From an articulatory perspective, phonemes can be described as front or back. Front vowels refer to vowels articulated towards the front of the mouth. This can either refer to vowels that are more front than central or, more rarely, only to fully front vowels, i.e. the ones that are articulated as far forward as possible in the mouth. A similar distinction holds for back vowels, which can refer to vowels that are more back than central or, more rarely, only to fully back vowels, i.e. the ones that are articulated as back as possible in the mouth. However, acoustically there is little difference between a central vowel and a back vowel, with the result that the two are frequently grouped together into an even broader category of "back vowels", or a category of "non-front vowels".
Front and back vowels are also known as acute and grave vowels, respectively. For consonants, however, front/back are not synonyms of acute/grave. Grave consonants include both back consonants and labial consonants, while acute consonants include all of front consonants except labial consonants. This suggests that a three-way division between labial, acute and back (vaguely speaking, "P-like", "T-like" and "K-like", respectively) might be useful in some contexts.
front, back, other, uses, front, back, back, front, also, grave, acute, phonetics, from, articulatory, perspective, phonemes, described, front, back, front, vowels, refer, vowels, articulated, towards, front, mouth, this, either, refer, vowels, that, more, fro. For other uses see Front Back and Back to Front See also grave and acute phonetics From an articulatory perspective phonemes can be described as front or back Front vowels refer to vowels articulated towards the front of the mouth This can either refer to vowels that are more front than central or more rarely only to fully front vowels i e the ones that are articulated as far forward as possible in the mouth A similar distinction holds for back vowels which can refer to vowels that are more back than central or more rarely only to fully back vowels i e the ones that are articulated as back as possible in the mouth However acoustically there is little difference between a central vowel and a back vowel with the result that the two are frequently grouped together into an even broader category of back vowels or a category of non front vowels A back consonant includes all consonants whose place of articulation is in the soft palate velum or farther back including velar uvular pharyngeal and glottal consonants From the perspective of primary places of articulation this includes all of the laryngeal consonants and some of the dorsal consonants specifically excluding palatal consonants A front consonant includes all consonants that are not back consonants including palatal coronal and labial consonants Front and back vowels are also known as acute and grave vowels respectively For consonants however front back are not synonyms of acute grave Grave consonants include both back consonants and labial consonants while acute consonants include all of front consonants except labial consonants This suggests that a three way division between labial acute and back vaguely speaking P like T like and K like respectively might be useful in some contexts See also editFronted phonetics References editJacobson Roman On Language Harvard University Press 1990 p 260 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Front and back amp oldid 1213750365, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
