单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,Classification of Vowels,Definition of vowels,Cardinal vowels,Classification of vowels,What is a vowel?,In the production of a sound,if the air,once out of the glottis,is allowed to pass freely through the resonators,the sound is a,vowel,.,In the production of vowels,the vocal organs do not come very close together to form obstructions to the air stream,so it is difficult to have a clear sensation of the whereabouts of the vocal organs.Therefore methods for describing vowels on some basis other than articulatory were thought in 19,th,century.Eventually,it occurred to phoneticians that it would be a way out to establish,on an auditory basis,a set of arbitrary reference points cardinal vowels,so that a given vowel could be described in terms of its relation to them.,Cardinal Vowels,Of the various cardinal vowel systems,the most satisfactory is the one devised by Daniel Jones.Jones first fixed the qualities of the two vowels which were produced with the tongue in most easily felt positions.When the soft palate is raised and the lips are unrounded,the vowel produced with the tongue raised as high and as forward as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as i;and the vowel produced with the tongue held as low and as far back as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as,B,.Then between the two positions he selected three points where the vowel qualities seemed to be equal distant and symbolized them as e,Z,a.,The same procedure was applied when the back of the tongue was raised from the,B,position while the lips changed progressively from a wide open shape to a closely rounded one.Another three auditory equi-distant points were thus established from the lowest to the highest position and they were given the symbols,C,o,u.,The first five of these vowels are pronounced with the lips unrounded,and the remaining three are pronounced with the lips rounded.These eight vowels are called primary cardinal vowels.,Diagram of the Tongue Positions of the Primary Cardinal Vowels,Secondary Cardinal Vowels,If we reverse the lip position,i.e.,pronounce the first five with the lips rounded and the rest with the lips unrounded,we get another eight cardinal vowels.They are secondary cardinal vowels.,Diagram of Secondary Cardinal Vowels,With the cardinal vowels as the standard,the vowels in a particular language can be described with relative accuracy and ease.The English i:,for example,may be described as pronounced with the front of the tongue in a bit lower and more centralized position than the cardinal i.The English e is pronounced with the front of the tongue in a position between cardinal e and,Z,.,Secondary Cardinal Vowels,Primary Cardinal Vowels,The Classification of Vowel,The height of the tongue raised(high,mid,low),The position of the highest part of the tongue(front,central,back),The degree of lip-rounding(rounded,unrounded),Oral or nasal,Long or short,Pure or glidding,