Reference points for vowels: cardinal vowels

The IPA describes vowels using a set of reference vowels called cardinal vowels (CVs). The idea for this is found in 1844 in the work of A. J. Ellis; but it was around the time of the First World War that Daniel Jones, a phonetician at University College, London, first worked out the system of cardinal vowels which is still in use today. Jones trained many phoneticians in Britain, for many years, and the oral tradition of learning and perfecting one’s cardinal vowels is still strong among phoneticians in Britain, the USA, Germany, Australia and elsewhere who are trained in the ‘British’ tradition.

Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels that have predetermined phonetic values. Other vowels are described with reference to the cardinal vowels. A phonetician can say: this vowel sounds like cardinal vowel 2, but is a little more open; or, this vowel is half way between cardinals 6 and 7. One phonetician can replicate the sound described by another following the instructions given alongside the transcription.

The cardinal vowels represent possibilities of the human vocal tract rather than actual vowels of a language because they are established on theoretical grounds. They are independent of any particular language.

Cardinal vowels are best learnt from a trained phonetician. It takes much practice to get them right, and to learn them well, good feedback is needed. First we take a practical look at three of them; move on to look at the full system; then see how it has been applied to a few varieties of English.