Open-mid front unrounded vowel

IPA vowel chart
	•iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •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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Open-mid front unrounded vowel
ɛ
IPA number	303
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɛ
Unicode (hex)	U+025B
X-SAMPA	E
Kirshenbaum	E
Image
Sound
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The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-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 Greek epsilon, ⟨ɛ⟩.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. 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.

Features[edit]

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 as far forward as possible 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[edit]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		tre	[tɾɛ]	'three'
Catalan^[1]		mel	[mɛɫ]	'honey'	See Catalan phonology
Armenian	Eastern^[2]	էջ	[ɛd͡ʒ]	'page'
Chinese	Cantonese	蛇 se4	[sɛː˩]	'snake'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	斜 xié	[ɕjɛ˧˥]	'tilted'	See Mandarin phonology
	Wu	顏 ngae	[ŋɛ˥˨]	'face'
Czech		Amerika	[ˈämɛrɪkä]	'America'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard^[3]	frisk	[ˈfʁ̞ɛsɡ̊]	'fresh'	Typically transcribed /æ/. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard	bed	[bɛt] (help·info)	'bed'	See Dutch phonology
	Leiden	je	[jɛ̞ː] (help·info)	'you'	Corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
	Nijmegen
	The Hague
	Southern				Some dialects, corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
English	Irish	bed	[bɛd] (help·info)	'bed'	Older RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel [e̞]. See English phonology
	North American
	Received Pronunciation^[4]^[5]
	Scottish^[6]
	Cockney^[7]	fat	[fɛt]	'fat'
	New Zealand
	Singaporean^[8]
	South African^[9]				Some broad speakers. Others pronounce [æ].
	Southern English				Some dialects. Other speakers pronounce a more open vowel [æ ~ a].
	Belfast^[10]	days	[dɛːz]	'days'	Pronounced [iə] in closed syllables; corresponds to [eɪ] in RP.
	Zulu^[11]	mate	[mɛt]	'mate'	Speakers with a met-mate merger.
Faroese		elska	[ɛlska]	'love'
French^[12]		bête	[bɛt] (help·info)	'animal'	See French phonology
Galician		pé	[pɛ]	'foot'
Georgian^[13]		გედი	[ɡɛdi]	'swan'
German	Standard^[14]	Bett	[bɛtʰ] (help·info)	'bed'	See German phonology
Hindustani		شَہَر / शहर	[ʃɛɦɛr]	'city'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		nem	[nɛm]	'no'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		ég	[jɛɣ]	'I'	See Icelandic phonology
Italian^[15]		bene	[ˈbɛːne] (help·info)	'good'	See Italian phonology
Korean		태양	[tʰɛ.jaŋ]	'Sun'	See Korean phonology
Lithuanian		mane	[mɐˈnʲɛ]	'me' (acc.)
Luxembourgish^[16]		drécken	[ˈdʀɛkən]	'to push'	Allophone of /e/ before velar consonants; in free variation with [e].
Macedonian		елен	[ˈɛl̪ɛn̪]	'deer'	See Macedonian phonology
Ngwe	Njoagwi dialect	[lɛ̀rɛ́]		'eye'
North Frisian		tech	[tɛx]	'closed'
Polish^[17]		ten	[t̪ɛn̪] (help·info)	'this one' (masc. nom.)	See Polish phonology
Portuguese^[18]		café	[kɐˈfɛ]	'coffee'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian^[19]		это	[ˈɛt̪ə] (help·info)	'this'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		aig	[ɛk]	'at'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Seri		me	[mɛ]	'you'
Slovak		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'
Spanish^[20]	Eastern Andalusian	las madres	[læ̞ː ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛː]	'the mothers'	Corresponds to [e̞] in other dialects, but in these dialects they're distinct. See Spanish phonology
Spanish^[20]	Murcian	las madres	[læ̞ː ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛː]	'the mothers'
Swedish	Central Standard^[21]	ät	[ɛ̠ːt̪]	'eat' (imp.)	Somewhat retracted. See Swedish phonology
Turkish		süre	[syɾɛ]	'duration'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		береза	[bɛˈrɛz̪ɑ] (help·info)	'birch'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		e	[ɛ]	'to fear'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		têd	[tɛːt]	'languid'
Yoruba		ẹsẹ̀	[ɛ̄sɛ]	'leg'

The vowel transcribed /ɛ/ in Standard Eastern Norwegian is actually mid.^[22]

References[edit]

^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)
^ Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
^ Grønnum (1998:100–101)
^ Schmitt (2007:322–323)
^ "Received Pronunciation". British Library. Retrieved 26-5-2013.
^ Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7)
^ Hughes & Trudgill (1979:35)
^ Bet Hashim & Brown (2000)
^ Lanham (1967:9)
^ "Week 18 (ii). Northern Ireland". Retrieved 26-5-2013. ^{[better source needed]}
^ Rodrik Wade, MA Thesis, Ch 4: Structural characteristics of Zulu English at the Wayback Machine (archived May 17, 2008)
^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:261–262)
^ Mangold (2005:37)
^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)
^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
^ Jassem (2003:105)
^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
^ Jones & Ward (1969:41)
^ Zamora Vicente (1967:?)
^ Engstrand (1999:140)
^ Vanvik (1979:13)

Bibliography[edit]

Bet Hashim, Suzanna; Brown, Adam (2000), "The [e] and [æ] vowels in Singapore English", in Brown, Adam; Deterding, David; Ling, Low Ee Ling, The English Language in Singapore: Research on Pronunciation, Singapore: Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics, pp. 84–92, ISBN 981-04-2598-8
Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 140, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L. (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874
Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28 (1–2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006290
Hughes, Arthur; Trudgill, Peter (1979), English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English, Baltimore: University Park Press
Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
Lanham, Len W. (1967), The pronunciation of South African English, Cape Town: Balkema
Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, p. 37, ISBN 9783411040667
Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
Schmitt, Holger (2007), "The case for the epsilon symbol (ɛ) in RP DRESS", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (3): 321–328, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003131
Scobbie, James M; Gordeeva, Olga B.; Matthews, Benjamin (2006), Acquisition of Scottish English Phonology: an overview, Edinburgh: QMU Speech Science Research Centre Working Papers
Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetik, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 82-990584-0-6
Zamora Vicente, Alonso (1967), Dialectología española (2nd ed.), Biblioteca Romanica Hispanica, Editorial Gredos

[1] Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)

[2] Dum-Tragut (2009:13)

[3] Grønnum (1998:100–101)

[4] Schmitt (2007:322–323)

[5] "Received Pronunciation". British Library. Retrieved 26-5-2013.

[6] Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7)

[7] Hughes & Trudgill (1979:35)

[8] Bet Hashim & Brown (2000)

[9] Lanham (1967:9)

[10] "Week 18 (ii). Northern Ireland". Retrieved 26-5-2013. ^{[better source needed]}

[11] Rodrik Wade, MA Thesis, Ch 4: Structural characteristics of Zulu English at the Wayback Machine (archived May 17, 2008)

[12] Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)

[13] Shosted & Chikovani (2006:261–262)

[14] Mangold (2005:37)

[15] Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)

[16] Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)

[17] Jassem (2003:105)

[18] Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)

[19] Jones & Ward (1969:41)

[20] Zamora Vicente (1967:?)

[21] Engstrand (1999:140)

[22] Vanvik (1979:13)

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Open-mid front unrounded vowel

Contents

Features[edit]

Occurrence[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

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