Editing Vowel (section)

==Articulation== <!-- This section is linked from [[Danish language]] -->
[[File:Cardinal vowels-Jones x-ray.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|X-rays of Daniel Jones' {{IPA|[i, u, a, ɑ]|cat=no}}]]
[[File:Vowel quadrilateral (IPA 1949).png|thumb|The original vowel quadrilateral, from Jones' articulation. The vowel trapezoid of the modern IPA, and at the top of this article, is a simplified rendition of this diagram. The bullets are the cardinal vowel points. (A parallel diagram covers the front and central rounded and back unrounded vowels.) The cells indicate the ranges of articulation that could reasonably be transcribed with those cardinal vowel letters, {{IPA|[i, e, ɛ, a, ɑ, ɔ, o, u, ɨ]|cat=no}}, and non-cardinal {{IPA|[ə]}}. If a language distinguishes fewer than these vowel qualities, {{IPA|[e, ɛ]}} could be merged to {{angbr IPA|e}}, {{IPA|[o, ɔ]}} to {{angbr IPA|o}}, {{IPA|[a, ɑ]}} to {{angbr IPA|a}}, etc. If a language distinguishes more, {{angbr IPA|ɪ}} could be added where the ranges of {{IPA|[i, e, ɨ, ə]}} intersect, {{angbr IPA|ʊ}} where {{IPA|[u, o, ɨ, ə]}} intersect, and {{angbr IPA|ɐ}} where {{IPA|[ɛ, ɔ, a, ɑ, ə]}} intersect.]]
The traditional view of vowel production, reflected for example in the terminology and presentation of the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]], is one of [[Articulatory phonetics|articulatory features]] that determine a vowel's ''quality'' as distinguishing it from other vowels. [[Daniel Jones (phonetician)|Daniel Jones]] developed the [[cardinal vowel]] system to describe vowels in terms of the features of tongue ''height'' (vertical dimension), tongue ''backness'' (horizontal dimension) and ''roundedness'' (lip articulation). These three parameters are indicated in the schematic quadrilateral IPA [[vowel diagram]] on the right. There are additional features of vowel quality, such as the [[soft palate|velum]] position (nasality), type of [[vocal fold]] vibration (phonation), and tongue root position.

This conception of vowel articulation has been known to be inaccurate since 1928. Peter Ladefoged has said that "early phoneticians... thought they were describing the highest point of the tongue, but they were not. They were actually describing formant frequencies."<ref>Ladefoged & Disner (2012) ''Vowels and Consonants'', 3rd ed., p. 132.</ref> (See below.) The IPA ''Handbook'' concedes that "the vowel quadrilateral must be regarded as an abstraction and not a direct mapping of tongue position."<ref>IPA (1999) ''Handbook of the IPA'', p. 12.</ref>

Nonetheless, the concept that vowel qualities are determined primarily by tongue position and lip rounding continues to be used in pedagogy, as it provides an intuitive explanation of how vowels are distinguished.

===Height===<!-- This section is linked from [[Latin spelling and pronunciation]] -->
Theoretically, vowel height refers to the vertical position of either the tongue or the jaw (depending on the model) relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the [[jaw]]. In practice, however, it refers to the first [[formant]] (lowest resonance of the voice), abbreviated F1, which is associated with the height of the tongue. There are two terms commonly applied to refer to two degrees of vowel height: in '''close vowels''', also known as '''high vowels''', such as {{IPA|[i]}} and {{IPA|[u]}}, the first formant is consistent with the tongue being positioned close to the palate, high in the mouth, whereas in '''open vowels''', also known as '''low vowels''', such as {{IPA|[a]}}, F1 is consistent with the jaw being open and the tongue being positioned low in the mouth. Height is defined by the inverse of the F1 value: the higher the frequency of the first formant, the lower (more open) the vowel.{{efn|According to [[Peter Ladefoged]], traditional articulatory descriptions such as height and backness "are not entirely satisfactory", and when phoneticians describe a vowel as high or low, they are in fact describing an acoustic quality rather than the actual position of the tongue.<ref>Ladefoged, Peter (2006) ''A Course in Phonetics (Fifth Edition)'', Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, p. 189.</ref>}} In [[John Esling]]'s usage, where [[front vowel|fronted vowels]] are distinguished in height by the position of the jaw rather than the tongue, only the terms 'open' and 'close' are used, as 'high' and 'low' refer to the position of the tongue.

