2. What is a vowel?
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken
language, with two competing definitions. In
the more common phonetic definition, a
vowel is a sound pronounced with an open
vocal tract, so that the tongue does not touch
the lips, teeth, or roof of the mouth, such as
the English "ah" /ɑː/ or "oh" /oʊ/. There is no
build-up of air pressure at any point above the
glottis.
3.
4. HORIZONTAL POSITION O FTHE
TONGUE
The International Phonetic Alphabet defines
seven degrees of vowel height:
• close (high)
• near-close (near-high)
• close-mid (high-mid)
• mid (true-mid)
• open-mid (low-mid)
• near-open (near-low)
• open (low)
5. VERTICAL POSITION OF THE TONGUE
The International Phonetic Alphabet defines
five degrees of vowel backness:
• front
• near-front
• central
• near-back vowel
6. SHAPE OF THE LIPS
In phonetics, vowel
roundedness refers to the
amount of rounding in the
lips during the articulation of
a vowel. It is labialization of a
vowel. When pronouncing a
rounded vowel, the lips form
a circular opening, whereas
unrounded vowels (also
called spread vowels) are
pronounced with the lips
relaxed. In most languages,
front vowels tend to be
unrounded, whereas back
vowels tend to be rounded.
7. TENSENESS OF THE MUSCLES
• Lax vowels are also called
short vowels: generally
speaking, they are shorter
than tense (long) vowels.
• Tense vowels are also called
long vowels; this name is
slightly misleading because,
in RP English at least, the
tense vowels have variable
length; they can be much
longer than the lax vowels,
but under certain conditions
they become clipped, or
shortened to roughly lax
vowel length
