| Close-mid front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| e | |||
| IPA number | 302 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | e | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0065 | ||
| X-SAMPA | e | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-mid front unrounded vowel,1 is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨e⟩.
For the close-mid front unrounded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨ɪ⟩ or ⟨i⟩, see near-close front unrounded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨e⟩, the vowel is listed here.
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward 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
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard2 | bed | [bet] | 'bed' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. The height varies between close-mid [e] and mid [ɛ̝].2 See Afrikaans phonology |
| Arabic | Standard | مَجۡر۪ىٰهَا/majrēhā | [mad͡ʒ.reː.haː] | See imalah | |
| Azerbaijani | gecə/گئجه | [ɟeˈd͡ʒæ] | 'night' | ||
| Bengali | ভেজা | [bʱdʒɐ] | 'wet' | See Bengali phonology | |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect3 | ||||
| Breton | eget4 | [eˈɡet] | 'than' | ||
| Catalan5 | séc | [ˈsek] | 'fold' | See Catalan phonology | |
| Chinese | Shanghainese6 | 该/kè | [ke̠ʔ˩] | 'should' | Near-front; realization of /ɛ/, which appears only in open syllables. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ɪ/ ([ɪ̞]), which appears only in closed syllables.6 |
| Chuvash | эрешмен/ereşmen | [erɛʃ'mɛnʲ] | 'spider' | ||
| Danish | Standard78 | hæl | [ˈheːˀl] | 'heel' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Belgian9 | vreemd | [vreːmt] | 'strange' | In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [eɪ]. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Australian10 | bed | [bed] | 'bed' | See Australian English phonology |
| New Zealand11 | The height varies from near-close in broad varieties to mid in the Cultivated variety.11 See New Zealand English phonology | ||||
| General American12 | may | [meː] | 'may' | Most often a closing diphthong [eɪ].12 | |
| General Indian13 | Realized closer to [j̚e]. | ||||
| General Pakistani14 | Can be a diphthong [eɪ] instead, depending on speaker. | ||||
| Geordie15 | |||||
| Scottish16 | |||||
| Singaporean17 | |||||
| Ulster18 | Pronounced [ɛː~iə] in Belfast. | ||||
| Some Cardiff speakers19 | square | [skweː] | 'square' | More often open-mid [ɛː].19 | |
| Scouse20 | May (less commonly) be less open [ɪː] or more open [ɛː] instead21 | ||||
| Scottish16 | bit | [bë̞ʔ] | 'bit' | Near-front,16 may be [ɪ] (also [ə]) instead for other speakers. | |
| Cockney22 | bird | [bɛ̝̈ːd] | 'bird' | Near-front; occasional realization of /ɜː/. It can be rounded [œ̝ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead.22 Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. | |
| Estonian23 | keha | [ˈkeɦɑ̝ˑ] | 'body' | See Estonian phonology | |
| French2425 | beauté | [bot̪e] | 'beauty' | See French phonology | |
| German | Standard2627 | Seele | ⓘ | 'soul' | See Standard German phonology |
| Many speakers28 | Jäger | [ˈjeːɡɐ] | 'hunter' | Outcome of the /ɛː–eː/ merger found universally in Northern Germany, Eastern Germany and Eastern Austria (often even in formal speech) and in some other regions.28 See Standard German phonology | |
| Southern accents29 | Bett | [b̥et] | 'bed' | Common realization of /ɛ/ in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria.29 See Standard German phonology | |
| Swabian accent29 | Contrasts with the open-mid [ɛ].29 See Standard German phonology | ||||
| Greek | Sfakian30 | Corresponds to mid [e̞] in Modern Standard Greek.31 See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Hebrew32 | כן/ken | [ke̞n] | 'yes' | Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology | |
| Hindustani | Hindi | तेज़/tez | [t̪eːz] | 'fast', 'sharp' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Urdu | تیز/tez | ||||
| Hungarian33 | hét | [heːt̪] | 'seven' | Also described as mid [e̞ː].34 See Hungarian phonology | |
| Italian | Standard35 | stelle | [ˈs̪t̪elle] | 'stars' | See Italian phonology |
| Khmer | ទុរេន / turen | [tureːn] | 'durian' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Korean | 메아리 / meari | [meɐɾi] | 'echo' | See Korean phonology | |
| Limburgish | Most dialects363738 | leef | [leːf] | 'dear' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. |
| Lithuanian | tėtė | [t̪eːt̪eː] | 'father' | 'Tete' and 'tėtis' are more commonly used than 'tėtė.' | |
| Malay | Standard | kecil | [kə.t͡ʃel] | 'small' | Allophone of /i/ in closed-final syllables. May be [ɪ] or [e̞] depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology |
