Classification of english vowels according to the position of the tongue

1. According to the position of the bulk of the tongue (or the horizontal movement of the tongue) vowels are divided into five groups: front, front-retracted, central or mixed, back and back-advanced.

Front vowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth while the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate, forming a large empty space (resonance chamber) in the back part of the mouth. The English front vowels are /i:/, /e/,/ æ / and the nucleus of the diphthong /eə/.

There is only one front vowel in Ukrainian, it is /I/.

Front-retracted vowels are those in the articulation of which the bulk of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth, but somewhat retracted, while the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. There is only one front-retracted monophthong in English, it is /i/. The nuclei of the diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ are also front-retracted.

The Ukrainian front-retracted vowels are /и/ and /e/.

Central or mixed vowels are those in the production of which the central part of the tongue is raised towards the juncture between the hard and soft palate. English central vowels are /ɜ:/, /ə/,/ʌ/ and the nucleus of the diphthong /ɜu/.

There are no central vowels in Ukrainian.

Back vowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the back part of the mouth while the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate, forming an empty space in the front part of the mouth. The English back vowels are /u:/, /ɔ:/, /ɒ/, and the nucleus of the diphthong /ɔɪ/.

There is only one back vowel in Ukrainian, it is /o/.

Back-advanced vowels are those in the production of which the bulk of the tongue is in the back part of the mouth, but somewhat advanced, while the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate. In pronouncing back-advanced vowels a large resonance chamber is formed in the front part of the mouth cavity. The English back-advanced vowels are /u/, /a:/.

There is only one back-advanced vowel in Ukrainian, it is /у/.

2.According to the height of the raised part of the tongue (or the vertical movement of the tongue) vowels are divided into three groups: close or high vowels, open or low and mid-open or mid vowels.

Close (high) vowels are those in the production of which the tongue comes close to the palate (the roof of the mouth). The air-passage between the tongue and the palate is rather narrow, but the air flows through the passage without causing audible friction. The English close or high vowels are /i:/, /i/, /u:/, /u/.

The Ukrainian close vowels are /i/, /и/, /у/.

Open (low) vowels are those which are produced when the raised part of the tongue is very low in the mouth and the air-passage is wide. The English open vowels are /æ/, /a:/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ and the nuclei of /aɪ/, /aʊ/.

The only open vowel in Ukrainian is /а/.

Mid-open (mid) vowels are those in the production of which the tongue is raised halfway between the high and low positions, i.e. the tongue is in the position intermediate between those of open and close vowels. The English mid-open or mid, vowels are /e/, /ɜ:/, /ə/, /ɔ:/ and the nuclei of /eə/, / ɜu/.

The Ukrainian mid-vowels are /e/, /o/.

Each of these three main tongue-positions (high, mid and low) has two variations (varieties): narrow and broad.

This means that in pronouncing a vowel of a narrow variety of the same general tongue-position. For instance, the vowels / ɜ:/ and / ə / are both central and mid-open but in the production of /ɜ:/ the central part of the tongue is raised a little higher than in the production of /ə/; for this reason the vowel / ɜ:/ is defined as central, mid-open of the narrow variety, while the vowel /ə/ is defined as central, mid-open of the broad variety.