Cardinal Vowels

Cardinal Vowels

The cardinal vowel system was devised by Daniel Jones, the great linguist.

The word ‘cardinal’ means ‘most important’ or basic. In phonetics, cardinal vowel sounds are 8 basic vowel sounds – 4 front vowels and 4 back vowels. Vowels are differentiated by variations in tongue positions. Phoneticians have observed the positions of the tongue at its extremes:

A)    Front of the tongue very high.

B)    Front of the tongue very low.

C)    Back of the tongue very low.

D)    Back of the tongue very high.