Near-open front unrounded vowel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Near-open front unrounded vowel | |||
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| æ | |||
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| IPA number | 325 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | æ |
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| Unicode (hex) | U+00E6 | ||
| X-SAMPA | { |
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| Kirshenbaum | & |
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| Sound | |||
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The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low 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 ⟨æ⟩, a lowercase ae ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash."
The IPA prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of this article follows this preference. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.
In practice, /æ/ is sometimes used to represent an open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.
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[edit] Features
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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view |
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- Its vowel height is near-open, also known as near-low, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but is slightly more constricted – that is, the tongue is positioned similarly to a low vowel, but slightly higher.
- 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahtna | kuggaedi | [kʰuk̠æti] | 'mosquito' | ||
| Arabic | Standard[1] | كتاب | [kiˈt̪æːb] | 'book' | Allophone of /a/ in the environment of plain labial and coronal consonants as well as /j/. See Arabic phonology |
| Azerbaijani | səs | [sæs] | 'sound' | ||
| Bengali | এক | [æk] | 'one' | See Bengali phonology | |
| Danish | Dansk | [d̥ænsɡ̊] | 'Danish' | See Danish phonology | |
| English | cat | [kʰæt] | 'cat' | In some accents it is more open. In others it is closer. The length also varies. See English phonology | |
| Finnish | mäki | [ˈmæki] | 'hill' | See Finnish phonology | |
| German | Bernese | drääje | [ˈtræːjə] | 'turn' | See Bernese German phonology |
| Greek[2] | Thessaly, Macedonia, Thrace | [example needed] | [] | -- | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hindi | बैल | [bæl] | 'oxen' | See Hindi-Urdu phonology | |
| Jalapa Mazatec | tsæ | [tsǣ] | 'guava' | ||
| Lithuanian | eglė | [ˈæɡleː] | 'spruce tree' | ||
| Norwegian | lær | [læːɾ] | 'leather' | See Norwegian phonology | |
| Persian | در | [dær] | 'door' | See Persian phonology | |
| Polish | jajko | [jæjkɔ] | 'egg' | Allophone of /a/ between soft consonants. See Polish phonology | |
| Russian[3] | пять | [pʲætʲ] | 'five' | Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Sinhala | කැමති | [kæməti] | 'to like' | ||
| Slovak[4] | väzy | [ˈʋæzɪ] | 'ligaments' | Somewhat rare pronunciation, with [ɛ] being more common. | |
| Swedish | päron | [ˈpæˌrɔn] | 'pear' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology | |
| Turkish | sen | [sæn] | 'you' | Allophone of /e/ before syllable-final /l m n ɾ/. See Turkish phonology | |
| Vietnamese | Some northern dialects | pha | [fæ] | 'phase' | Corresponds to [a] in other dialects. See Vietnamese phonology |
| West Frisian | Hindeloopers | tät | [tæt] | 'horse' (children’s language) | |
| Yaghan | mæpi | [mæpi] | 'reed' | ||
[edit] References
- ^ Holes (2004:60)
- ^ Newton (1972:11)
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:50)
- ^ Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
[edit] Bibliography
- Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (3): 373–378
- Holes, Clive (2004), Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 1589010221
- Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Newton, Brian (1972). The Generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology. Cabridge Studies in Linguistics. 8. Cambridge University Press.
