Editing Close vowel (section)

{{Short description|Class of vowel sounds}}
{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}
{{IPA notice}}
A '''close vowel''', also known as a '''high vowel''' (in U.S. terminology<ref name="Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language">{{cite web|title=VOWEL QUALITY
|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vowel-quality|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=20 April 2017}}</ref>), is any in a class of [[vowel]] sounds used in many spoken [[language]]s. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately as close as possible to the roof of the mouth as it can be without creating a constriction. A constriction would produce a sound that would be classified as a [[consonant]].

The term "close" {{IPAc-en|'|k|l|oʊ|s}} is recommended by the [[International Phonetic Association]]. Close vowels are often referred to as "high" vowels, as in the Americanist phonetic tradition, because the tongue is positioned high in the mouth during articulation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ottenheimer|first=Harriet|title=The Anthropology of Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology Workbook/Reader|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2011|isbn=9781111828851|location=Belmont, CA|pages=44}}</ref>

In the context of the [[phonology]] of any particular language, a ''high vowel'' can be any vowel that is more close than a [[mid vowel]]. That is, [[close-mid vowel]]s, [[near-close vowel]]s, and close vowels can all be considered high vowels.