An Approach to Height Feature Specification
Roderic F. Casali · 2021
Versions of the Standard Height Theory are not always clear on whether the height features [high], [low], and [ATR] are properly characterized in articulatory terms or in auditory-acoustic terms (or both). While it has been customary to describe the features [high] and [low] in terms of raising or lowering of the tongue body, it is well known that tongue height does not correlate very closely with the vowel height classes "high," "low," and "mid" as standardly conceived. It seems that in actuality, the height distinctions characterized by phonologists using [high] and [low] are better conceived of as auditory in nature. In contrast to the general tendency to favor articulatory definitions of vowel height (and other) features, the theory of height features the author propose is unabashedly acoustic in its orientation. Height features are defined in terms of position or displacement within the vertical vowel space, roughly characterizable in terms of first formant frequency.