Close front unrounded vowel

Close front unrounded vowel
i
IPA number	301
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	i
Unicode (hex)	U+0069
X-SAMPA	i
Kirshenbaum	i
Braille
Sound
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The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound that occurs in many spoken languages, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the symbol i. It is similar to the vowel sound in the English word meet — and often called long-e in American English — although in English this sound has additional length (usually being represented as /iː/) and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slight diphthong) – a purer [i] sound is heard in many other languages, such as French, in words like chic.

Languages that use the Latin script commonly use the letter ⟨i⟩ to represent this sound, though there are some exceptions: in English orthography that letter is usually associated with /aɪ/ (as in bite) or /ɪ/ (as in bit), and /iː/ is more commonly represented by ⟨e⟩, ⟨ea⟩, ⟨ee⟩, ⟨ie⟩ or ⟨ei⟩, as in the words scene, bean, meet, niece, conceive. Irish orthography reflects both etymology and whether preceding consonants are broad or slender, so such combinations as ⟨aí⟩, ⟨ei⟩, and ⟨aío⟩ all represent /iː/.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ æ ɐ •aɶ ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• 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. Note that rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that they're in fact near-front.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ажьырныҳәа	[aʑirnuħʷo]	'January'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		ти	[ti]	'our'
Afrikaans		dankie	[ˈdaŋki]	'thank you'
Albanian		mali	[mali]	'the mountain'
Arabic	Standard	دين	[d̪iːn]	'religion'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	իմ	[im]	'my'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		mees	[miːs]	'table'	Used predominantly in the Urmia and Nochiya dialects. Corresponds to [ɛ] in other varieties.
Azerbaijani		dili	[dili]	'tree'
Basque		bizar	[bis̻ar]	'beard'
Bengali		আমি	[ami]	'I'	See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian		първи	[pɤrvi]	first
Catalan		sis	[ˈs̠is̠]	'six'	See Catalan phonology
Chickasaw		lhinko	[ɬiŋko]	'to be fat'
Chinese	Cantonese	詩 si1	[siː˥]	'poem'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	北京 běijīng	[peɪ˨˩ tɕiŋ˥]	'Beijing'	See Mandarin phonology
Cornish		hir	[hiːr]	'long'
Czech		bílý	[ˈbiːliː]	'white'	See Czech phonology
Dahalo		[ʡáɬi]		'fat'
Danish		bilist	[b̥iˈlisd]	'car driver'	See Danish phonology
Dutch		biet	[bit]	'beet'	See Dutch phonology
English		free	[fɹiː]	'free'	Depending on dialect, can be pronounced as a diphthong. See English phonology
		happy	[ˈhæpi]	'happy'	See happy-tensing
Estonian		tiik	[tiːk]	'pond'
Faroese		il	[iːl]	'sole'
Finnish		viisi	[ˈviːsi]	'five'	See Finnish phonology
French		fini	[fini]	'finished'	See French phonology
Georgian		სამი	[ˈsɑmi]	'three'
German	Standard	Ziel	[t͡siːl]	'goal'	See German phonology
Greek		κήπος kípos	[ˈcipos]	'garden'	Also represented by ⟨ι⟩, ⟨υ⟩, ⟨ει⟩, ⟨οι⟩, and ⟨υι⟩. See Modern Greek phonology
Guaraní		ha’ukuri	[haʔukuˈɾi]	'I just ate'
Hawaiian		makani	[makani]	'breeze'	See Hawaiian phonology
Hebrew		דיר	[diʁ]	'pen' (enclosure)	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		ہندی / हिन्दी	[ˈɦɪnd̪i]	'Hindi'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		ív	[iːv]	'arch'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		líka	[liːka]	'also'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian		ini	[ini]	'this'
Irish		sí	[ʃiː]	'she'	See Irish phonology
Italian		bile	[ˈbile]	'rage'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		銀 gin	[ɡʲiɴ]	'silver'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian		ди	[di]	'our'
Korean		시장 sijang	[ɕiˈd͡ʑɐŋ]	'hunger'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish		zîndu	[ziːndu]	'alive'
Latvian		šķīvi	[ˈʃciːvi]	'plate' (acc.)
Lithuanian		įbrolis	[ˈîːbroːlʲɪs̪]	'half-brother'
Luxembourgish		Kiischt	[kʰiːʃt]	'cherry'
Macedonian		јазик	[ˈjäz̪ik]	'tongue'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		biru	[biru]	'blue'
Maltese		bieb	[biːb]	'door'
Navajo		biwosh	[biɣʷoʃ]	'his cactus'	See Navajo phonology
North Frisian	Mooring	hii	[iːl]	'owl'
Norwegian		is	[iːs]	'ice'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan	Northern	miralhar	[miɾaˈʎa]	'to reflect'	See Occitan phonology
	Southern
	Gascon	polida	[puˈlið̞o̞]	'pretty'
Pashto		پانير	[pɑˈnir]	'cheese'
Persian		کی	[kiː]	'who'	See Persian phonology
Pirahã		baíxi	[màíʔì]	'parent'
Polish		miś	[ˈmʲiɕ]	'teddy bear'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese	European	dióspiro	[diˈɔʃpiɾu]	'persimmon'	An allophone of unstressed /ɛ ~ e/ in most Brazilian Portuguese variants (being [e ~ ɪ] instead in São Paulo and the South), and only in hiatuses in Europe (otherwise [ɨ]), too. May be represented by ⟨y⟩. See Portuguese phonology
	Brazilian	menininho	[miniˈnĩ j̃u]	'little boy'
Punjabi		ਪੰਜਾਬੀ	[pənˈd͡ʒäbi]	'Punjabi Language'
Quechua		allin	[ˈaʎin]	'good'
Romanian		insulă	[ˈin̪s̪ulə]	'island'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		лист	[lʲis̪t̪]	'leaf'	Only occurs word-initially or after palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		chì	[xiː]	'shall see'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		милина / milina	[milina]	'enjoyment'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		cmiique	[ˈkw̃ĩːkːɛ]	'person'
Sindhi		سنڌي	[sɪndʱiː]	'Sindhi'
Sioux	Lakota	ǧí	[ʀí]	'it's brown'
Slovak		rýchly	[ˈriːxlɪ]	'fast'
Spanish		tipo	[ˈt̪ipo̞]	'type'	May also be represented by ⟨y⟩. See Spanish phonology
Swahili		miti	[miti]	'trees'
Swedish		is	[iːs̪]	'ice'	See Swedish phonology
Tagalog		silya	[ˈsiljɐ]	'chair'	See Tagalog phonology
Tajik		бинӣ	[biˈniː]	'nose'
Thai		กริช	[krìt]	'dagger'
Turkish		ip	[ip]	'rope'	See Turkish phonology
Ubykh		[ɡʲi]		'heart'	Allophone of /ə/ after palatalized consonants. See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian		кіт	[kʲit̪]	'cat'	See Ukrainian phonology
Uyghur		yip	[jip]	'rope'	See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamese		ty	[ti]	'bureau'	See Vietnamese phonology
Võro		kirotas	[kʲirotas]	'he writes'
Welsh		hir	[hiːr]	'long'
West Frisian		siik	[siːk]	'ill'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	diza	[d̪iza]	'Zapotec'
Zulu		umuzi	[uˈmuːzi]	'village'

Bibliography

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