Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each dimension of vowel description to what it specifies.
- Height
- Backness
- Rounding
- The quadrilateral
- Height plotted against backness
- Whether the lips are protruded
- How close the tongue body is to the roof of the mouth
- How far forward or back the tongue body sits
Hints
- Two dimensions concern the tongue and one the lips.
- The chart plots the two tongue dimensions against each other.
Show the answer
- Height → How close the tongue body is to the roof of the mouth
- Backness → How far forward or back the tongue body sits
- Rounding → Whether the lips are protruded
- The quadrilateral → Height plotted against backness
Why
Three dimensions and a two-dimensional chart, which is why rounding is shown by pairing symbols at the same point rather than by a third axis. Most languages use rounding predictably, English rounds its back vowels, so the compression rarely loses information.
Practise English Vowels I: the Quadrilateral
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