Vowel (definition)

Phonetically, a vowel is a sound that can be produced without a complete closure of the mouth (or cause friction). There are six different ways you can classify vowels phonetically:

1. The rounding of the lips,
2. The frontness or backness of the tongue body
3. The height of the tongue body.
4. The tenseness (see also Advanced Tongue Root (definition)) of the gesture.
5. Vowels can be nasal
6. Vowels can also be long or short

See Also

Consonant (definition)

External Links

• Interactive IPA Charts
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel

References

• Crystal, David. (1997) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
• Ladefoged, Peter (1993) A Course in Phonetics Third Edition. London: Harcourt Press.
• Matthews, P. H. (1997) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.