Cardinal vowels

1.

Cardinal vowels
Prepared by: Denisova Daria, Migunova Ekaterina FL-24

2.

What are Cardinal vowels?
• The idea for Cardinal Vowels is found in 1844 in the work of Alexander
John Ellis.
• Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels that have
predetermined phonetic values.
• Other vowels are described with reference to the cardinal vowels.

3.

Cardinal vowel 1, [i]. (CV1)
• Has a close (or high) and front tongue position;
• Made with spread lips.
• Example: the word ‘bee’

4.

Cardinal vowel 8, [u]. (CV8)
• Has a close (or high) and back tongue position;
• Made with rounded lips.
• Example: the word ‘soon’

5.

Cardinal vowel 5, [ɑ]. (CV5)
• A back, open vowel.
• Example: the word ‘father’

6.

The vowel quadrilateral

7.

Cardinal vowels 2–4 and 6–7
• Between [i] and [ɑ], there are CVs 2–4, [e – ε – a]. They are all made
with the tongue front in the mouth, and CV4, [a], is made with the
tongue low in the mouth.
• Between [ɑ] and [u], there are two more cardinal vowels, [ɔ] and [o].
These vowels have accompanying lip rounding.

8.

Cardinal vowels
Prepared by: Denisova Daria, Migunova Ekaterina FL-24
Source: An Introduction to English Phonetics — Richard Ogden