Near-open front unrounded vowel | |
---|---|
æ | |
IPA Number | 325 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | æ |
Unicode (hex) | U+00E6 |
X-SAMPA | { |
Braille | ![]() |
The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is simply an open or low front unrounded vowel.[2] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨æ⟩, a lowercase of the ⟨Æ⟩ ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".
The rounded counterpart of [æ], the near-open front rounded vowel (for which the IPA provides no separate symbol) has been reported to occur allophonically in Danish;[3][4] see open front rounded vowel for more information.
In practice, ⟨æ⟩ is sometimes used to represent the open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.
IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | Standard[5] | perd | [pæːrt] | 'horse' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before sequences /rs/, /rt/, /rd/ and, in some dialects, before /k x l r/. See Afrikaans phonology |
Arabic | Standard[6] | كتاب | 'book' | Allophone of /a/ in the environment of plain labial and coronal consonants as well as /j/ (depending on the speaker's accent). See Arabic phonology | |
Catalan[7][8][9] | Valencian | tesi | [ˈt̪æzi] | 'thesis' | Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology |
set | [s̠æ̠t̪] | 'seven' | Near-front. Allophone of /ɛ/ found in contact with liquids and in monosyllabic terms. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩ | ||
Majorcan | |||||
Minorcan | |||||
Some Valencian and Balearic speakers[10] | llamp | [ʎ̟æmp] | 'lightning' | Allophone of /a/ in contact with palatal consonants. In some variants it can merge with /ɛ/. | |
Western Catalan[11][12] | taula | [ˈt̪ɑ̟wɫæ̝] | 'table' | Somewhat retracted. Unstressed allophone of /a/ in the coda. It can alternate with rounded allophones in the Valencian dialects. | |
Danish | Standard[3][13] | [[[Danish alphabet|Dansk]]] Error: ((Lang)): text has italic markup (help) | [ˈd̥ænsɡ̊] | 'Danish' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ - the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[14] See Danish phonology |
English | Australian[15] | cat | 'cat' | Many younger speakers realize it as fully open [a],[16] whereas in broader accents it may be open-mid [ɛ]. See English phonology and Australian English phonology | |
Cultivated New Zealand[17] | Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology | ||||
General American[18] | |||||
Received Pronunciation[19] | Lower [a] for many younger speakers | ||||
Norfolk[20] | [kʰæ̠t] | Near-front.[20] | |||
Cockney[21] | town | [tˢæːn] | 'town' | May be lower [aː] or a diphthong [æə̯] instead. It corresponds to /aʊ̯/ in other dialects | |
Estonian[22] | väle | [ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ] | 'agile' | Near-front.[22] See Estonian phonology | |
Finnish[23] | mäki | [ˈmæki] | 'hill' | See Finnish phonology | |
French | Parisian[24] | bain | [bæ̃] | 'bath' | Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. See French phonology |
Quebec[25] | ver | [væːʁ] | 'worm' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables.[25] See Quebec French phonology | |
German | Standard[26] | Teint | [tʰæ̃ː] | 'complexion' | Nasalized; also described as open-mid [ɛ̃ː].[27][28] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃ː⟩. Present only in loanwords. See Standard German phonology |
Northern accents[29] | alles | [ˈæləs] | 'everything' | Lower and often also more back in other accents.[29] See Standard German phonology | |
Standard Austrian[30] | oder | [ˈoːdæ] | 'or' | Used by some speakers instead of [ɐ].[30] See Standard German phonology | |
West Central German accents[31] | Used instead of [ɐ].[31] See Standard German phonology | ||||
Western Swiss accents[32] | spät | [ʃpæːt] | 'late' | Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/.[33] See Standard German phonology | |
Greek | Macedonia[34] | γάτα/gáta | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
Thessaly[34] | |||||
Thrace[34] | |||||
Pontic[35] | καλάθια/kaláthia | [kaˈlaθæ] | 'baskets' | ||
Hungarian[36] | nem | [næm] | 'no' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Hungarian phonology | |
Lakon[37] | rävräv | [ræβræβ] | 'evening' | ||
Limburgish | Hasselt dialect[38] | mès | [mæs²] | 'knife' | |
Maastrichtian[39] | twelf | [ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf] | 'twelve' | Near-front.[39] | |
Luxembourgish | Standard[40] | Käpp | [kʰæpʰ] | 'heads' | See Luxembourgish phonology |
Some speakers[41] | Kap | [kʰæːpʰ] | 'cap' | Possible phonetic realization of /aː/; more often open near-front [a̠ː] instead.[42] See Luxembourgish phonology | |
Norwegian | Urban East[43][44] | lær | [læːɾ] | 'leather' | See Norwegian phonology |
Portuguese | Some dialects[45] | pedra | [ˈpæðɾɐ] | 'stone' | Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology |
Some European speakers[46] | também | [tɐˈmæ̃] | 'also' | Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/. | |
Ripuarian | Kerkrade dialect[47] | dem | [dæm] | [translation needed] | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /m, n, ŋ, l, ʀ/.[47] |
Romanian | Bukovinian dialect[48] | piele | [pæle][stress?] | 'skin' | Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[48] See Romanian phonology |
Russian[49][50] | пять | 'five' | Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | ||
Slovak[51] | väzy | [ˈʋæzɪ] | 'ligaments' | Somewhat rare pronunciation, with [ɛ] being more common. See Slovak phonology | |
Swedish | Central Standard[52][53][54] | [[[Swedish alphabet|ära]]] Error: ((Lang)): text has italic markup (help) | 'honour' | Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology | |
Stockholm[54] | läsa | [²læːsä] | 'to read' | Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] for other speakers | |
Turkish[55] | sen | [s̪æn̪] | 'you' | Allophone of /e/ before syllable-final /m, n, l, r/. In a limited number of words (but not before /r/), it is in free variation with [e̞].[55] See Turkish phonology |