GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CARDINAL
VOWELS: ERRORS TO AVOID
There is some divergence of opinion among phoneticians as to whether the system of Cardinal Vowels (which, from now on, we shall refer to as CVs) should be regarded primarily as an articula-tory or as an auditory scale of reference-vowels. From the practical point of view, however, it is best to proceed as if the system is basically an articulatory one, and to familiarize oneself thoroughly with the 'feel'-the proprioceptive and tactile sensations-of the CVs.
As indicated in Chapter 7, the CVs are a set of eight tongue-configurations, five of them with unrounded lips, the remaining three with rounded lips. There is also a set of eight secondary CVs with exactly the same tongue-configurations, but opposite lip-positions. Finally, there are a few additional vowel articulations, which, though not usually considered part of the CV system, are essential for the student of phonetics to get to know.
The CVs are not the vowels of any particular language, but are. as we have seen, a set of systematically established, language-independent, universal reference vowels. Naturally, some of the vowels of some languages happen to coincide with, or to approximate closely to, some of the CVs. Thus, typical French vowels, of .sv |si], r« [se|. .w;V |sc|, are rather close to the CVs |i|, |e|, |ej. Practically no English vowels are at all close to CVs. This means that the English-speaking reader must start from the assumption that not a single one of the vowels used in the English language is exactly a Cardinal Vowel. Moreover, the vowel-sounds of English, and of other languages, vary very considerably from one dialect to another.
All of this means that in learning or teaching the CVs we must use the vowels of the reader's language with the greatest care.
From time to time they provide useful starting-points for arriving at CVs, but readers must always assume that the CVs are not by any means the same as any vowel of their own language.
Two characteristics of the CVs must be emphasized at the outset. First, they should all be pronounced in a rather energetic, tense, manner. They are, after all. /;f/vp/?em/ vowels-that is. vowels produced with the tongue thrust as far forward as possible or pulled back as far as possible, and the close ones have the tongue pushed up as far as possible. It is therefore reasonable to assume that if you do not at times feel some degree of strain, or tiredness, in some of the muscles within, or attached to, the tongue, you are not exerting yourself sufficiently to produce good CVs. Secondly they are all wono/)/;f/zo/%g5-that is, they are simple or 'pure' vowels, that can be prolonged for as long as possible with absolutely no change of tongue- (or lip-) position, and consequently no change of quality. This is very important for English speakers to remember (and we shall remind them repeatedly), since many of the vowels of English, in most dialects of English, are d/p/zf/zo/zgs. That is, they are gliding vowels that start with one tongue- and/or lip-position, and end up with another. Obvious diphthongs are the sound of 7 |a t] and the otv of /mw [ao]. If you say these words aloud, in a whisper, and silently, several times, the gliding movement of the tongue will be obvious in both of them, and in [ao] a radical change of the lip-position will also be obvious.
But some other English vowels are less obviously diphthongal. Thus, many speakers-it is probably safe to say most speakers- of English pronounce the vowels of such words as (/«)' and go in a decidedly diphthongal manner. Experiment 90 deals with the vowel of ^/«y (normally a diphthong) and with the production of a rigidly fixed mo/zop/zf/mng somewhat resembling it.
90 Say the word 140 The Cardinal Vowels (CVs)