Close-mid front unrounded vowel
e
IPA Number302
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)e
Unicode (hex)U+0065
X-SAMPAe
Braille⠑ (braille pattern dots-15)

The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-mid front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨e⟩.

For the close-mid front unrounded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨ɪ⟩ or ⟨i⟩, see near-close front unrounded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨e⟩, the vowel is listed here.

Features

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Afrikaans Standard[2] bed [bet] 'bed' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. The height varies between close-mid [e] and mid [ɛ̝].[2] See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic Standard مَجۡر۪ىٰهَا/maǧrēhā [mad͡ʒ.reː.haː] See imalah
Azerbaijani gecə [ɟeˈd͡ʒæ] 'night'
Bavarian Amstetten dialect[3] [example needed]
Breton[4] daneg [ˈdãːnek] 'the Danish language' Unstressed /ɛ/ can be mid [ɛ̝] or close-mid [e] instead.[4]
Catalan[5] séc [ˈsek] 'fold' See Catalan phonology
Chinese Shanghainese[6] 该/kè [ke̠ʔ˩] 'should' Near-front; realization of /ɛ/, which appears only in open syllables. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ɪ/ ([ɪ̞]), which appears only in closed syllables.[6]
Chuvash эрешмен [erɛʃ'mɛnʲ] 'spider'
Danish Standard[7][8] hæl [ˈheːˀl] 'heel' Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch Belgian[9] vreemd [vreːmt] 'strange' In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [eɪ]. See Dutch phonology
English Australian[10] bed [bed] 'bed' See Australian English phonology
New Zealand[11] The height varies from near-close in broad varieties to mid in the Cultivated variety.[11] See New Zealand English phonology
General American[12] may [meː] 'may' Most often a closing diphthong [eɪ].[12]
General Indian[13]
General Pakistani[14] Can be a diphthong [eɪ] instead, depending on speaker.
Geordie[15]
Scottish[16]
Singaporean[17]
Ulster[18] Pronounced [ɛː~iə] in Belfast.
Some Cardiff speakers[19] square [skweː] 'square' More often open-mid [ɛː].[19]
Yorkshire[20] play [ple̞ː] 'play'
Scottish[16] bit [bë̞ʔ] 'bit' Near-front,[16] may be [ɪ] (also [ə]) instead for other speakers.
Cockney[21] bird [bɛ̝̈ːd] 'bird' Near-front; occasional realization of /ɜː/. It can be rounded [œ̝ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead.[21] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩.
Estonian[22] keha [ˈkeɦɑ̝ˑ] 'body' See Estonian phonology
French[23][24] beauté [bot̪e] 'beauty' See French phonology
German Standard[25][26] Seele [ˈzeːlə] 'soul' See Standard German phonology
Many speakers[27] Jäger [ˈjeːɡɐ] 'hunter' Outcome of the /ɛː–eː/ merger found universally in Northern Germany, Eastern Germany and Eastern Austria (often even in formal speech) and in some other regions.[27] See Standard German phonology
Southern accents[28] Bett [b̥et] 'bed' Common realization of /ɛ/ in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria.[28] See Standard German phonology
Swabian accent[28] Contrasts with the open-mid [ɛ].[28] See Standard German phonology
Greek Sfakian[29] [example needed] Corresponds to mid [e̞] in Modern Standard Greek.[30] See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew[31] כן/ken [ke̞n] 'yes' Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani Hindi के/ke [keː] 'of' See Hindustani phonology
Urdu کے/ke
Hungarian[32] hét [heːt̪] 'seven' Also described as mid [e̞ː].[33] See Hungarian phonology
Italian Standard[34] stelle [ˈs̪t̪elle] 'stars' See Italian phonology
Khmer ទុរេន / tŭrén [tureːn] 'durian' See Khmer phonology
Korean 메아리 / meari [meɐɾi] 'echo' See Korean phonology
Limburgish Most dialects[35][36][37] leef [leːf] 'dear' The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lithuanian tėtė [t̪eːt̪eː] 'father' 'Tete' and 'tėtis' are more commonly used than 'tėtė.'
Malay kecil [kə.t͡ʃel] 'small' Allophone of /i/ in closed-final syllables. May be [ɪ] or [e̞] depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology
Malayalam ചെവി [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] 'ear' See Malayalam phonology
Marathi एक [e:k] 'one' See Marathi phonology
