Vowel Articulation and the Vowel Space
Vowels are produced with an open vocal tract and are described by the position of the tongue body and the shape of the lips within a continuous articulatory space.
Definition
The description of vowels by tongue height, backness, and lip rounding within the continuous articulatory and perceptual space of possible vowel qualities.
Scope
This topic covers how vowels are characterized along the dimensions of tongue height (close to open), tongue backness (front to back), and lip rounding, together with additional properties such as nasalization, length, and tenseness. It introduces Daniel Jones's cardinal vowel system as a set of fixed reference points and the IPA vowel quadrilateral that maps the vowel space. Because vowel quality is continuous, the topic also notes the relationship between articulatory description and the acoustic correlates that distinguish vowels. The treatment is descriptive.
Core questions
- Which articulatory dimensions define vowel quality?
- What are cardinal vowels and how do they anchor the vowel space?
- How are properties such as rounding, length, and nasalization represented?
- How does the continuous vowel space relate to discrete vowel categories?
Key theories
- The cardinal vowel system
- Daniel Jones's set of fixed peripheral reference vowels, defined by extreme tongue positions, used to calibrate and compare the vowels of different languages within a standardized vowel quadrilateral.
History
Articulatory description of vowels was systematized by Daniel Jones in the early twentieth century with his cardinal vowel scheme, which gave phoneticians a shared frame of reference. Later instrumental work related these articulatory descriptions to acoustic formant measurements, refining the mapping of the vowel space.
Debates
- Articulatory versus auditory definition of vowel quality
- There is long-standing discussion of whether vowel categories are best defined by tongue position or by auditory and acoustic impression, since the two do not always align neatly and the cardinal vowels were defined partly by ear.
Key figures
- Daniel Jones
- Peter Ladefoged
- Keith Johnson
Related topics
Seminal works
- jones1972
- ladefoged2015
Frequently asked questions
- What dimensions describe a vowel?
- A vowel is described primarily by tongue height (how close the tongue is to the roof of the mouth), tongue backness (front versus back), and whether the lips are rounded; additional features include length and nasalization.
- What are cardinal vowels?
- Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels with fixed, extreme tongue positions, devised by Daniel Jones so that phoneticians could describe and compare the vowels of any language against a common standard.