Describe cardinal vowels and show their position through a diagram.
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Answer
Describe cardinal vowels and show their position through a diagram.
Vowels are important sounds in every language. They help form words and carry meaning. Linguists study and compare vowel sounds across languages. To do this, they use cardinal vowels as reference points. Cardinal vowels give a standard way to describe and compare all vowel sounds. Daniel Jones (1881-1967) created them in the early 20th century. This helps linguists explain vowels clearly and accurately.
Basic Concept: Cardinal vowels are a set of standard vowel sounds. They do not belong to any one language. Instead, they serve as reference sounds for all languages. Linguists use them to describe how other vowels sound. The system has eight main cardinal vowels. These vowels mark the extreme points of vowel sounds. It also includes some secondary vowels for more detail. Cardinal vowels create a “map” for vowels.
How Cardinal Vowels Are Formed: Cardinal vowels are based on tongue position and lip shape. The main things to look at are the height and the part of the tongue. The height can be high, mid, or low. The tongue can be towards the front or the back of the mouth. Lips can be rounded or unrounded. These features combine to create different vowel sounds.
Description of the Main Cardinal Vowels: There are eight main cardinal vowels. Each one has a special place in the mouth:
| Cardinal Vowel | IPA Symbol | Phonetic Description | Approximate English Example | Note |
| 1 | [i] | High, front, unrounded | see /siː/ | Very close |
| 2 | [e] | Mid-high, front, unrounded | First part of say /seɪ/ | Approximate |
| 3 | [ɛ] | Mid-low, front, unrounded | bed /bɛd/ | Close match |
| 4 | [a] | Low, front, unrounded | pasta (Britsh English), exclamation ah! | Approximate |
| 5 | [ɑ] | Unlock this study guide now |