Vowels in the Languages of the World - Linguistics

Vowels in the Languages of the World
• We earlier looked at a classification of vowels using
parameters based on labels referring to articulation -
height & backness of tongue body and lip position.
• In practice, most vowel description is based on auditory
evaluation or on acoustic measurement.
• The standard IPA vowel chart provides reference points
for a primarily auditory comparison of vowel qualities.
* Many thanks to Ian Maddieson who shared his teaching materials
with me. These slides are adapted from his with minor changes.

The reference system for vowels is based on the concept of
Cardinal Vowels
(CV’s), devised by Daniel Jones (1881-1967)
• Jones proposed a set of 8 reference vowels.
• Two “anchor points” - the highest, frontest possible vowel (Cardinal Vowel
1) and the lowest, backest possible vowel Cardinal Vowel 5). The 6
remaining Cardinal Vowels are distributed at equal auditory intervals - 3
along the front limit of the notional vowel space (CV's 2-4) and 3 along the
back (CV's 6-8)
• In practice there is an implicit third anchor vowel - the highest, backest,
most rounded vowel possible; also the three back CV's above CV 5 have
increasing degrees of rounding
• A set of Secondary Cardinal Vowels with the same tongue positions but
opposite values of lip rounding are also proposed, so that front rounded and
back unrounded vowels can be referenced. Note that there are no Central
CV's.

Cardinal Vowels recorded by Jones in 1965 when he was 75.
(Audio clips from: http://www.let.uu.nl/~audiufon/)
Frontness/Backness
Front Central Back
1 i
u
2
3
e
E
8 High
7 Higher Mid
6 Lower Mid
4 a A 5 Low
Primary cardinal vowels with rising intonation
o
O
Height

The Secondary Cardinal Vowels are reference vowels with
opposite lip position.
Front Central Back
9 y
¨
10
P
11
{
16 High
15 Higher Mid
14 Lower Mid
12 ” Å 13 Low
The secondary cardinal vowels
Ø
ø

The choice of 8 vowels in the Primary Cardinal Vowel system was
probably strongly influenced by the vowel system of late 19th/early 20th
century French which included 8 vowels somewhat similar to the them
(plus three front rounded vowels, and four nasalized vowels).
Jones was a teacher of the phonetics of French, and the French
phonetician Paul Passy was the President of the International Phonetic
Association when the system was adopted by the IPA as its framework
for vowel classification).
1 [i] lit [li] “bed”
2 [e] les [le] “the (pl.)”
3 [E] lait [lE] “milk”
4 [a] la [la] “the (f. sg)”
5 [A] lache [lAS] “loose”
6 [O] loque [lOk] “rag”
7 [o] lot [lo] “lot, share”
8 [u] loup [lu] “wolf”

Using the Cardinal Vowel system
• The primary and secondary cardinal vowel categories
provide a suitable framework for comparison for many
languages (e.g. a vowel close to CV 1; a vowel a little
lower and more retracted than CV 2, a vowel halfway
between CV 8 and CV 9, etc.).
• Note that the Cardinal Vowels are not the vowels of any
language but reference points for the comparison of the
vowel qualities of particular languages
• But vowels belonging to the broad categories of which
the CV’s are prototypes are found in many languages.

Additional vowel symbols?
• The cardinal vowel system does not include any central
vowel prototypes - additional symbols (and auditory
types) are required for these.
• Separate phonetic symbols are also useful for some
frequently encountered or ‘politically important’ vowel
sounds that are different from cardinal qualities.
• Each symbol represents vowels produced in a particular
area of the ‘vowel space’.

Vowel symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet
The canonical height/backness value for each symbol is shown by the
position of a dot on the chart; the symbol to the left of the dot represents an
unrounded vowel at
that position, the
symbol on the right a
rounded vowel of the
same height and
backness. Note the
omission a symbol for
a low central vowel.
The 8 dots on the front
and back lines of the
chart are the CV
positions.

