|
Part 2
|
|
Part 2
|
The first aspect of vowel classification that you will be introduced to is that of tongue height. Vowels are classified in terms of how much space there is between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, which is determined by the height of the tongue.
There are three primary height distinctions among vowels: high, low, and mid.
In English, examples of high vowels are 
, 
, 
, 
. These are vowels with a relatively narrow space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. Examples of low vowels are 
, 
. These are vowels with a relatively wide space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. Examples of mid vowels are [e], 
, 
, 
. These are vowels whose tongue positions are roughly between the high and low vowels.
These classifications are quite relative, as different languages have different canonical tongue heights for different classifications.
As illustration of tongue height, observe the following diagrams for the vowels , , .
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
As you can see from the diagrams, the tongue height of the high vowel is much higher than that for the low vowel , while the tongue height for the mid vowel lies somewhere in between the two.
© 2001 The Language Samples Project