Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
In a recent paper J. D. McClure (1972) objects to some basic principles of the IPA vowel system. According to him neither the division of the cardinal vowels into ‘primaries’ and ‘secondaries’, nor the mixing of rounded and unrounded in each of these two sets of vowels can be justified. It is obvious that McClure is perfectly right although he argues perhaps slightly more vigorously than needed. As a matter of fact, one wonders if anybody would wish to object to the points he is making.