IPA – number 302
IPA – text e
Entity e
X-SAMPA e
Kirshenbaum e
Sound sample (help·info)

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
Catalan[1] cec [sek] 'blind' See Catalan phonology
Dutch vreemd [vreːmt] 'strange' See Dutch phonology
English Australian bed [bed] 'bed' See Australian English phonology
North American play [pl̥eː] 'play' Some dialects. Many speakers have a diphthong of the type [eɪ] instead.
Faroese eg [eː] 'I'
French[2] beauté [bote] 'beauty' See French phonology
Georgian[3] მეფჱ [mɛpʰej] 'king'
German Seele [ˈzeːlə] 'soul' See German phonology
Hungarian hét [heːt] 'week, seven' See Hungarian phonology
Italian[4] stelle [ˈstelle] 'stars' See Italian phonology
Korean 베다/peda [ˈpeːda] 'to cut' See Korean phonology
Norwegian le [leː] 'laugh' See Norwegian phonology
Polish dzień [dʑeɲ] 'day' See Polish phonology
Portuguese[5] mesa [meza] 'table' See Portuguese phonology
Russian[6] шея [ˈʂejə] 'neck' Occurs only before soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Swedish se [seː] 'see' See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese tê [tē] 'numb' See Vietnamese phonology

Mid front unrounded vowel

Many languages, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Greek and Turkish, have a mid front unrounded vowel that is clearly distinct to speakers from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. A number of dialects of such as English also have such a mid-front vowel. 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 Yorkshire[7] play [pleː] 'play' See English phonology
Hebrew חלק [χelek] 'part' Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Hebrew phonology
Finnish menen [menen] 'I (will) go'
Greek φαινόμενο [feˈnomeˌno] '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[8] человек [ʨɪlɐˈvʲek] 'person' Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbian жена/žena [ʒena] 'woman'
Spanish[9] bebé [beˈβ̞e] 'baby' See Spanish phonology
Turkish kel [kel] 'bald' See Turkish phonology

References

Bibliography