close vowel
- noun
- UK
:
vocal cerrada
- Phonetics studies how close vowels are produced by positioning the tongue near the roof of the mouth during speech.
Examples
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The semantic quality conveyed by close vowels in these two distinct word classes might be termed specificity.
Academic text (1995) -
Working against the preference for close vowels was the phonetic dissimilarity of both vowel and consonant in truje and traigo-trae, and perhaps also the fact that traer is not a stative verb.
Academic text (1995) -
In linguistics, the pronunciation of a close vowel allows for a clearer distinction between words like 'see' and 'so'.
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Many languages use close vowels to create contrasts in meaning, as heard in the difference between 'bit' and 'beat'.
Synonyms
A vowel sound made with the tongue near the roof of the mouth
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'close' (indicating proximity/near) with 'vowel' (a speech sound): it describes a vowel produced with the tongue positioned near the roof of the mouth. Although phonetic terminology is somewhat technical, the spatial sense of 'close' maps transparently onto articulatory position and this compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a learner who knows the constituents will grasp the basic meaning.
Etymology
Close vowel uses the word close and vowel to show a simple picture: the tongue is very near the top of the mouth when you say the sound, as in 'see'. So the name helps you remember it means a vowel made with the tongue held high and near the roof of the mouth.
