vowels front and back

[Tom Zurinskas]

>From an email

 The main tool that phoneticians use for organising vowels is the IPA quadrilateral. Although its axes use labels like 'front-back' and 'high-low' these do not refer to tongue positions. It sounds like they should, it may well be that they originally did, but in fact these are acoustic labels. (In our view, it's pretty irresponsible for phoneticians to persist in describing vowels this way, given the potential and actual confusion it causes, but this is what they do.)

So just what is "front" and "back"?

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk

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