CLOSE-MID FRONT UNROUNDED VOWEL

Contents

Close-mid front unrounded vowel

Features

Occurrence

Mid front unrounded vowel

Occurrence

References

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 , 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		''vr'ee'md		'strange'	See Dutch phonology
English	AuE and NZE	''b'e'd''		'bed'	See Australian English phonology
	CaE	''pl'ay'''		'play'	In more careful speech, may be diphthongized as in RP:
Faroese		'''eg'''		'I'
French		''beaut'é'''		'beauty'	See French phonology
Georgian		მეფ'ჱ'		'king'
German		''S'ee'le''		'soul'	See German phonology
Hungarian		''h'é't''		'week, seven'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		''st'''e'''ll'''e'		'stars'	See Italian phonology
Korean		베다/''p'e'da''		'cut'
Norwegian		''l'e'''		'laugh'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish		''dzi'e'ń''		'day'	See Polish phonology
Russian		ш'е'я		'neck'	Occurs only before soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Swedish		''s'e'''		'see'	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		''s'e'l''		'flood'
Vietnamese		''t'ê'''		'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 is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic can be used: .
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 , whereas Bulgarian has an open-mid 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	''k'e'q''		'bad'
Croatian	''d'e's'e't''		'ten'
English (GA)	''pl'ay'''		'play'	Is more often diphthongized to .
Finnish	''m'e'n'e'n''		'I (will) go'
Greek	φ'αι'νόμ'ε'νο		'phenomenon'	See Modern Greek phonology
Japanese	笑み		'smile'	See Japanese phonology
Korean	베개		'pillow'	See Korean phonology
Romanian	''f'e't'e'''		'girls'	See Romanian phonology
Russian	челов'е'к		'person'	Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbian	ж'е'на/''ž'e'na''		'woman'
Spanish	''b'e'b'é'''		'baby'	See Spanish phonology
Turkish	''k'e'l''		'bald'

References

★ Course in Phonology, Roca, Iggy & Johnson, Wyn, , , Blackwell Publishing, 1999,