There
may be occasions when we need to indicate more accurately or narrowly some of
the phonetic dimensions of the vowels in our dialect, and the symbols given
above may not be adequate. We then turn to a narrow transcription based on the
cardinal vowels diagram. The British phonetician daniel Jones (1881-1967)
devised a set of reference vowels to provide an objective (that is, language
independent) way of referring to the quality of any vowel-like sound. The
cardinal vowels, like the cardinal points of the compass, provide a reference
gird; they are arbitrarily defined as those vowels pronounced and recorded by
Daniel Jones. They are not the vowel sounds of any particular language, but are
quite artificial. They are usually plotted on a quadrilateral, as shown in
figure 6.6.
The
vowels on the four corners of the quadrilateral were intended to represent the
extremes of vowel articulation. (1) represents a vowel produced with the tongue
as high as it will go and as far to the front as possible without any
consonant-like friction. (5) represents extremes of ‘lowness’, and so on (2),
(3) and (6), (7) represent phonetically equidistant points along the front and
back boundaries. Cardinal (1) to (4) are defined as having spread lips and
cardinals (5) to (8) have rounded lips (though lip positions are progressively
neutralised with increasing lowness). Professor Jones also recorded a set of
secondary cardinal vowels, in which the lip positions were reversed (that is,
in which front vowels are rounded).
Vowels
in any dialect can be described in fo their distance from one of the cardinal
vowels. Australian [e] in pet, for example, is a little lower than, and
retracted from, cardinal (2). Using the appropriate cardinal vowel symbol and
small arrows to indicate retraction and lowering, we could represent the sound
as [e>v]. Australian [ʊ] in put is cole to cardinal (7), but somewhat
forward of it; [o<] indicates its location, by combining the appropriate
cardinal symbol with a ‘fronting’ arrow. The diacritics [..] above the symbol
or [-] through it indicate that a vowel is is produced in the central portion
of the quadrilateral. The New Zealand vowel in ‘fish and chips’ can be
represented as [ɫv]. Figure 6.7 shows the three vowels on a
cardinal vowel diagram.
For most purposes, however, the board conventional
symbols as listed in table 6.1 are adequate. Unless specifically noted,
references to vowels in the remainder of this book will be in board rathe than
narrow transcription.
