high vowel
- noun
- /haɪ vaʊəl/
- Specialized
:
vocal alta
- So we talk about the high vowel like heat and the low vowel like hat.
Examples
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The high vowel /i/ is commonly found in words such as 'key' and 'see'.
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The front portion of the tongue was visible for the high vowels (see Table 1).
Academic text (2012) -
In general, more speakers tended to produce the greatest ID measures for the high vowels /i, I, u, and ?/ in the clear, hearing impaired, and overenunciate conditions.
Academic text (2012) -
The mid-posterior regions of the tongue were more affected than the anterior region, and low vowels were more significantly affected than high vowels (Yunusova et al., 2008).
Academic text (2012) -
Although both A and Y are called "mid-high vowels," their first formant frequencies (F1s) are not identical (Adank, Hout, & Smits, 2004).
Academic text (2012) -
In phonetics, the term high vowel refers to sounds like /i/ in 'see' and /u/ in 'food'.
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Understanding the distinction between a high vowel and a low vowel can help with pronunciation.
Synonyms
A speech sound made with the tongue close to the roof of the mouth, like the sound in see
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a vowel sound articulated with the tongue positioned high in the mouth' is directly compositional from 'high' (located/positioned high) + 'vowel' (a voiced speech sound); a learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to a vowel produced with a high tongue position. Although technical in phonetics, the modifier+noun pattern and cross-linguistic high/low vowel contrasts make the sense transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The word high vowel comes from the simple picture of the tongue being high in the mouth. When you say a high vowel, your tongue rises close to the roof of the mouth, so the name describes that 'sound'.
