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Close-mid front unrounded vowel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Edit - 2× | Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back |
| Close | |||||
| Near‑close | |||||
| Close‑mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open‑mid | |||||
| Near‑open | |||||
| Open | |||||
represents a rounded vowel.
| IPA – number | 302 |
| IPA – text | e |
| IPA – image |  |
| Entity | e |
| X-SAMPA | e |
| Kirshenbaum | e |
| Sound sample | |
|---|---|
Contents |
The close-mid front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is e, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is e.
- Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | één | [eːn] | 'one' | See Dutch phonology | |
| Eng lish |
RP, AuE and NZE | bed | [bed] | 'bed' | See Australian English phonology |
| CaE | play | [pleː] | 'play' | In more careful speech, may be diphthongized as in RP: [eɪ] | |
| Faroese | eg | [eː] | 'I' | ||
| French | beauté | [bote] | 'beauty' | See French phonology | |
| German | Seele | [ˈzeːlə] | 'soul' | See German phonology | |
| Hungarian | hét | [eːt] | 'week, seven' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Italian | stelle | [ˈstelle] | 'stars' | See Italian phonology | |
| Japanese | 円/en | [eɴ] | 'yen' | See Japanese phonology | |
| Korean | '?' | [ˈpeːda] | 'cut' | ||
| Norwegian | le | [leː] | 'laugh' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Polish | dzień | [dʑeɲ] | 'day' | See Polish phonology | |
| Russian | шея | [ˈʂejə] | 'neck' | Occurs only before soft consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Swedish | se | [seː] | 'see' | See Swedish phonology | |
| Turkish | sel | [sel] | 'flood' | ||
| Vietnamese | tê | [tē] | 'numb' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
Many languages, such as Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish, have a mid front unrounded vowel that is clearly distinct to speakers from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [e] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used: [e̞].
Although many languages have only one non-close, non-open front vowel, there is no predisposition for it being mid. Igbo, for example, has a close-mid [e], whereas Bulgarian has an open-mid [ɛ] even though these languages don't contrast said vowels with another front mid vowel.
In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian | keq | [kec] | 'bad' | |
| Croatian | deset | [deset] | 'ten' | |
| English (GA) | play | [pleː] | 'play' | Is more often diphthongized to [e̞ɪ]. |
| Greek | ένα | [ˈena] | 'one' | Also represented by <αι>. See Modern Greek phonology |
| Japanese | 笑み | [emi] | 'smile' | See Japanese phonology |
| Korean | 베개 | [peˈɡɛ] | 'pillow' | See Korean phonology |
| Romanian | fete | [ˈfete] | 'girls' | See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | человек | [ʨɪlʌˈvʲek] | 'person' | Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology |
| Serbian | жена/žena | [ʒena] | 'woman' | |
| Spanish | bebé | [beˈβ̞e] | 'baby' | See Spanish phonology |
| Turkish | kel | [kel] | 'bald' |
- Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn (1999). Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing.