Cardinal vowels

Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in

describing the sounds of languages. They are classified depending on
the position of the tongue relative to the roof of the mouth, how far
forward or back is the highest point of the tongue, and the position of
the lips (rounded or unrounded).

A cardinal vowel is a vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an

extreme position, either front or back, high or low. The current system
was systematised by Daniel Jones in the early 20th century,[1] though
the idea goes back to earlier phoneticians, notably Ellis[2] and Bell.[3]

X-rays of Daniel Jones' [i, u, a,

ɑ].
Contents
Table of cardinal vowels
Limits on the accuracy of the system
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

Table of cardinal vowels

Highest tongue positions of

cardinal front and back vowels

Three of the cardinal vowels—[i], [ɑ] and [u]—have articulatory definitions. The vowel [i] is produced
with the tongue as far forward and as high in the mouth as is possible (without producing friction), with
spread lips. The vowel [u] is produced with the tongue as far back and as high in the mouth as is possible,
with protruded lips. This sound can be approximated by adopting the posture to whistle a very low note, or
to blow out a candle. And [ɑ] is produced with the tongue as low and
as far back in the mouth as possible.

The other vowels are 'auditorily equidistant' between these three

'corner vowels', at four degrees of aperture or 'height': close (high
tongue position), close-mid, open-mid, and open (low tongue
position).

These degrees of aperture plus the front-back distinction define 8

reference points on a mixture of articulatory and auditory criteria. Diagram of relative highest points
These eight vowels are known as the eight 'primary cardinal vowels', of tongue for cardinal vowels
and vowels like these are common in the world's languages.

The lip positions can be reversed with the lip position for the
corresponding vowel on the opposite side of the front-back dimension,
so that e.g. Cardinal 1 can be produced with rounding somewhat
similar to that of Cardinal 8; these are known as 'secondary cardinal
vowels'. Sounds such as these are claimed to be less common in the
world's languages.[4] Other vowel sounds are also recognised on the
vowel chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The "cardinal vowel quadrilateral",
Jones argued that to be able to use the cardinal vowel system
a more commonly seen
effectively one must undergo training with an expert phonetician,
schematic diagram of highest
working both on the recognition and the production of the vowels.[5]
tongue positions of cardinal
vowels
Cardinal vowels are not vowels of any particular language, but a
measuring system. However, some languages contain vowel or vowels
that are close to the cardinal vowel(s).[6] An example of such language
is Ngwe, which is spoken in Cameroon. It has been cited as a language with a vowel system that has 8
vowels which are rather similar to the 8 primary cardinal vowels (Ladefoged 1971:67).
 Number IPA Description
1 [i] Close front unrounded vowel
2 [e] Close-mid front unrounded vowel
3 [ɛ] Open-mid front unrounded vowel
4 [a] Open front unrounded vowel
5 [ɑ] Open back unrounded vowel
6 [ɔ] Open-mid back rounded vowel
7 [o] Close-mid back rounded vowel
8 [u] Close back rounded vowel
9 [y] Close front rounded vowel
10 [ø] Close-mid front rounded vowel
11 [œ] Open-mid front rounded vowel
12 [ɶ] Open front rounded vowel
13 [ɒ] Open back rounded vowel
14 [ʌ] Open-mid back unrounded vowel
15 [ɤ] Close-mid back unrounded vowel
16 [ɯ] Close back unrounded vowel
17 [ɨ] Close central unrounded vowel
18 [ʉ] Close central rounded vowel
19 [ɘ] Close-mid central unrounded vowel
20 [ɵ] Close-mid central rounded vowel
21 [ɜ] Open-mid central unrounded vowel
22 [ɞ] Open-mid central rounded vowel

Cardinal vowels 19–22 were added by David Abercrombie.[7] In IPA Numbers, cardinal vowels 1–18
have the same numbers but added to 300.[8]

Limits on the accuracy of the system

The usual explanation of the cardinal vowel system implies that the competent user can reliably distinguish
between sixteen Primary and Secondary vowels plus a small number of central vowels. The provision of
diacritics by the International Phonetic Association further implies that intermediate values may also be
reliably recognized, so that a phonetician might be able to produce and recognize not only a close-mid front
unrounded vowel [e] and an open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ] but also a mid front unrounded vowel
[e̞], a centralized mid front unrounded vowel [ë], and so on. This suggests a range of vowels nearer to forty
or fifty than to twenty in number. Empirical evidence for this ability in trained phoneticians is hard to come
by.

Ladefoged, in a series of pioneering experiments published in the 1950s and 60s, studied how trained
phoneticians coped with the vowels of a dialect of Scottish Gaelic. He asked eighteen phoneticians to listen
to a recording of ten words spoken by a native speaker of Gaelic and to place the vowels on a cardinal
vowel quadrilateral. He then studied the degree of agreement or disagreement among the phoneticians.
Ladefoged himself drew attention to the fact that the phoneticians who were trained in the British tradition
established by Daniel Jones were closer to each other in their judgments than those who had not had this
training. However, the most striking result is the great divergence of judgments among all the listeners
regarding vowels that were distant from Cardinal values.[9]

See also
List of phonetics topics

References
1. Jones, Daniel (1917). An English Pronouncing Dictionary. London: Dent.
2. Ellis, A.J. (1845). The Alphabet of Nature (https://archive.org/details/alphabetnatureo01elligo
og). Bath.
3. Bell, A.M. (1867). Visible Speech (https://archive.org/details/visiblespeechsc02bellgoog).
London.
4. Ladefoged, P.; Maddieson, I. (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell.
p. 292. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
5. Jones, Daniel (1967). An Outline of English Phonetics (9th ed.). Cambridge: Heffer. p. 34.
6. Ashby, Patricia (2011), Understanding Phonetics, Understanding Language series,
Routledge, p. 85, ISBN 978-0340928271
7. Abercrombie, David (1967). Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh University Press.
p. 161. ISBN 0-85224-028-7.
8. Esling, John (1999). "Appendix 2: Computer coding of IPA symbols". In International
Phonetic Association (ed.). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to
the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. pp. 161–185.
ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
9. Ladefoged, P. (1967). Three Areas of Experimental Phonetics. Oxford University Press.
pp. 132–142. See especially Figure 47 on p. 135

Bibliography
Ladefoged, Peter. (1971). Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.

External links
Audio demonstrations of cardinal vowels by Daniel Jones at age 75 (https://routledgetextboo
ks.com/textbooks/9781444183092/audio2.php)

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