vokalsystem

A vokalsystem is the set of vowel phonemes that a language uses to distinguish meaning. It describes how many distinct vowels the language has and how they contrast in quality, typically in terms of height, backness, and rounding. In many languages, additional features such as vowel length, nasalization, or phonation can also be phonemic, meaning that they create different word meanings.

Vowels are commonly classified by height (high, mid, open), by backness (front, central, back), and by rounding (rounded or unrounded). Some languages also mark tense versus lax vowels or specify nasalized vowels as separate phonemic categories. The system may include monophthongs (steady-state vowels) and diphthongs (vowel transitions). The exact inventory and contrasts shape how syllables are formed and how words pronounce in connected speech.

Typologically, vowel systems vary from small inventories of five vowels to large inventories with seven or more phonemes, often including front rounded vowels like [y] or [ø]. Some languages maintain a relatively pure vowel quality system, while others rely more on vowel length or nasalization as contrastive features. Vowel harmony, vowel reduction in unstressed syllables, and other phonological processes can further influence how vowels behave in different dialects or phonological environments.

In speech description and language study, vowels are typically analyzed with reference to the International Phonetic Alphabet, even though orthographic representations in writing systems may not map directly to the underlying phonemes. Vokalsystem development and variation are central to phonology, dialectology, and historical linguistics.