The Vietor Triangle

Vietor Triangle is a schematic representation of vowel sounds, created by Wilhelm Vietor (1850-

1918, German philologist and phonetician).It shows the position of the tongue and jaw according

the vowel sound(s) required when speaking. A vowel diagram or vowel chart is a schematic

arrangement of the vowels. Depending on the particular language being discussed, it can take

the form of a triangle or a quadrilateral. Vertical position on the diagram denotes the vowel

closeness, with close vowels at the top of the diagram, and horizontal position denotes the vowel

backness, with front vowels at the left of the diagram. Vowels are unique in that their main features

do not contain differences in voicing, manner, or place (articulation). Vowels differ only in the

position of the tongue when voiced. The tongue moves either vertically and horizontally within the

oral cavity. Vowels are produced with at least a part of their vocal tract obstructed.

Avowel is a speech sound that is produced without any obstruction in the speech tract.

Vowels are described based on the following criteria: (i) The height of the tongue (ii) The part of

the tongue that is raised or lowered (iii) The position of the lips

The Vietor Triangle

Introduction to Linguistics (LED 51)