cardinal vowel ˌkɑːdɪnəl ˈvaʊəlPhoneticians have always needed some way of classifying vowels which is independent of the vowel system of a particular language. With most consonants it is quite easy to observe how their articulation is organised, and to specify the place and manner of the constriction formed; vowels, however, are much less easy to observe. Early in the 20th century, the English phonetician Daniel Jones worked out a set of “cardinal vowels” that students learning phonetics could be taught to make and which would serve as reference points that other vowels could be related to, rather like the corners and sides of a map. Jones was strongly influenced by the French phonetician Paul Passy, and it has been claimed that the set of cardinal vowels is rather similar to the vowels of educated Parisian French of the time. From the beginning it was important to locate the vowels on a chart or four-sided figure |