Open-mid front unrounded vowel

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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
Sound

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.

Contents

Features[edit]

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back
Close
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
iy
ɨʉ
ɯu
ɪʏ
eø
ɘɵ
ɤo
ɛœ
ɜɞ
ʌɔ
aɶ
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 • Loudspeaker.svg chart with audio • view

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 se4 [sɛː˩] 'snake' See Cantonese phonology
Mandarin xié [ɕjɛ˧˥] 'tilted' See Mandarin phonology
Wu 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 About this sound [bɛt]  'bed' See Dutch phonology
Leiden je About this sound [jɛ̞ː]  'you' Corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
Nijmegen
The Hague
Southern Some dialects, corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
English Irish bed About this sound [bɛd]  'bed' Older RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel []. 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 About this sound [bɛt]  'animal' See French phonology
Galician pé [pɛ] 'foot'
Georgian[13] გედი [ɡɛdi] 'swan'
German Standard[14] Bett About this sound [bɛtʰ]  '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 About this sound [ˈbɛːne]  '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 About this sound [t̪ɛn̪]  'this one' (masc. nom.) See Polish phonology
Portuguese[18] café [kɐˈfɛ] 'coffee' See Portuguese phonology
Russian[19] это About this sound [ˈɛt̪ə]  '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 [] in other dialects, but in these dialects they're distinct. See Spanish phonology
Murcian
Swedish Central Standard[21] ät [ɛ̠ːt̪] 'eat' (imp.) Somewhat retracted. See Swedish phonology
Turkish süre [syɾɛ] 'duration' See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian береза About this sound [bɛˈrɛz̪ɑ]  'birch' See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese e [ɛ] 'to fear' See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian têd [tɛːt] 'languid'
Yoruba sẹ̀ [ɛ̄sɛ] 'leg'

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

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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