| habis | [ha.bes] | 'run out' | Allophone of [ɪ]. See Malay phonology | ||
| Malayalam | ചെവി/čevi | [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] | 'ear' | See Malayalam phonology | |
| Marathi | एक/ek | [e:k] | 'one' | See Marathi phonology | |
| Norwegian | le | [leː] | 'laugh' | The example word is from Urban East Norwegian.3940 See Norwegian phonology | |
| Mpade41 | faɗe | [faɗe] | 'night' | ||
| Persian | سه/se | [se] | 'three' | ||
| Polish42 | dzień | ⓘ | 'day' | Allophone of /ɛ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese43 | mesa | [ˈmezɐ] | 'table' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Romanian | umple | [ˈumple] | 'to fill' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Russian44 | шея/šeja | ⓘ | 'neck' | Close-mid [e] before and between soft consonants, mid [e̞] after soft consonants.44 See Russian phonology | |
| Saterland Frisian45 | tään | [te̠ːn] | 'thin' | Near-front; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ɪ/ ([ɪ̞]). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨eː⟩ is actually near-close [e̝ː].45 | |
| Slovene46 | sedem | [ˈsèːdəm] | 'seven' | See Slovene phonology | |
| Sotho47 | ho jwetsa | [hʊ̠ʒʷet͡sʼɑ̈] | 'to tell' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels.47 See Sotho phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard4849 | se | [s̪eː] | 'see' | Often diphthongized to [eə̯] (hear the word: ⓘ). See Swedish phonology |
| Tahitian | vahine | [vahine] | 'woman' | ||
| Tamil | செவி/čevi | [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] | 'ear' | See Tamil phonology | |
| Ukrainian | ефі́рний efirný | [eˈfirnɪj] | 'ethereal' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Welsh | chwech | [χweːχ] | 'six' | See Welsh phonology | |
| Yoruba50 | |||||
Notes
Notes
- While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/".
- Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
- Mikael Madeg, Traité de prononciation du breton du Nord-Ouest à l’usage des bretonnants, Emgleo Breiz, Brest, 2010
- Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
- Chen & Gussenhoven (2015), p. 328.
- Grønnum (1998), p. 100.
- Basbøll (2005), p. 45.
- Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
- Harrington, Cox & Evans (1997).
- Gordon & Maclagan (2004), p. 609.
- Wells (1982), p. 487.
- Wells (1982), p. 626.
- Mahboob & Ahmar (2004), p. 1010.
- Watt & Allen (2003), pp. 268–269.
- Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006), p. 7.
- Deterding (2000), p. ?.
- "Week 18 (ii). Northern Ireland" (PDF).
- Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
- Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180, S2CID 232345844
- Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 358, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180, S2CID 232345844
- Wells (1982), p. 305.
- Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
- Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
- Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
- Kohler (1999), p. 87.
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), pp. 64–65.
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
- Trudgill (2009), pp. 83–84.
- Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
- Laufer (1999), p. 98.
- Kráľ (1988), p. 92.
- Szende (1994), p. 92.
- Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
- Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
- Peters (2006), p. 119.
- Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
- Vanvik (1979), pp. 13–14.
- Kvifte & Gude-Husken (2005), p. 4.
- Allison (2006).
- Jassem (2003), p. 106.
- Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
- Jones & Ward (1969), pp. 41, 44.
- Peters (2019), p. ?.
- Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 137.
- Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
- Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
- Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
- Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.
References
References
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- Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966), A Grammar of Yoruba, [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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- Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
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- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990), "The Phonetics of Cardiff English", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 87–103, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
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