SOUND CLASSES. THE SYSTEM OF ENGLISH VOWELS. THE CARDINAL VOWEL SYSTEM
THE CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH VOWEL PHONEMES: • I. According to the position of the bulk of the tongue. • II. According to the height of the raised part of the tongue. • III. According to the lip position. • IV. According to the length of the vowel. • V. According to the stability of articulation.
I. ACCORDING TO THE POSITION OF THE BULK OF THE TONGUE: • 1) Front vowels [i: , e, æ ] see, spell, man; • 2) Front-retracted vowels [I] fish; • 3) Central vowels [ʌ, з: , ə] muscles, work, about; • 4) Back vowels [ɔ, ɔ: , u: , ] got, saw, too; • 5) Back-advanced [a: , u] arm, pull.
II. ACCORDING TO THE HEIGHT OF THE RAISED PART OF THE TONGUE: • 1) Close (high) vowels [i: , I, u: , u] see, sit, too, put ; • 2) Open (low) vowels [æ, a: , ɔ, ʌ] man, arm, got, cup; • 3) Mid-open (mid) vowels [e, з: , ə , ɔ: ] ten, fur, ago, saw.
III. ACCORDING TO THE LIP POSITION VOWELS : • 1) Unrounded vowels [i: , I, e, æ, ʌ, a: , з: , ə ] see, sit, ten, man, cup, arm, fur, ago; • 2) Rounded vowels [ɔ, ɔ: , u, u: ] hot, saw, put, too.
IV. ACCORDING TO THE LENGTH OF THE VOWEL: • Short[ I, u, e, ɔ, ʌ] bullet, cook, ten, pot, funny; • Long[a: , i: , u: , з: , ɔ: ] last, key, school, girl, torment.
V. ACCORDING TO THE STABILITY OF ARTICULATION: • 1) monophthongs - sit, ten, hat, got, put, cup, ago, arm, saw, fur; • 2) diphthongs - [ei, ai, ɔi, au, əu, iə , eə , uə ] - page, five, join, now, go, near, poor; • 3) diphthongoids - [i: , u: ] key , too.