The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies seven different vowel heights, although no known language distinguishes all seven: Sometimes the terms open and close are used as synonyms for low and high for describing vowels. In high vowels, such as and, the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, whereas in low vowels, such as, the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. Height refers to the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the jaw. There are however still more possible features of vowel quality, such as the velum position (nasality), type of vocal fold vibration (phonation), and tongue root position. These three parameters are indicated in the schematic IPA vowel diagram on the right. Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels in terms of the common features height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundedness (lip position). The articulatory features that distinguish different vowels in a language are said to determine the vowel's quality. The word vowel comes from the Latin word vocalis, meaning "speaking", because in most languages words and thus speech are not possible without vowels. However, some languages also allow other sounds to form the nucleus of a syllable, such as the syllabic l in the English word table (the stroke under the l indicates that it is syllabic the dot separates syllables), or the r in the Serbian word vrba "willow". In all languages, vowels form the nucleus or peak of syllables, whereas consonants form the onset and (in languages which have them) coda. A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel. This contrasts with consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis. This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. Related subjects: Linguistics Manners of articulation
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