The [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] has letters for six degrees of vowel height for full vowels (plus the reduced mid vowel {{IPA|[ə]}}), but it is extremely unusual for a language to distinguish this many degrees without other attributes. The IPA letters distinguish (sorted according to height, with the top-most one being the highest and the bottom-most being the lowest):

* [[close vowel|close]] ({{aka}} high): i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u
* [[near-close vowel|near-close]] ({{aka}} near-high): ɪ ʏ ʊ
* [[close-mid vowel|close-mid]] ({{aka}} high-mid): e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o
* [[mid vowel|mid]]: (the reduced vowel {{IPA|[ə]}})
* [[open-mid vowel|open-mid]] ({{aka}} low-mid): ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ
* [[near-open vowel|near-open]] ({{aka}} near-low): æ (plus the reduced vowel {{IPA|[ɐ]}})
* [[open vowel|open]] ({{aka}} low): a ɶ ɑ ɒ

The letters {{angbr IPA|e, ø, ɘ, ɵ, ɤ, o}} are defined as close-mid but are commonly used for true [[mid vowel]]s. If more precision is required, true mid vowels may be written with a lowering or raising diacritic: {{angbr IPA|e̞, ɘ̞, ø̞, ɵ̞, ɤ̞, o̞}} or {{angbr IPA|ɛ̝ œ̝ ɜ̝ ɞ̝ ʌ̝ ɔ̝}}.

The [[Kensiu language]], spoken in Malaysia and Thailand, is highly unusual in contrasting true mid vowels with both close-mid and open-mid vowels, without any additional parameters such as length, roundness or ATR. The front vowels, {{IPA|/i ɪ e e̞ ɛ/}}, along with open {{IPA|/a/}}, make a six-way height distinction; this holds even for the nasal vowels. A few varieties of [[German language|German]] have been reported to have five contrastive vowel heights that are independent of length or other parameters. For example, the [[Austro-Bavarian|Bavarian]] dialect of [[Amstetten, Lower Austria|Amstetten]] has thirteen long vowels, which have been analyzed as four vowel heights (close, close-mid, mid, open-mid) each among the front unrounded, front rounded, and back rounded vowels, along with an open vowel for a fifth height: {{IPA|/i e ɛ̝ ɛ/, /y ø œ̝ œ/, /u o ɔ̝ ɔ/, /a/}}. Apart from the aforementioned [[Kensiu language]], no other language is known to contrast more than four degrees of vowel height.

The parameter of vowel height appears to be the primary cross-linguistic feature of vowels in that all [[spoken language]]s that have been researched till now use height as a contrastive feature. No other parameter, even backness or rounding (see below), is used in all languages. Some languages have [[vertical vowel system]]s in which at least at a phonemic level, only height is used to distinguish vowels.

=== Backness ===
[[File:Cardinal vowel tongue position-front.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|Idealistic tongue positions of [[Cardinal vowel|cardinal]] front vowels with highest point indicated]]
Vowel backness is named for the position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth. As with vowel height, however, it is ''defined'' by a formant of the voice, in this case the second, F2, not by the position of the tongue. In front vowels, such as {{IPA|[i]}}, the frequency of F2 is relatively high, which generally corresponds to a position of the tongue forward in the mouth, whereas in back vowels, such as {{IPA|[u]}}, F2 is low, consistent with the tongue being positioned towards the back of the mouth.