Norwegian le [leː] 'laugh' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian.[38][39] See Norwegian phonology
Persian سه/se [se] 'three'
Polish[40] dzień [d͡ʑeɲ̟] 'day' Allophone of /ɛ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[41] mesa [ˈmezɐ] 'table' See Portuguese phonology
Romanian umple [ˈumple] 'to fill' See Romanian phonology
Russian[42] шея/sheja/sheya [ˈʂejə] 'neck' Close-mid [e] before and between soft consonants, mid [e̞] after soft consonants.[42] See Russian phonology
Saterland Frisian[43] tään [te̠ːn] 'thin' Near-front; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ɪ/ ([ɪ̞]). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨eː⟩ is actually near-close [e̝ː].[43]
Slovene[44] sedem [ˈsèːdəm] 'seven' See Slovene phonology
Sotho[45] ho jwetsa [hʊ̠ʒʷet͡sʼɑ̈] 'to tell' Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels.[45] See Sotho phonology
Swedish Central Standard[46][47] se [s̪eː] 'see' Often diphthongized to [eə̯] (hear the word: [s̪eə̯]). See Swedish phonology
Tahitian vahine [vahine] 'woman'
Tamil செவி [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] 'ear' See Tamil phonology
Ukrainian ефі́рний efirnyj [eˈfirnɪj] 'ethereal' See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh chwech [χweːχ] 'six' See Welsh phonology
Yoruba[48] [example needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. ^ a b Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/".
  3. ^ Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
  4. ^ a b Ternes (1992), p. 433.
  5. ^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
  6. ^ a b Chen & Gussenhoven (2015), p. 328.
  7. ^ Grønnum (1998), p. 100.
  8. ^ Basbøll (2005), p. 45.
  9. ^ Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
  10. ^ Harrington, Cox & Evans (1997).
  11. ^ a b Gordon & Maclagan (2004), p. 609.
  12. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 487.
  13. ^ Wells (1982), p. 626.
  14. ^ Mahboob & Ahmar (2004), p. 1010.
  15. ^ Watt & Allen (2003), pp. 268–269.
  16. ^ a b c Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006), p. 7.
  17. ^ Deterding (2000), p. ?.
  18. ^ "Week 18 (ii). Northern Ireland" (PDF).
  19. ^ a b Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
  20. ^ Roca & Johnson (1999), p. 179.
  21. ^ a b Wells (1982), p. 305.
  22. ^ Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
  23. ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
  24. ^ Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
  25. ^ Kohler (1999), p. 87.
  26. ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
  27. ^ a b Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), pp. 64–65.
  28. ^ a b c d Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
  29. ^ Trudgill (2009), pp. 83–84.
  30. ^ Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
  31. ^ Laufer (1999), p. 98.
  32. ^ Kráľ (1988), p. 92.
  33. ^ Szende (1994), p. 92.
  34. ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
  35. ^ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
  36. ^ Peters (2006), p. 119.
  37. ^ Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
  38. ^ Vanvik (1979), pp. 13–14.
  39. ^ Kvifte & Gude-Husken (2005), p. 4.
  40. ^ Jassem (2003), p. 106.
  41. ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  42. ^ a b Jones & Ward (1969), pp. 41, 44.
  43. ^ a b Peters (2019), p. ?.
  44. ^ Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 137.
  45. ^ a b Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
  46. ^ Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
  47. ^ Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
  48. ^ Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

References

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  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (1990), "The Phonetics of Cardiff English", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 87–103, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
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External links

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)
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