Low central vowels are the most common in the world’s languages.
Because no specific IPA symbol is provided for their transcription, one of
those with ‘nearby’
values must be used to
represent them - any of
[a], [A] or [å] may be
used.
The usual practice is to
use [a] for the low
central vowel and
symbolize a low front
unrounded vowel as
[a] using the ‘fronting’
diacritic if the
distinction is needed.
[œ] can also be used
for the low front vowel
where necessary.
a
a

Front vowels
i High front unrounded
y High front rounded
I Lowered high front unrounded
Y Lowered high front rounded
e Higher mid front unrounded
P Higher mid front rounded
E Lower mid front unrounded
{ Lower mid front rounded
œ Raised low front unrounded
a Low front unrounded
(IPA value of symbol)
” Low front rounded
a
a
Recommended usage
a Low front unrounded
a Low central unrounded

Front vowels
i High front unrounded - English beat [bit]
y High front rounded - French su [sy] "knew"
I Lowered high front unrounded - English bit [bIt]
Y Lowered high front rounded - German Hütten ["hYtn`] "huts"
e Higher mid front unrounded - French ses [se] "his/her/its, pl"
P Higher mid front rounded - French peu [pP] "(a) little"
E Lower mid front unrounded - German Bett [bEt] "bed"
{ Lower mid front rounded - German Goethe ["g{t´]
œ Raised low front unrounded - English flash [flœS]
a Low front unrounded - Southern US English light [lat]
” Low front rounded - not reported in any natural language.

Central vowels
È High central unrounded
Ë High central rounded
Higher mid central unrounded
∏ Higher mid central rounded
´ Mid central unrounded
‰ Lower mid central unrounded
Lower mid central rounded
å Raised low central unrounded
Recommended usage
a Low central unrounded
a
a

Central vowels
Central vowels
È High central unrounded - Amharic [mÈn] "what"
Ë High central rounded -Norwegian butt [bËt] "blunt"
Higher mid central unrounded - (can be used for 'high schwas')
∏ Higher mid central rounded - not known
´ Mid central unrounded - unstressed vowel of English sofa
‰ Lower mid central unrounded - British English heard
Lower mid central rounded - no known example
å Raised low central unrounded - English hut
Recommended usage
a Low central unrounded - much American English hot

Back vowels
u High back rounded
¨ High back unrounded
U Lowered high back rounded
o Higher high back rounded
Ø Higher mid back unrounded
O Lower mid back rounded
ø Lower mid back unrounded
A Low back unrounded
Å Low back rounded
a
a

Back vowels
u High back rounded - French sou [su] "penny"
¨ High back unrounded - Vietnamese [t¨] "fourth"
U Lowered high back rounded - English push
o Higher high back rounded - French eau [o] "water"
Ø Higher mid back unrounded - Vietnamese [tØ] "fourth"
O Lower mid back rounded - Vietnamese [tO] "large"
ø Lower mid back unrounded - Vietnamese [tø] "fourth"
A Low back unrounded - British English barred [bAd]
Å Low back rounded - British English cot [cÅt]

Although the labels for vowel characteristics seem to refer
to articulatory positions, it is mostly auditory impression
which underlies the description.
Since auditory impressions are based on acoustic
characteristics, a description of the acoustic properties of
vowels is not only interesting in itself but also explains
much in the judgments of degrees of similarity or
difference between one vowel and another.
Practice producing slowly changing articulatory position
from one ‘known’ vowel to another, noting the quality of
the intermediate sounds produced.

Vowel Nasalization
• Vowels are most often oral but may be nasalized
• Nasalization commonly occurs in vowels next to nasal
consonants, but can be a contrastive property in vowel
systems, e.g.. in French, Hindi, Navajo (transcription is a
tilde over the vowel symbol a), o), E), etc.)
French nasalized vowels
A) sA) sans ‘without’
O) sO) son ‘his, hers’ (m sg.)
E) sE) saint ‘saint’
bÂE) brun ‘brown’

Voiceless vowels
• Vowels are most often modally voiced, but also occur
with other laryngeal settings (voiceless, breathy voiced,
glottalized or creaky voice).
• Voiceless vowels are often variants of voiced vowels in
particular positions, e.g. Japanese high vowels /i, ¨/ are
usually voiceless [i9 ¨9] when between two voiceless
consonants (especially sibilants)
• /h/ in English can be transcribed as a voiceless vowel.
i9 [i9it] heat
u9 [u9ut] hoot
A9 [A9At] hot