Close-mid front unrounded vowel

IPA Number	302
Audio sample
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	e
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Close-mid front unrounded vowel

The close-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 e, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is e.

Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close 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.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch		vreemd	[vreːmt]	'strange'	See Dutch phonology
English	AuE and NZE	bed	[bed]	'bed'	See Australian English phonology
		bared	[beːd]	'bared'
	CaE	play	[pleː]	'play'	In more careful speech, may be diphthongized as in RP: [eɪ]
Faroese		eg	[eː]	'I'
French		beauté	[bote]	'beauty'	See French phonology
Old Georgian		მეფჱ	[mɛpʰej]	'king'
German		Seele	[ˈzeːlə]	'soul'	See German phonology
Hungarian		hét	[heːt]	'week, seven'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		stelle	[ˈstelle]	'stars'	See Italian phonology
Korean		'?'	[ˈpeːda]	'cut'
Norwegian		le	[leː]	'laugh'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish		dzień	[dʑeɲ]	'day'	See Polish phonology
Russian		шея	[ˈʂejə]	'neck'	Occurs only before soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Swedish		se	[seː]	'see'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		sel	[sel]	'flood'
Vietnamese		tê	[tē]	'numb'	See Vietnamese phonology

Mid front unrounded vowel

Many languages, such as English (RP), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish, have a mid front unrounded vowel that is clearly distinct to speakers from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [e] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used: [e̞].

Although many languages have only one non-close, non-open front vowel, there is no predisposition for it being mid. Igbo, for example, has a close-mid [e], whereas Bulgarian has an open-mid [ɛ] even though these languages don't contrast said vowels with another front mid vowel.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, the lowering diacritic has been omitted for the sake of simplicity.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian	keq	[kec]	'bad'
Croatian	deset	[deset]	'ten'
English (GA)	play	[pleː]	'play'	Is more often diphthongized to [e̞ɪ].
Greek	φαινόμενο	[fe̞ˈno̞me̞ˌno̞]	'phenomenon'	See Modern Greek phonology
Japanese	笑み	[emi]	'smile'	See Japanese phonology
Korean	베개	[peˈɡɛ]	'pillow'	See Korean phonology
Romanian	fete	[ˈfete]	'girls'	See Romanian phonology
Russian	человек	[ʨɪlʌˈvʲek]	'person'	Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbian	жена/žena	[ʒena]	'woman'
Spanish	bebé	[beˈβ̞e]	'baby'	See Spanish phonology
Turkish	kel	[kel]	'bald'

Reference

• Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn (1999). Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)