Vowel height

In phonetics, vowel height refers to the position of the tongue relative to the roof of the mouth in a vowel sound. The first formant of a vowel (F1) usually corresponds to vowel height, with a higher F1 corresponding to a lower vowel height and a lower F1 corresponding to a higher vowel height.

The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies 7 different vowel heights, although no language distinguishes all 7:

• open vowel (low vowel)
• near-open vowel
• open-mid vowel
• mid vowel
• close-mid vowel
• near-close vowel
• close vowel (high vowel)

See also

• list of phonetics topics

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