A 'near-open vowel' is a type of
vowel sound used in some spoken
languages. The defining characteristic of a near-open vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to an
open vowel, but slightly more constricted. Near-open vowels are sometimes described as '
lax' variants of the fully-open vowels. The near-open vowels for which separate symbols exist in the
International Phonetic Alphabet are:
★
near-open front unrounded vowel []
★
near-open central vowel []