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| − | IPA is the ''International Phonetistic Assembly'', and their ''International Phonetistic Alphabeta'' shares that abbreviation. The IPA is used in text books, dictionaries as well as in the IPA Bible, a phonetic realization of the [[Bible|Holy Bible]]. The IPA is divided into consonants, vowels and consonant-vowels. IPA is often written between square hooks: []. | + | IPA is the ''International Phonetic Assembly'', and their ''International Phonetic Alphabet'' shares that abbreviation. |
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| − | == Consonants ==
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| − | Consonants are pronounced in the mouth. They are often harsher and sharper than vowels. Consonants occur in all the world’s languages, except in Western Angola.<ref>Chomsky, Noam (1964), ''Economical consequences of syndicalistic agriculture in the Oioae region of Angola.''</ref>
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| − | Consonants are often said to be placed on a ''lingual continuum'', meaning that all parts of the tongue can be used to create consonantical sounds. Eg. the tongue touches the teeth in sounds like [t] and [s], it touches the palate in sounds like [y] and in languages like Arabic and Belgian, the entire tongue is temporarily swallowed to pronounce sounds such as the infamous Arabic ''ayin''.
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| − | == Vowels ==
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| − | Vowels are pronounced in the mouth and the nose. They are very soft and spongy.<ref>Ladefoged and Chomsky (1966), ''The three levels of sponginess in Western Shaka-Shamaka vowels.''</ref> Vowels are actually quite rare in the world’s languages outside of Europe, and during the Soviet era, they were banned in Caucasus, rendering languages such as [[Ubykh]] totally without vowels.<ref>Dumézil, G. (1975) ''Le verbe oubykh: études descriptives et comparatives.'' Imprimerie Nationale: Paris.</ref>
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| − | Vowels can be classified depending on the shape of the diaphragm, lung, tongue and lips. This is why is it so hard to talk and chew at the same time: there is simply too much vibration. The most common distinction between vowels is the position of the tongue on a vertico-horizontal scale inside the mouth (jocularly referred to as the ''buccal tongue hideout''). This can be illustrated thus:
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| − | {| class="wikitable" | + | |
| − | |+ '''Vowel dimensionistics'''
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| − | !
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| − | !Front
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| − | !Central
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| − | !Back
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| − | |-
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| − | !Non-low
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| − | | ee
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| − | | Ø
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| − | | oo
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| − | !Low
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| − | | ai
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| − | | aar
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| − | | ou
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| − | |}
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| − | In other languages, vowels like ''ie'' and ''oe'' are added.<ref>Bopp, Franz (1910), ''Weiche vokalen im Kara-Kora.''</ref>
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| − | == Consonant-vowels ==
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| − | Some consonants are soft, therefore they are ordered under "consonant-vowels", as suggested by Franz Bopp in 1910.<ref>Hrozný, B. (1933), ''Two unusual vowels in the Panangarangasaaqil language of France.''</ref>
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| − | == References ==
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| − | <references/>
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