(BHAPIER
3. Vowels
Vowels are formed by retraction of the back of the tongue, as in
'father' by advancing the front of the tongue, as in 'bit' or else they
are mixed, as in 'bird', in which the tongue is in a position half-way
between back and front. By height they are high, as in 'hit', mid, as
in 'hate' or low, as in 'hat'. The vowels of these three words are all
front, but the distinctions of height apply to back and mixed vow-
els as well. Thus the u of 'full' is high-back, just as that of 'hit' is
high front. All these vowels may be further modified by
labialisation or rounding. Thus, if the ee of 'feel' is pronounced
with narrowed lip-opening, we obtain the French u in clune' - the
high-front-round. There are besides other modifications caused
by the shape of the tongue itself.
Of the large number of possible vowels only a small proportion is
employed in each language.
Again, among the special vowels of anyone language we must
distinguish between those differences, which are distinctive, that
is, to which differences of meaning correspond and those which
are not. Thus the first elements of the diphthongs in 'by' and 'out'
vary considerably: some people sound them broad as in 'father',
some thin, as in 'man', with various ihtermediate sounds. And yet
the meaning of the words remains unchanged. The distinction
between the vowels of , men' and 'man', on the other hand, though
really slighter than that of the different pronunciations of 'by' and
'out', is a distinctive one.