Vowel backness

In phonetics, vowel height is the position of the tongue relative to the back of the mouth in a vowel sound. The second formant of a vowel (F2) usually corresponds to vowel height, with a lower F2 corresponding to a back vowel and a higher F2 corresponding to a front vowel.

The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies 5 different degrees of vowel backness, although no known language distinguishes all 5:

• front vowel
• near-front vowel
• central vowel
• near-back vowel
• back vowel