ABSTRACT
Vowelscanbedistinguisheddefinitionallyfromconsonantsashavinga relativelyopenapertureofarticulation.Allvowelsaremoreopenin aperturethanallconsonants.Ingeneral,whenwespeakofvowels,we arereferringtovoicedvowels.Itispossibletoproducevowelsina voicelessway,i.e.withoutvocalfoldvibration.asinwhisperingaword thatcontainsavowel.However,sincethevowelphonemesofmostlanguagesarevoiced,voicelessvowelsareconsideredtobehighly marked,andwhenpeoplespeakofvowels,theygenerallymeanthe unmarked,i.e.voiced,type.Therefore,unlessexplicitlystatedotherwise,allreferencestovowelsbelowaretovoicedvowels.