The [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] defines five degrees of vowel backness (sorted according to backness, with the top-most one being the front-most back and the bottom-most being the back-most):
* [[front vowel|front]]
* [[near-front vowel|near-front]]
* [[central vowel|central]]
* [[near-back vowel|near-back]]
* [[back vowel|back]]

To them may be added front-central and back-central, corresponding to the vertical lines separating central from front and back vowel spaces in several IPA diagrams. However, ''front-central'' and ''back-central'' may also be used as terms synonymous with ''near-front'' and ''near-back''. No language is known to contrast more than three degrees of backness nor is there a language that contrasts front with near-front vowels nor back with near-back ones.

Although some English dialects have vowels at five degrees of backness, there is no known language that distinguishes five degrees of backness without additional differences in height or rounding.

=== Roundedness ===
{{Main|Roundedness}}
[[Roundedness]] is named after the rounding of the lips in some vowels. Because lip rounding is easily visible, vowels may be commonly identified as rounded based on the articulation of the lips. Acoustically, rounded vowels are identified chiefly by a decrease in F2, although F1 is also slightly decreased.

In most languages, roundedness is a reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels rather than a distinctive feature. Usually, the higher a back vowel, the more intense is the rounding. However, in some languages, roundedness is independent from backness, such as French and German (with front rounded vowels), most [[Uralic languages]] ([[Estonian language|Estonian]] has a rounding contrast for {{IPA|/o/}} and front vowels), [[Turkic languages]] (with a rounding distinction for front vowels and {{IPA|/u/}}), and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] with back unrounded vowels.

Nonetheless, even in those languages there is usually some phonetic correlation between rounding and backness: front rounded vowels tend to be more front-central than front, and back unrounded vowels tend to be more back-central than back. Thus, the placement of unrounded vowels to the left of rounded vowels on the IPA vowel chart is reflective of their position in formant space.

Different kinds of [[labialization]] are possible. In mid to high rounded back vowels the lips are generally protruded ("pursed") outward, a phenomenon known as ''endolabial rounding'' because the insides of the lips are visible, whereas in mid to high rounded front vowels the lips are generally "compressed" with the margins of the lips pulled in and drawn towards each other, a phenomenon known as ''exolabial rounding.'' However, not all languages follow that pattern. [[Japanese language|Japanese]] {{IPA|/u/}}, for example, is an exolabial (compressed) back vowel, and sounds quite different from an English endolabial {{IPA|/u/}}. [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] are the only two known languages in which the feature is contrastive; they have both exo- and endo-labial [[close front rounded vowel|close front vowels]] and [[close central rounded vowel|close central vowels]], respectively. In many phonetic treatments, both are considered types of rounding, but some phoneticians do not believe that these are subsets of a single phenomenon and posit instead three independent features of ''rounded'' (endolabial), ''compressed'' (exolabial), and unrounded. The lip position of unrounded vowels may also be classified separately as ''spread'' and ''neutral'' (neither rounded nor spread).<ref>IPA (1999), p. 13.</ref> Others distinguish compressed rounded vowels, in which the corners of the mouth are drawn together, from compressed unrounded vowels, in which the lips are compressed but the corners remain apart as in spread vowels.

===Front, raised and retracted===
[[File:Esling vowel chart.png|thumb|Front, raised and retracted are the three articulatory dimensions of vowel space. Open and close refer to the jaw, not the tongue.]]
The conception of the tongue moving in two directions, high&ndash;low and front&ndash;back, is not supported by articulatory evidence and does not clarify how articulation affects vowel quality. Vowels may instead be characterized by the three directions of movement of the tongue from its neutral position: front (forward), raised (upward and back), and retracted (downward and back). Front vowels ({{IPA|[i, e, ɛ]}} and, to a lesser extent {{IPA|[ɨ, ɘ, ɜ, æ]}}, etc.), can be secondarily qualified as close or open, as in the traditional conception, but this refers to jaw rather than tongue position. In addition, rather than there being a unitary category of back vowels, the regrouping posits [[raised vowel]]s, where the body of the tongue approaches the velum ({{IPA|[u, o, ɨ}}], etc.), and [[retracted vowel]]s, where the root of the tongue approaches the pharynx ({{IPA|[ɑ, ɔ]}}, etc.):
* [[Front vowel#Articulatorily fronted vowels|front]]
* [[Raised vowel|raised]]
* [[Retracted vowel|retracted]]

