Close-mid front unrounded vowel
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| Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending ː.
| IPA – number | 302 |
| IPA – text | e |
| IPA – image |  |
| Entity | e |
| X-SAMPA | e |
| Kirshenbaum | e |
 Sound sample (help·info) |
|
Contents |
[edit] Close-mid front unrounded vowel
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.
[edit] Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a 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.
[edit] Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalan[1] | cec | [sek] | 'blind' | See Catalan phonology | |
| Dutch | vreemd | [vreːmt] | 'strange' | See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Australian | bed | [bed] | 'bed' | See Australian English phonology |
| North American | play | [pl̥eː] | 'play' | Some dialects. Many speakers have a diphthong of the type [eɪ] instead. | |
| Faroese | eg | [eː] | 'I' | ||
| French[2] | beauté | [bote] | 'beauty' | See French phonology | |
| Georgian[3] | მეფჱ | [mɛpʰej] | 'king' | ||
| German | Seele | [ˈzeːlə] | 'soul' | See German phonology | |
| Hungarian | hét | [heːt] | 'week, seven' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Italian[4] | stelle | [ˈstelle] | 'stars' | See Italian phonology | |
| Korean | 베다/peda | [ˈpeːda] | 'to cut' | See Korean phonology | |
| Norwegian | le | [leː] | 'laugh' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Polish | dzień | [dʑeɲ] | 'day' | See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese[5] | mesa | [meza] | 'table' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Russian[6] | шея | [ˈʂejə] | 'neck' | Occurs only before soft consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Swedish | se | [seː] | 'see' | See Swedish phonology | |
| Vietnamese | tê | [tē] | 'numb' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[7] | example needed | [] | Occurs mostly after [i], otherwise the vowel is central [ɘ] | |
[edit] Mid front unrounded vowel
Many languages, such as Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Greek and Turkish, have a mid front unrounded vowel that is clearly distinct to speakers from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. A number of dialects of English also have such a mid front vowel. 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 do not contrast said vowels with another mid front vowel.
[edit] Occurrence
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 | Yorkshire[8] | play | [pleː] | 'play' | See English phonology |
| Hebrew | חלק | [χelek] | 'part' | Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Hebrew phonology | |
| Finnish | menen | [menen] | 'I (will) go' | ||
| Greek | φαινόμενο | [feˈnomeˌno] | 'phenomenon' | 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[9] | человек | [ʨɪlɐˈvʲek] | 'person' | Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Serbian | жена/žena | [ʒena] | 'woman' | ||
| Spanish[10] | bebé | [beˈβ̞e] | 'baby' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Turkish | ev | [ev] | 'house' | See Turkish phonology | |
[edit] References
- ^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)
- ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
- ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:261-262)
- ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)
- ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:44)
- ^ Merrill (2008:109-10)
- ^ Roca & Johnson (1999:179)
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:41)
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:256)
[edit] Bibliography
- Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
- Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969). The Phonetics of Russian. Cambridge University Press.
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
- Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquipan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107-114
- Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999). A Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing.
- Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264
