The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-mid front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is a Latinized variant of the Greek lowercase epsilon, ⟨ɛ⟩.
| Open-mid front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɛ | |||
| IPA Number | 303 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɛ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+025B | ||
| X-SAMPA | E | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
Legend: unrounded • rounded
Features
- Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akan (Twi) | ɛyɛ | [ɛjɛ] | 'it is good/fine' | See Akan phonology | |
| Arabic | See Imāla | ||||
| Armenian | Eastern[2] | էջ/ēj | [ɛd͡ʒ] | 'page' | |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect[3] | [example needed] | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨æ⟩. | ||
| Bengali[4] | এক/ek | [ɛk] | 'one' | Alternative transcription and phonetic realisation of [æ] and an allophone of [e]. See Bengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian[5] | пет/pet | [pɛt̪] | 'five' | See Bulgarian phonology | |
| Catalan[6] | set | [ˈsɛt] | 'seven' | See Catalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Mandarin[7] | 天 / tiān | ⓘ | 'sky' | Height varies between mid and open depending on the speaker. See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Chuvash | ҫепĕç | ['ɕɛp̬ɘɕ] | 'gentle, tender' | ||
| Czech[8][9] | led | [lɛt] | 'ice' | In Bohemian Czech, this vowel varies between open-mid front [ɛ], open-mid near-front [ɛ̠] and mid near-front [ɛ̝̈].[8] See Czech phonology | |
| Danish | Standard[10][11] | frisk | [ˈfʁɛsk] | 'fresh' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨æ⟩. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard[12] | bed | ⓘ | 'bed' | See Dutch phonology |
| The Hague[13] | jij | ⓘ | 'you' | Corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch. | |
| English | General American[14] | bed | ⓘ | 'bed' | |
| Northern England[15] | May be somewhat lowered.[15] | ||||
| Received Pronunciation[16][17] | Older RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel [e̞]. See English phonology | ||||
| General Australian | Realization of [e], particularly by younger speakers. See Australian English phonology | ||||
| Scottish[18] | |||||
| Cockney[19] | fat | [fɛt] | 'fat' | ||
| Singaporean[20] | |||||
| New Zealand[21] | See New Zealand English phonology | ||||
| Some Broad South African speakers[22] | Other speakers realize this vowel as [æ] or [a]. See South African English phonology | ||||
| Belfast[23] | days | [dɛːz] | 'days' | Pronounced [iə] in closed syllables; corresponds to [eɪ] in RP. | |
| Zulu[24] | mate | [mɛt] | 'mate' | Speakers exhibit a met-mate merger. | |
| Faroese[25] | frekt | [fɹɛʰkt] | 'greedy' | See Faroese phonology | |
| French[26][27] | bête | ⓘ | 'beast' | See French phonology | |
| Galician | ferro | [ˈfɛro̝] | 'iron' | See Galician phonology | |
| Georgian[28] | გედი/gedi | [ɡɛdi] | 'swan' | ||
| German | Standard[29][30] | Bett | ⓘ | 'bed' | Also described as mid [ɛ̝].[31] See Standard German phonology |
| Franconian accent[32] | oder | [ˈoːdɛ] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ].[32] See Standard German phonology | |
| Coastal Northern accents[32] | |||||
| Swabian accent[33] | fett | [fɛt] | 'fat' | Contrasts with the close-mid [e].[33] See Standard German phonology | |
| Western Swiss accents[34] | See | [z̥ɛː] | 'lake' | Close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the near-open [æː].[35] See Standard German phonology | |
| Hindustani | Hindi | रहना | [ˈɾɛɦna] | 'to stay' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Urdu | رہنا | ||||