Membership in these categories is scalar, with the mid-central vowels being marginal to any category.<ref>John Esling (2005) "There Are No Back Vowels: The Laryngeal Articulator Model", ''The Canadian Journal of Linguistics'' 50:&nbsp;13–44</ref>

=== Nasalization ===
{{Main|Nasal vowel|Nasalization}}
[[Nasalization]] occurs when air escapes through the nose. Vowels are often nasalised under the influence of neighbouring nasal consonants, as in [[English language|English]] ''hand'' {{IPA|[hæ̃nd]}}. ''Nasalised vowels'', however, should not be confused with ''nasal vowels''. The latter refers to vowels that are distinct from their oral counterparts, as in [[French language|French]] {{IPA|/ɑ/}} vs. {{IPA|/ɑ̃/}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nasals and Nasalization |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199772810/obo-9780199772810-0205.xml |website=Oxford Bibliographies |publisher=Oxford |access-date=27 June 2017 |ref=10.1093/OBO/9780199772810-0205 |first1=Bert |last1=Botma |date=8 December 2020 }}</ref>

In [[nasal vowel]]s, the [[soft palate|velum]] is lowered, and some air travels through the nasal cavity as well as the mouth. An oral vowel is a vowel in which all air escapes through the mouth. [[Polish language|Polish]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] also contrast nasal and oral vowels.

=== Phonation ===
{{Main|Phonation}}
[[Phonation|Voicing]] describes whether the [[vocal cords]] are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. Most languages have only voiced vowels, but several [[Native American languages]], such as [[Cheyenne language|Cheyenne]] and [[Totonac language|Totonac]], have both voiced and devoiced vowels in complementary distribution. Vowels are devoiced in whispered speech. In Japanese and in [[Quebec French]], vowels that are between voiceless consonants are often devoiced. [[Keres language|Keres]] is disputed to have phonemic voiceless vowels but no language is confirmed to have them phonemically.

[[Modal voice]], [[creaky voice]], and [[breathy voice]] (murmured vowels) are [[phonation]] types that are used contrastively in some languages. Often, they co-occur with [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] or stress distinctions; in the [[Mon language]], vowels pronounced in the high tone are also produced with creaky voice. In such cases, it can be unclear whether it is the tone, the voicing type, or the pairing of the two that is being used for [[phonemic contrast]]. The combination of phonetic cues (phonation, tone, stress) is known as ''register'' or ''register complex''.

=== Tenseness ===
{{Main|Tenseness|Checked and free vowels}}
[[Tenseness]] is used to describe the opposition of ''tense vowels'' vs. ''lax vowels''. This opposition has traditionally been thought to be a result of greater muscular tension, though phonetic experiments have repeatedly failed to show this.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Unlike the other features of vowel quality, tenseness is only applicable to the few languages that have this opposition (mainly [[Germanic language]]s, e.g. [[German language|German]]), whereas the vowels of the other languages (e.g. [[Spanish language|Spanish]]) cannot be described with respect to tenseness in any meaningful way.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

One may distinguish the English tense vs. lax vowels roughly, with its spelling. Tense vowels usually occur in words with the final [[silent e|silent {{vr|e}}]], as in ''mate''. Lax vowels occur in words without the silent {{vr|e}}, such as ''mat''. In [[American English]], lax vowels {{IPA|[ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ʌ, æ]}} do not appear in stressed open syllables.<ref>[[Peter Ladefoged|Ladefoged, Peter]] & Johnson, Keith. (2011). Tense and Lax Vowels. In ''A Course in Phonetics'' (6th ed., pp. 98–100). Boston, MA: Cengage.</ref>

