a vowel sound in which the body of the tongue is raised upward and backward toward the dorsum (soft palate). The most raised cardinalvowels...
makes the vowels shorter as well. Vowels which have undergone vowel reduction may be called reduced or weak. In contrast, an unreduced vowel may be described...
pairings shown above include also differences in vowel quality. The vowels called "long" high vowels in RP /iː/ and /uː/ are slightly diphthongized, and...
articulation, vowels are defined in relation to a set of reference vowels called cardinalvowels. Three properties are needed to define vowels: tongue height...
vowel is a vowel sound in which the body or root of the tongue is pulled backward and downward into the pharynx. The most retracted cardinalvowels are...
transcription delimiters. A Chinese vowel diagram or Chinese vowel chart is a schematic arrangement of the vowels of the Chinese language, which usually...
tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. This often subsumes open (low) front vowels, because the tongue does not have as much...
mid counterparts /e, ə, o/. Vowel description The vowels listed below do not include nasalized vowels. Nasalized vowels are marked by a tilde, e.g. /ĩ/...
close cardinalvowel sounds: In addition, some authors consider the rhotic approximants [ɹ], [ɻ] to be semivowels corresponding to R-colored vowels such...
final word in the unit. Babylonian vocalization Hebrew cantillation Cardinalvowels Niqqud Palestinian vocalization Tiberian Hebrew The portions of the...
near-open back unrounded vowel (a sound between cardinal [ɑ] and [ʌ]), which can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɑ̝⟩ or ⟨ʌ̞⟩. Its vowel height is open, also known...
system of five vowels /i, u, e, o, a/. The first two have qualities approaching their respective cardinalvowels [i, u], the mid vowels /e, o/ are true-mid...
appearing before vowels. Velars [k kʰ x ɣ] are restricted to appearing everywhere except before front vowels. In other words: Before back vowels and front rounded...
Long vowels may have stød, thus making it possible to distinguish 30 different vowels in stressed syllables.[citation needed] However, vowel length[citation...
the height of the vowel. Thus open vowels typically have lower fundamental frequency than close vowels in a given context, and vowel recognition is likely...
respective states. Bangladesh also has some speakers. Kurukh has five cardinalvowels. Each vowel has long, short nasalized and long nasalized counterparts. The...
presenters on television. The close vowels /i, y, u/ are similar to the corresponding cardinalvowels [i, y, u]. The mid vowels are phonetically mid [e̞, ø̞...
IPA defines a vowel as a sound which occurs at a syllable center. Below is a chart depicting the vowels of the IPA. The IPA maps the vowels according to...
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