2.2 Front and back vowels

J is long and tense. It is close and front: the front of the tongue is raised to a height slightly below and behind the front close position, the tongue is tense, with the sides making a firm contact with the upper molars. Although it is not very different from the cardinal vowel /i/, the lips are only slightly spread.

I is short and the tongue is lax, with the sides making a light contact with the upper molars /'mqVlqz/. Though it is close and front, it is more open and nearer to the centre than the cardinal vowel /i/: it is pronounced with a part of the tongue nearer to centre than to front, raised just above the close-mid position. The lips are slightly spread. Russian has a centralized type of /I/ which has too much in common with the English vowel /q/. So English /I/ should be made more front.

e is short and lax. It is front and it is between half-close and half-open: the front of the tongue is raised between the close-mid and open-mid positions. The lips are slightly spread and are slightly wider apart than for /I/. The tongue may have more tension than in the case of /I/, the sides making a light contact with the upper molars.

xX is short and lax. It is front and open, but not as open as the cardinal vowel /a/: the front of the tongue is raised to a position midway between open and open-mid, with the sides making a very slight contact with the back upper molars. The lips are slightly spread. This traditionally short vowel is now generally longer in RP than the other short vowels, especially before voiced consonants, in these contexts it is almost equivalent to the long vowels. It is made fully front to avoid confusion with /A/ and even /R/.

A is short and lax. It is central and it is more open than the half-open tongue height: the centre of the tongue is raised just above the fully open position, no contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars. The lip position is neutral.

R is long and tense. It is open, but not as back as the cardinal vowel /Q/: a part of the tongue between the centre and back is in fully open position, no contact being made between the sides of the tongue and the upper molars. The lip position is neutral.

P is short and lax. It is quite back and between half-open and open in tongue height: the back of the tongue is in fully open position, no contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars. The lips are slightly rounded. Short back open vowels occurring in other languages often differ from the English /P/ in that either they are somewhat closer or more centralized, or are pronounced with stronger lip-rounding. The extremely open nature of the English vowel should be emphasized.

L is long and tense. The tongue height is somewhere between half-open and half-close: the back of the tongue is raised between the open-mid and close-mid positions, no contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars. This vowel is almost fully back and has quite a strong lip-rounding.

V is short and lax. Though it is close and back, it is still more open and nearer to central than the cardinal vowel /u/. It is pronounced with a part of the tongue nearer to centre than to back raised just above the close-mid position. The tongue is laxly held, no firm contact being made between the tongue and the upper molars. The lips are rounded. The care should be taken to make this vowel more central than the long vowel /H/.

H is long and tense. It is not very different from the cardinal vowel /u/, but it is not so back and so close, no firm contact is being made between the tongue and the upper molars, and the lips are only moderately rounded (too energetic lip-rounding should be avoided).