In traditional grammar, ''long vowels'' vs. ''short vowels'' are more commonly used, compared to ''tense'' and ''lax''. The two sets of terms are used interchangeably by some because the features are concomitant in some varieties of English.{{clarify|date=April 2019}} In most [[Germanic languages]], lax vowels can only occur in [[Syllable#Open and closed|closed syllables]]. Therefore, they are also known as ''checked vowels'', whereas the tense vowels are called ''free vowels'' since they can occur in any kind of syllable.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

=== Tongue root position ===
{{Main|Advanced and retracted tongue root|Vowel harmony}}
Advanced tongue root (ATR) is a feature common across much of Africa, the [[Pacific Northwest]], and scattered other languages such as Modern [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Towards a phonetic and phonological typology of post-velar articulation |url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0086353 |publisher=University of British Columbia |date=1993 |first=Nicola J. |last=Bessell}}</ref> The contrast between advanced and retracted tongue root resembles the tense-lax contrast acoustically, but they are articulated differently. Those vowels involve noticeable tension in the vocal tract.

=== Secondary narrowings in the vocal tract ===
{{Main|Pharyngealization}}
[[Pharyngealisation|Pharyngealized vowels]] occur in some languages like [[Sedang language|Sedang]] and the [[Tungusic languages]]. Pharyngealisation is similar in articulation to retracted tongue root but is [[acoustics|acoustically]] distinct.

A stronger degree of pharyngealisation occurs in the [[Northeast Caucasian languages]] and the [[Khoisan languages]]. They might be called '''epiglottalized''' since the primary constriction is at the tip of the epiglottis.

The greatest degree of pharyngealisation is found in the '''[[strident vowel]]s''' of the Khoisan languages, where the [[larynx]] is raised, and the pharynx constricted, so that either the epiglottis or the [[arytenoid cartilage]]s vibrate instead of the vocal cords.

The terms ''pharyngealized'', ''epiglottalized'', ''strident'', and ''sphincteric'' are sometimes used interchangeably.

==== Rhotic vowels ====
{{Main|R-colored vowel}}
[[R-colored vowel|Rhotic vowels]] are the "R-colored vowels" of American English and a few other languages.

=== Reduced vowels ===
{{main|Vowel reduction}}
{| class="wikitable floatright" style="text-align:center"
|+Common reduced vowels<br><small>(IPA provides only {{angbr IPA|ə}} and {{angbr IPA|ɐ}})</small>
|- class="small"
! 
! <small>[[Near-front vowel|Near-<br>front]]</small>
! colspan=2| <small>[[Central vowel|Central]]</small>
! <small>[[Near-back vowel|Near-<br>back]]</small>
|-
! <small>[[Near-close vowel|Near-close]]</small>
|colspan=2| {{IPA|ᵻ}}
|colspan=2| {{IPA|ᵿ}}
|-
! <small>[[Mid vowel|Mid]]</small>
|
|colspan=2| {{IPA|ə}}
|
|-
! <small>[[Near-open vowel|Near-open]]</small>
| 
|colspan=2| {{IPA|ɐ}}
|
|}

Some languages, such as English and Russian, have what are called 'reduced', 'weak' or 'obscure' vowels in some unstressed positions. These do not correspond one-to-one with the vowel sounds that occur in stressed position (so-called 'full' vowels), and they tend to be mid-centralized in comparison, as well as having reduced rounding or spreading. The IPA has long provided two letters for obscure vowels, mid {{angbr IPA|ə}} and lower {{angbr IPA|ɐ}}, neither of which are defined for rounding. Dialects of English may have up to four phonemic reduced vowels: {{IPA|/ɐ/}}, {{IPA|/ə/}}, and higher unrounded {{IPA|/ᵻ/}} and rounded {{IPA|/ᵿ/}}. (The non-IPA letters {{angbr IPA|ᵻ}} and {{angbr IPA|ᵿ}} may be used for the latter to avoid confusion with the clearly defined values of IPA letters like {{angbr IPA|ɨ}} and {{angbr IPA|ɵ}}, which are also seen, since the IPA only provides for two reduced vowels.)