 How many vowels do we find in English? Many students with no prior knowledge in phonetics would say 5. I, E, A, O and U. However, this answer is based on orthography, with little or no relationship to speech. If we apply articulatory phonetic terms, we are confronted with a completely different definition. Vowels are speech sounds that involve pulmonic air and a free air passage to the vocal tract. They cannot be produced with glottalic or v-laric air, so these two types of air stream are clearly out in the production of vowels. Unlike consonants, which can be described among others of different places of articulation, vowels cannot easily be described by means of articulatory criteria. Instead, they are defined in terms of an abstract vowel space that serves as a coordinate system known as the cardinal vowel chart. The development of this cardinal vowel chart constitutes the first focus of this e-lecture. Further topics that we will deal with are the difference between the so-called primary cardinal vowels and the secondary set of cardinal vowels. Let us start with the development of the cardinal vowel chart. The cardinal vowel chart defines four reference points in purely articulatory terms representing the extreme limits of possible vowel quality. These limits depend on the tongue position that is where in the mouth does the tongue create some sort of narrowing and what about tongue height? Hence we can define four extremes. First of all, there is a vowel that involves the highest possible tongue position in the mouth and the most front quality. Here it is. This is the highest sort of e I can produce. Here is the place where the narrowing occurs. The second vowel that serves as a reference point is the opposite. It is a vowel which involves the lowest possible tongue position that is you have to open your mouth and the most back quality. The vowel would be something like this. So now my tongue is back and low in the mouth. Now we need two further points. The next one is a reference point where the tongue is extremely low and has a very much front quality, the most front quality and the result would be something like ahhh and finally we need a vowel that is produced with a back quality where the tongue is extremely high in the mouth. The result is something like ahhh As a result, if we combine these extreme points we get a quadrilateral. And now in this quadrilateral, if we take it out of the mouth we have four reference points. Here they are. E, E, R and U. In a modified form with clearly defined geometrical proportions this quadrilateral may now serve as a reference model for the definition of the articulation of further vowels. The proportions of this reference model or coordinated systems are clear and this is how to construct it. First, we need a top line which is four measures in length and it is drawn horizontally. Then we need a second line which is the right hand vertical line which is three measures in relationship to the four measures of the top line and the angle between the two lines is 90 degrees. The bottom line is half as long as the top line and again we have an angle of 90 degrees between the vertical right hand line and the bottom line. And finally, we now link the free ends of the two horizontal lines so that we get the basic dimensions of the cardinal vowel chart. This reference chart allows us to define two main parameters for the classification of vowels. On the one hand we have the parameter front so that is vowels that are produced in the front of the mouth so where the position of the tongue is creates some sort of narrowing in the front of the mouth and there contrasts it with back vowels where the narrowing occurs in the back of the mouth. The second parameter is the parameter high versus low. Vowels that are produced with a high tongue position and vowels that are produced with a low tongue position. So we get our four reference points of the cardinal vowel chart. E, which would be a high front vowel, A, which would be a low front vowel or which would be a low back vowel and U, which is a high back vowel. Between these four main reference points we can now insert two auditorily equidistant steps in terms of two horizontal lines and can define further vowels. So here are our horizontal lines as auxiliary lines and the two further vowels are another front vowel which would now be mid high E a second one would be E and here we have a back vowel A and another one O With the third parameter the parameter of lip rounding you may have noted that some of the vowels were produced with rounded lips like U others were produced with spread lips like E and with this parameter we can now create two sets of cardinal vowels the primary set and the secondary set let us look at them in more detail here is the primary set of cardinal vowels cardinals number one to five are produced with spread lips here they are E E A O and these vowels are just produced are produced with spread or unrounded lips now cardinals number six to eight are produced with rounded lips here they are A O now if we reverse the parameter of lip rounding we get a secondary set here it is now the secondary cardinal vowels have received the numbers nine to sixteen here is my advice how you can produce them produce the respective primary cardinal vowel keep the tongue in exactly the same position and then change the lip position let us do it so here is cardinal number nine I first produce cardinal number one E and then I round my lips E E is cardinal number nine rounded front vowel cardinal number ten next cardinal number two is A so I produce an A first E and there you are cardinal number ten here is cardinal number eleven and again I first produce cardinal number two that is with spread lips E and I rounded my lips to get E cardinal number eleven cardinal vowel number twelve again let us first of all produce cardinal four and then I will round my lips number four is A and A with rounded lips E and here is cardinal number thirteen first of all the back vowel cardinal number five would be A and A with rounded lips A another remaining cardinal vowels fourteen to fifteen are produced with spread lips so I first of all produce cardinal six with rounded lips A and then I round my lips cardinal number fifteen again first of all with rounded lips cardinal number seven E and finally we have to produce cardinal vowel number sixteen first of all cardinal eight with rounded lips E and then I will round my lips E and here we are with the primary and secondary set of cardinal vowels these two sets can now be extended by a set of central vowels that is vowels that are neither front nor back let us draw some auxiliary lines for their representation on the chart first we need a central line from the middle of the top line to the middle of the bottom line this allows us to define a set of central vowels the central vowels are extremely hard to produce they involve an articulation between front and back and the lips are in a neutral position the main central vowels are here the two high vowels mixes between E, U and U so it's something like U something like U, a fronted U which would be something like U here we have for example this is an interesting one the so-called schwa now the schwa is the central vowel that exists in many languages of the world so a vowel like U in English mother would be a good example then we have this mid-low vowel U and finally the low one would be the vowel A as in German Mutter so here we can relate the central vowels already to some existing vowels in some languages of the world to complete the vowel chart we have to draw parallels one with the back and one with the front of the vowel chart and they extend from the bottom middle of the central line to the upper end of the vowel chart and finally we need intermediate lines so these dotted horizontal lines that complete the geometrical pattern of the cardinal vowel chart so here is the cardinal vowel chart in accordance with the international phonetic association depending on the position of the tongue that is more precisely depending on the location of the narrowing in the vocal tract vowels can now be defined as front, central or back so a vowel like E would be a front vowel O would be a back vowel and A would be a central vowel and the second parameter tongue height allows us to define vowels in terms of high vowels like E and O mid-high vowels like A and O mid-low vowels like A and O and low vowels like A and O this chart now serves as a reference system for all sorts of vowels that are used in the languages of the world they can be classified by means of reference to these cardinal vowels as a result of this first e-lecture about the articulation and phonetic description of vowels you should now have understood not only how vowels can be classified using articulatory criteria but also how the cardinal vowel chart can be constructed in our second e-lecture about vowels you will find out how the vowel chart can be used as a reference system for the classification of different types and realizations of vowels one thing should be clear already the orthographical definition of vowels which are mentioned at the beginning of this e-lecture should no longer play any role at all and secondly to become familiar with the system of cardinal vowels you have to practice a lot I recommend that you use the interactive tutor on the Virtual Linguistics Campus with its e-training options or simply join our phonetics and phonology classes and you are supplied with a wealth of exercise material so see you there