Tongue body position in vowels

Vowel parameters

We now begin answering: What makes vowels different from each other?

Position of the tongue body

Try saying the following pairs of sounds repeatedly, paying attention to the change in the position of your tongue body:

[] and []
[] and []
[] and []
[] and []
[] and []

You should be able to feel your tongue body shift forwards and backwards, move up and down, or both, depending on the pair.

Vowels are classified by the highest point reached by the tongue body in the vertical and horizontal dimensions. We typically divide these dimensions into three slices:

height
1. high
2. mid
3. low
frontness/backness
1. front
2. central
3. back

(Be careful: Mid and central are not the same!)

[æ] and [ script-a ] differ on the front to back dimension:

[see Rogers, figure 2.5]

We can place them on an abstract chart like this:

[see Rogers, figure 2.6]

[i] and [

] differ both vertically and horizontally:

[see Rogers, figure 2.1]

On the chart:

[see Rogers, figure 2.2]

Placing all the simple vowels of English on the chart according to the relative position of the highest point of the tongue body, we get:

[see Rogers, figure 2.3]

Schwa, the "neutral" vowel, does not require either a horizontal or a vertical displacement. Although its exact position can vary from utterance to utterance (the main point is English speakers don't care what its position is), it will tend to be pronounced with the tongue body at its neutral position, that is, mid and central:

[see Rogers, figure 2.16]

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