Practice question · Multiple choice
Why are vowels described by tongue position rather than by place of articulation?
Hints
- Ask what a place of articulation names.
- A place names where two articulators meet, and in a vowel they do not.
Show the answer
B. There is no contact between articulators, so there is no place to name
Why
Because a place of articulation names where two articulators meet, and in a vowel nothing meets anything. The tract is open throughout, so the description has to be a position in a space rather than a point of contact, which is why the vowel chart is a map and the consonant chart is a table.
Practise English Vowels I: the Quadrilateral
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More questions on English Vowels I: the Quadrilateral
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