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.