| Hungarian | lesz | [ˈlɛs] | 'will be' | Allophone of [æ]. | |
| Italian[36] | bene | ⓘ | 'good' | See Italian phonology | |
| Kaingang[37] | mbre | [ˈᵐbɾɛ] | 'with' | ||
| Korean | 매미 / maemi | [mɛːmi] | 'cicada' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kurdish | Kurmanji (Northern) | hevde | [hɛvdɛ] | 'seventeen' | See Kurdish phonology |
| Sorani (Central) | ههڤده/hevde | [hɛvdæ] | |||
| Pehlewî (Southern) | [hɛvdæ] | ||||
| Limburgish[38][39][40] | crème | [kʀ̝ɛːm] | 'cream' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. | |
| Lithuanian | mesti | [mɛs̪t̪ɪ] | 'throw' | See Lithuanian phonology | |
| Lower Sorbian[41] | serp | [s̪ɛrp] | 'sickle' | ||
| Luxembourgish[42] | Stär | [ʃtɛːɐ̯] | 'star' | Allophone of /eː/ before /ʀ/.[42] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Macedonian[43][44] | Standard | мед/med | [ˈmɛd̪] | 'honey' | See Macedonian language § Vowels |
| Malay | Standard | paling | [pälɛŋ] | 'to play' | Possible realisation of /i/ and /e/ in closed final syllables. See Malay phonology |
| Negeri Sembilan | cepat | [cɔpɛɁ] | 'quick' | See Negeri Sembilan Malay | |
| Kelatan-Pattani | ayam | [äjɛː] | 'chicken' | See Kelatan-Pattani | |
| Terengganu | biasa | [bɛsə] | 'normal' | See Terengganu Malay | |
| Perak | mata | [matɛ] | 'eye' | See Perak Malay | |
| Norman | Jersey | affaûrder | [afɔrˈdɛ] | 'to afford' | |
| Norwegian | Sognamål[45] | pest | [pʰɛst] | 'plague' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Occitan | grèga | [ˈɣɾɛɣɔ] | 'Greek' | See Occitan phonology | |
| Polish[46] | ten | ⓘ | 'this one' (nom. m.) | See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese | Most dialects[47][48] | pé | [ˈpɛ] | 'foot' | Stressed vowel might be lower [æ]. The presence and use of other unstressed ⟨e⟩ allophones, such as [e̞ e ɪ i ɨ], varies according to dialect. |
| Some speakers[49] | tempo | [ˈt̪ɛ̃mpu] | 'time' | Timbre differences for nasalized vowels are mainly kept in European Portuguese. See Portuguese phonology | |
| Romanian | Transylvanian dialects[50] | vede | [ˈvɛɟe] | '(he) sees' | Corresponds to mid [e̞] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology |
| Russian[51] | это/eto | ⓘ | 'this' | See Russian phonology | |
| Shiwiar[52] | [example needed] | Allophone of /a/. | |||
| Slovene | met | [mɛ́t] | 'throw' (n.) | See Slovene phonology | |
| Spanish | Eastern Andalusian[53] | las madres | [læ̞ː ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛː] | 'the mothers' | Corresponds to [e̞] in other dialects, but in these dialects they are distinct. See Spanish phonology |
| Murcian[53] | |||||
| Swahili | shule | [ʃulɛ] | 'school' | ||
| Swedish | Central Standard[54] | ät | [ɛ̠ːt̪] | 'eat' (imp.) | Somewhat retracted.[54] See Swedish phonology |
| Tagalog | peke | [ˈpɛxɛʔ] | 'fake' | See Tagalog phonology | |
| Telugu | చేప | [tʃɛːa] | 'Fish' | ||
| మేక | [mɛːka] | 'Goat' | |||
| Thai | แตร / trae | [trɛː˧] | 'horn (instrument)' | ||
| Turkish[55][56] | ülke | [y̠l̠ˈcɛ] | 'country' | Allophone of /e/ described variously as "word-final"[55] and "occurring in final open syllable of a phrase".[56] See Turkish phonology | |
| Ukrainian[57] | день/den' | [dɛnʲ] | 'day' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Upper Sorbian[41][58] | čelo | [ˈt͡ʃɛlɔ] | 'calf' | ||
| Welsh | nesaf | [nɛsav] | 'next' | See Welsh phonology | |
| West Frisian[59] | beppe | [ˈbɛpə] | 'grandma' | See West Frisian phonology | |
| Yoruba[60] | ẹsẹ̀ | [ɛ̄sɛ] | 'leg' | ||
See also
Notes
References
External links
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