Vowel height

Height

The Kensiu language, spoken in Malaysia and Thailand, is highly unusual in contrasting true mid vowels with both close-mid and open-mid vowels, without any additional parameters such as length, roundness or ATR. The front vowels, /iɪee̞ɛ/, along with open /a/, make a six-way height distinction; this holds even for the nasal vowels. A few varieties of German have been reported to have five contrastive vowel heights that are independent of length or other parameters. For example, the Bavarian dialect of Amstetten has thirteen long vowels, which have been analyzed as four vowel heights (close, close-mid, mid, open-mid) each among the front unrounded, front rounded, and back rounded vowels, along with an open vowel for a fifth height: /ieɛ̝ɛ/,/yøœ̝œ/,/uoɔ̝ɔ/,/a/. Apart from the aforementioned Kensiu language, no other language is known to contrast more than four degrees of vowel height.