Cardinal vowels Of the various cardinal vowel systems. the most satisfactory is the one devised by daniel Jones Jones first fixed the qualities of the two vowels which were produced with the tongue in most easily felt positions. When the soft palate is raised and the lips are unrounded the vowel produced with the tongue raised as high and as forward as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as [i and the vowel produced with the tongue held as low and as far back as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as b Then between the two positions he selected three points where the vowel qualities seemed to be equal distant and symbolized them as e, Z, aCardinal Vowels • Of the various cardinal vowel systems, the most satisfactory is the one devised by Daniel Jones. Jones first fixed the qualities of the two vowels which were produced with the tongue in most easily felt positions. When the soft palate is raised and the lips are unrounded, the vowel produced with the tongue raised as high and as forward as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as [i]; and the vowel produced with the tongue held as low and as far back as possible without causing audible friction is symbolized as [B]. Then between the two positions he selected three points where the vowel qualities seemed to be equal distant and symbolized them as [e, Z, a]