Editing Klingon language (section)

===Vowels===
In contrast to its consonants, Klingon's inventory of vowels is simple, and similar to those of many human languages, such as [[Spanish language|Spanish]] or [[Japanese language|Japanese]]. There are five vowels spaced more or less evenly around the vowel space, with two back rounded vowels, one back unrounded vowel, and two front or near-front unrounded vowels. The vowel inventory is asymmetrical in that the back rounded vowels are tense and the front vowels are lax.

The two front vowels, {{angle bracket|{{mono |e}}}} and {{angle bracket|{{mono |I}}}}, represent sounds that are found in [[English language|English]], but are more open and lax than a typical English speaker might assume when reading Klingon text written in the Latin alphabet, thus causing the consonants of a word to be more prominent. This enhances the sense that Klingon is a clipped and harsh-sounding language.

; [[Vowel]]s
:{{angle bracket|{{mono |a}}}}{{spaced ndash}}{{IPAslink|ɑ}}{{spaced ndash}}[[open back unrounded vowel]] (in English ''sp'''a''''')
:{{angle bracket|{{mono |e}}}}{{spaced ndash}}{{IPAslink|ɛ}}{{spaced ndash}}[[open-mid front unrounded vowel]] (in English ''b'''e'''d'')
:{{angle bracket|{{mono |I}}}}{{spaced ndash}}{{IPAslink|ɪ}}{{spaced ndash}}[[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]] (in English ''b'''i'''t'')
:{{angle bracket|{{mono |o}}}}{{spaced ndash}}{{IPAslink|o}}{{spaced ndash}}[[close-mid back rounded vowel]] (in [[French language|French]] ''eau'' and English ''c'''o'''ld'')
:{{angle bracket|{{mono |u}}}}{{spaced ndash}}{{IPAslink|u}}{{spaced ndash}}[[close back rounded vowel]] (in Spanish ''tu'' and English ''y'''ou''''')

[[Diphthong]]s can be analyzed phonetically as the combination of the five vowels plus one of the two [[semivowel]]s {{IPA|/w/}} and {{IPA|/j/}} (represented by {{angle bracket|{{mono |w}}}} and {{angle bracket|{{mono |y}}}}, respectively). Thus, the combinations {{angle bracket|{{mono |ay}}}}, {{angle bracket|{{mono |ey}}}}, {{angle bracket|{{mono |Iy}}}}, {{angle bracket|{{mono |oy}}}}, {{angle bracket|{{mono |uy}}}}, {{angle bracket|{{mono |aw}}}}, {{angle bracket|{{mono |ew}}}} and {{angle bracket|{{mono |Iw}}}} are possible. There are no words in the Klingon language that contain *{{angle bracket|{{mono |ow}}}} or *{{angle bracket|{{mono |uw}}}}.