ABSTRACT
In describing the sounds of African languages it is necessary to start with the two recognized groups of sounds, vowels and consonants, and their formation and classification. It is usual, in describing vowel sounds to classify them according to the part the tongue plays in their formation. It should be noted that vowel sounds are learnt best through the impression they make on the ear. A student who knows theoretically the tongue positions of vowel sounds he is trying to learn does not for this reason necessarily make them correctly. Lip movements also affect the quality of vowels and must be taken into consideration in the classification of them. It is generally found that front vowels have spread or neutrally open lips, the closer ones having well spread lips, and the degree of spreading lessening to the open position where the lips are neutrally open, i.e. neither spread nor rounded.
