Open-mid front unrounded vowel

Open-mid front unrounded vowel
ɛ
IPA number	303
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɛ
Unicode (hex)	U+025B
X-SAMPA	E
Kirshenbaum	E
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Sound
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The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-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 a Latinized variant of the Greek lowercase epsilon, ⟨ɛ⟩.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
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• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low 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. Note that rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.

• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Akan		pɛ	[pʰɛ]	'to like/love'
Albanian		tre	[tɾɛ]	'three'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[1]				May be transcribed /æ/.[1]
Catalan[2]		mel	[mɛɫ]	'honey'	See Catalan phonology
Armenian	Eastern[3]	էջ	[ɛd͡ʒ]	'page'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		mes	[mɛːs]	'table'	Used predominantly in the Tyari, Barwari and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic dialects. Corresponds to [i] in other varieties.
Chinese	Cantonese	蛇 se4	[sɛː˩]	'snake'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	斜 xié	[ɕjɛ˧˥]	'tilted'	See Mandarin phonology
	Wu	顏 ngae	[ŋɛ˥˨]	'face'
Czech		Amerika	[ˈämɛrɪkä]	'America'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[4][5][6][7]	frisk	[ˈfʁ̞ɛsɡ̊]	'fresh'	Most often transcribed /æ/. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard	bed	[bɛt]	'bed'	See Dutch phonology
	Leiden	jij	[jɛ̞ː]	'you'	Corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
	Nijmegen
	The Hague[8]
	Southern				Some dialects, corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
English	Canadian	bed	[bɛd]	'bed'
	General American[9]
	Irish
	Northern English[10]				May be somewhat lowered.[11]
	Received Pronunciation[12][13]				Older RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel [e̞]. See English phonology
	Scottish[14]
	Southern English
	Broad Australian	fat	[fɛt]	'fat'	Lower [æ] for other speakers.
	Cockney[15]
	Malaysian				These accents have a met-mat merger.
	Singaporean[16]
	New Zealand[17]
	South African[18]				Some broad speakers. Others pronounce [æ ~ a].
	Southern English				Some dialects. Other speakers pronounce a more open vowel [æ ~ a].
	Belfast[19]	days	[dɛːz]	'days'	Pronounced [iə] in closed syllables; corresponds to [eɪ] in RP.
	Zulu[20]	mate	[mɛt]	'mate'	Speakers with a met-mate merger.
Faroese		elska	[ɛlska]	'love'
French[21]		bête	[bɛt̪]	'beast'	See French phonology
Galician		pé	[pɛ]	'foot'
Georgian[22]		გედი	[ɡɛdɪ]	'swan'
German	Standard[23]	Bett	[bɛtʰ]	'bed'	More like [ɛ̝̈] on the vowel chart in Kohler (1999). See German phonology
Hindustani		شَہَر / शहर	[ʃɛɦɛr]	'city'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		nem	[nɛm]	'no'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic[24][25][26]		kenna	[ˈcʰɛnːa]	'to teach'	Often diphthongized to [eɛ] when long.[27] See Icelandic phonology
Italian[28]		bene	[ˈbɛːne]	'good'	See Italian phonology
Korean		태도	[tʰɛː.do]	'attitude'	See Korean phonology
Lithuanian		mane	[mɐˈnʲɛ]	'me' (acc.)
Luxembourgish[29]		drécken	[ˈdʀɛkən]	'to push'	Allophone of /e/ before velar consonants; in free variation with [e].
Macedonian		елен	[ˈɛl̪ɛn̪]	'deer'	See Macedonian phonology
Ngwe	Njoagwi dialect	[lɛ̀rɛ́]		'eye'
North Frisian		tech	[tɛx]	'closed'
Polish[30]		ten	[t̪ɛn̪]	'this one' (masc. nom.)	See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Most dialects[31][32]	meleca	[mɛˈl̪ɛ̞kə]	'goo'	Stressed vowel might be lower [æ]. The presence and use of other unstressed ⟨e⟩ allophones, such as [e̞ e ɪ i ɨ], varies according to dialect.
	Some speakers[33]	tempo	[ˈt̪ɛ̃pu]	'time', 'weather'	Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects[34]	vede	[vɛɟe]	'(he) sees'	Corresponds to mid [e̞] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian[35]		это	[ˈɛt̪ə]	'this'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		aig	[ɛk]	'at'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Seri		me	[mɛ]	'you'
Spanish	Eastern Andalusian[36]	las madres	[læ̞ː ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛː]	'the mothers'	Corresponds to [e̞] in other dialects, but in these dialects they're distinct. See Spanish phonology
	Murcian[36]
Swedish	Central Standard[37]	ät	[ɛ̠ːt̪]	'eat' (imp.)	Somewhat retracted. See Swedish phonology
Turkish		süre	[syɾɛ]	'duration'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		береза	[bɛˈrɛz̪ɐ]	'birch'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		e	[ɛ]	'to fear'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		têd	[tɛːt]	'languid'
Yoruba		ẹsẹ̀	[ɛ̄sɛ]	'leg'

The vowel transcribed /ɛ/ in Standard Eastern Norwegian is actually mid.^[38]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glot­tal ↓ Manner Bi­la­bi­al La­bi­o­den­tal Den­tal Al­ve­o­lar Post­al­ve­o­lar Ret­ro­flex Al­ve­o­lo­pal­a­tal Pal­a­tal Ve­lar U­vu­lar Phar­yn­ge­al Ep­i­glot­tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r̥ ɽ͡r ʀ̥ ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ‼ ʞ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ Implosives ɓ̥ ɓ ɗ̥ ɗ ᶑ ʄ̊ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̝̥ kx kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view