Vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme position, either front or back, high or low. The current system was systematised by Daniel Jones in the early 20th century, though the idea goes back to earlier phoneticians, notably Ellis and Bell. Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds of languages. For instance, the vowel of "get" in British English can be described with reference to cardinal vowel 3, [ɛ], which is the cardinal vowel closest to it. It takes much practice and training from an expert to learn to produce the cardinal vowels accurately. Three of the cardinal vowels, [i], [ɑ] and [u] have articulatory definitions. [i] is produced with the tongue as far forward and as high in the mouth as is possible, with spread lips. [u] is produced with the tongue as far back and as high in the mouth as is possible, with pursed lips. This sound can be approximated by adoping the posture to whistle a very low note, or blow out a candle. [ɑ] is produced with the tongue as low and as far back in the mouth as possible. The other vowels are 'auditorily equidistant' between these three 'corner vowels', at four degrees of aperture or 'height': close (high tongue position), close-mid, open-mid, and open (low tongue position). These degrees of aperture plus the front-back distinction define 8 reference points on a mixture of articulatory and auditory criteria. These eight vowels are known as the eight 'primary cardinal vowels', and vowels like these are common in the world's languages. The lip positions can be reversed with the lip position for the corresponding vowel on the opposite side of the front-back dimension, so that e.g. Cardinal 1 can be produced with the rounding for Cardinal 8, etc.; these are known as 'secondary cardinal vowels'. Sounds such as these are less common in the world's languages. Other vowel sounds are also recognised on the vowel chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
In tonal languages, in most cases the tone of a syllable is carried by the vowel, meaning that the relative pitch or the pitch contour that marks the tone is superimposed on the vowel.
Vowels are especially important to the structures of words in languages that have very few consonants (like Polynesian languages such as Maori and Hawaiian), and in languages whose inventory of vowels is larger than its inventory of consonants.
Furthermore, in English some vowel sounds are represented by combinations of vowel letters, such as the ea in beat or by a vowel letter and an approximant letter, as the ow in how, or the er in her.
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