Close-mid front unrounded vowel

Close-mid front unrounded vowel
e
IPA number	302
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	e
Unicode (hex)	U+0065
X-SAMPA	e
Kirshenbaum	e
Braille
Sound
source · help

The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-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⟩.

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

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •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]
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high 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
Afrikaans	Standard[1]	meter	[ˈmëˑtɐr]	'meter'	Near-front. Allophone of /eə/ in less stressed words and in stressed syllables of polysyllabic words. In the latter case, it is in free variation with the diphthongal realization [ëə̯ ~ ë̯ə ~ ëə].[1] See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Egyptian	ليه	[leː]	'why'	See Egyptian Arabic phonology
	Gulf	ليش	[leːʃ]		See Arabic phonology
	Levantine
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		heː	[heː]	'yes'	Prominent in the Urmia, Nochiya and Jilu dialects. Can be closer to [i] for some speakers. Lowered to [e̞] in other varieties.
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[2]
Catalan[3]		séc	[s̠ek]	'fold'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	鼻/bei6	[pei˨˨]	'nose'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	飛/fēi	[feɪ̯˥]	'to fly'	See Standard Chinese phonology
	Wu	隑/ge	[ɡe˩˧]	'lean'
Czech	Bohemian[4]	byli	[ˈbele]	'they were'	Also described as near-close near-front [ɪ];[5] corresponds to close front [i] in Moravian Czech.[4] See Czech phonology
	Brno accent[6]	led	[let]	'ice'	Corresponds to [ɛ ~ ɛ̠ ~ ɛ̝̈] in standard Czech.[7] See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[8][9][10][11][12]	hæl	[ˈheːˀl]	'heel'	Also described as open-mid ⟨ɛ⟩[13] - the way it is most often transcribed. It is mid [e̞] in the conservative variety.[14] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Belgian[15]	vreemd	[vreːmt]	'strange'	In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [eɪ]. See Dutch phonology
	Northeastern
	Standard Netherlandic
English	Australian[16]	bed	[bed]	'bed'	See Australian English phonology
	General Indian[17]	play	[pl̥e(ː)]	'play'
	General Pakistani[18]				Can be a diphthong [eɪ] instead, depending on speaker.
	Multicultural London[19]
	Scottish[20]
	Singaporean[21]
	Tyneside[22]
	Ulster[23]				Pronounced [ɛː~iə] in Belfast.
	Cardiff[24]	kit	[ke̠t]	'kit'	Near-front;[24] corresponds to /ɪ/ in other dialects.
Faroese		eg	[eː]	'I'
French[25]		beauté	[bot̪e]	'beauty'	See French phonology
Galician		tres	[t̪ɾes]	'three'
Georgian[26]		მეფჱ	[mɛpʰej]	'king'
German	Standard[27]	Seele	[ˈzeːlə]	'soul'	See German phonology
Hindustani		दे / دے	[d̪eː]	'give!'	See Hindustani phonology
Icelandic[28][29][30]		vinur	[ˈveːnөr]	'friend'	Most often transcribed /ɪ/. See Icelandic phonology
Italian[31]		stelle	[ˈs̪t̪elle]	'stars'	See Italian phonology
Kaingang[32]		[ˈkɾe]		'thigh'
Korean		베다/beda	[ˈpeːda]	'to cut'	See Korean phonology
Limburgish	Most dialects[33][34][35]	leef	[leːf]	'dear'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
	Rural Weerts[36]	beek	[beːk]	'stream'	Corresponds to /iə/ in the city dialect. The vowel transcribed /eː/ in the city dialect is actually a centering diphthong /eə/.[37]
Luxembourgish[38][39]		drécken	[ˈdʀekən]	'to push'	Allophone of /e/ before velar consonants; in free variation with [ɛ].[39] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay		bebek	[bebeʔ]	'duck'	See Malay phonology
North Frisian		ween	[ʋeːn]	'blue'
Norwegian	Standard Eastern[40]	le	[l̪eː]	'laugh'	Often diphthongized to [eə̯]. See Norwegian phonology
Polish[41]		dzień	[ˈd͡ʑeɲ̟]	'day'	Allophone of /ɛ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[42]		mesa	[ˈmezɐ]	'table'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਸੇਬ	[seːb]	'apple'
Romanian	Muntenian dialects[43]	vezi	[vezʲ]	'(you) see'	Corresponds to mid [e̞] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian[44]		шея	[ˈʂejə]	'neck'	Occurs only before soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Shiwiar[45]					Allophone of /a/.[45]
Slovak	Dialects spoken near the river Ipeľ[46]	dcéra	[ˈt͡seːrä]	'daughter'	In standard Slovak, the backness varies between front and near-front; most commonly, it is realized as mid [e̞ː] instead.[47] See Slovak phonology
	Standard[48]
Swedish		se	[s̪eː]	'see'	See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese		tê	[te]	'numb'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian[49]		ik	[ek]	'I'	Also described as mid [e̞];[50] typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɪ⟩. See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba[51]
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[52]	zied	[zied̪]		Allophone of /e/ that occurs mostly after /i/. In other environments, the most common realization is central [ɘ].[52]

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 Laryngeal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato- alveolar Retroflex Alveolo- palatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal / Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̼̊ n̼ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t̼ d̼ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant affricate ts dz tʃ dʒ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɕ dʑ Non-sibilant affricate pɸ bβ p̪f b̪v tθ dð tθ̠ dð̠ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ cç ɟʝ kx ɡɣ qχ ɢʁ ʡħ ʡʕ ʔh Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ ʔ̞ Approximant ɸ˕ ʋ θ̞ ɹ̥ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̮ Trill ʙ r̼ r̥ r ɽr̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ Lateral affricate tɬ dɮ ʈɭ̊˔ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ɭ̊˔ ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̼ l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ̼ ɺ ɭ̆ ʎ̮ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Simple clicks ʘ ʘ̬ ʘ̃ ǀ ǀ̬ ǀ̃ ǃ ǃ̬ ǃ̃ ǂ ǂ̬ ǂ̃ ǁ ǁ̬ ǁ̃ ǃ˞ ǃ̬˞ ǃ̃˞ Other clicks ʘ̃ˀ ʘˀ ˀʘ̃ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qχ ʘ͡qʼ ʘ͡qχʼ ¡ ʞ Implosives ɓ ɗ ᶑ ʄ ɠ ʛ ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̥ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥  Ejectives pʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ tɕʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ̊ ɥ ɫ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m ɧ t͡p d͡b n͡m q͡ʡ — 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 or not distinctive. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view