Classification of the vowels according to the position of the tongue.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 738.

1. According to the position of the bulk of the tongue (or the horizontalmovement of the tongue) vowels are divided into five groups: (A) front, (B) front-retracted, (C) mixed, (D) back and (E) back-advanced.

(A) Frontvowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth while the middle part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate.

(B) Front-retractedvowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth, but somewhat retracted, while the middle part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate.

(C) Mixedvowels are those in the production of which the tongue is neither advanced nor retracted, and both the middle and the back of the tongue are raised in such a way that the surface of the tongue is more or less flat.

(D) Backvowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the back part of the mouth while the back part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate.

(E) Back-advancedvowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the back of the mouth, but somewhat advanced , while the back part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the front part of the soft palate, forming an empty space in the front part of the mouth.

2. According to the height of the raised part of the tongue (or the verticalmovement of the tongue) vowels are divided into three groups: (A) close, or high vowels, (B) open, or low vowels and (C) mid-open, or mid, vowels.

(A) Close (high)vowels, or vowels of a high position of the tongue, are those in the production of which one of the parts of the tongue comes close to the roof of the mouth and the air-passage is narrowed, but not so much as to form a consonant.

(B) Open (low)vowels, or vowels of a low position of the tongue, are those in the production of which the tongue is very low in the mouth, and the air-passage is very wide.

(C) Mid-open (mid)vowels, or vowels of a medium position of the tongue are those in the production of which the highest part of the tongue

is half-way between its high and low positions, described above.

Each of these three main tongue-positions (high, mid and low) has two variations: narrowandbroad. This means that in pronunciation a vowel of a narrow variation of each of the three main tongue-positions the part of the tongue involved is raised a little higher than the same part in pronouncing a vowel of a broad variation of the same general tongue-position. This makes it convenient to subdivide each of the three above-mentioned large groups of English vowels into the following smaller groups:

Close vowelsinto:

(a) vowels pronounced with a narrowvariation of a high position of the tongue;

(b) vowels pronounced with a broadvariation of a high position of the tongue.

Open vowelsinto:

(a) vowels pronounced with a narrowvariation of a low position of the tongue,

(b) vowels pronounced with a broadvariation of a low position of the tongue.

Mid-open vowelsinto;

(a) vowels pronounced with anarrowvariation of a medium position of the tongue,

(b) vowels pronounced with a broadvariation of a medium position of the tongue.

Thus altogether there are six groups of English vowel phonemes, which are differentiated according to the vertical movement of the tongue.