Close-mid front unrounded vowel

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Vowels

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch		één	[eːn]	'one'	See Dutch phonology
Eng lish	RP, AuE and NZE	bed	[bed]	'bed'	See Australian English phonology
Eng lish	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
German		Seele	[ˈzeːlə]	'soul'	See German phonology
Hungarian		hét	[eːt]	'week, seven'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		stelle	[ˈstelle]	'stars'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		円/en	[eɴ]	'yen'	See Japanese 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

[edit] Mid front unrounded vowel

Many languages, such as 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.

[edit] 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	ένα	[ˈena]	'one'	Also represented by <αι>. 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'