ABSTRACT
The vowels of English share certain phonetic features: they are all voiced, and they all involve a free flow of laminar air over the tongue. Naturally, there are other features that help people distinguish groups of vowels and individual vowel phonemes. The diphthongs are normally classed into those that move to a high front position and those that glide to a high back position, or in terms of their starting points. The English monophthongs constitute a symmetrical system, with two high front vowels, two lower front vowels, two high back vowels, and two lower back vowels. The commonest allophone of this phoneme is produced with the highest point of the tongue arch raised to a position substantially behind and below the highest frontest position possible for a vowel. The side rims of the tongue may make light contact with the inner surfaces of the upper side teeth.
