Close-mid front unrounded vowel
e
IPA number302
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Entity (decimal)e
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IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u
Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ
Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o
Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞
Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ
Near-open æ ɐ
Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ

Legend: unrounded • rounded

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/majrēhā [mad͡ʒ.reː.haː] See imalah
Azerbaijani gecə [ɟeˈd͡ʒæ] 'night'
Bengali ভেজা [bʱdʒɐ] 'wet' See Bengali phonology
Bavarian Amstetten dialect[3]
Breton eget[4] [eˈɡet] 'than'
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/ereşmen [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] Realized closer to [j̚e].
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]
Scouse[20] May (less commonly) be less open [ɪː] or more open [ɛː] instead[21]
Scottish[16] bit [bë̞ʔ] 'bit' Near-front,[16] may be [ɪ] (also [ə]) instead for other speakers.
Cockney[22] bird [bɛ̝̈ːd] 'bird' Near-front; occasional realization of /ɜː/. It can be rounded [œ̝ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead.[22] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩.
Estonian[23] keha [ˈkeɦɑ̝ˑ] 'body' See Estonian phonology
French[24][25] beauté [bot̪e] 'beauty' See French phonology
German Standard[26][27] Seele [ˈzeːlə]ⓘ 'soul' See Standard German phonology
Many speakers[28] 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.[28] See Standard German phonology
Southern accents[29] Bett [b̥et] 'bed' Common realization of /ɛ/ in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria.[29] See Standard German phonology
Swabian accent[29] Contrasts with the open-mid [ɛ].[29] See Standard German phonology
Greek Sfakian[30] Corresponds to mid [e̞] in Modern Standard Greek.[31] See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew[32] כן/ken [ke̞n] 'yes' Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani Hindi तेज़/tez [t̪eːz] 'fast', 'sharp' See Hindustani phonology
Urdu تیز/tez
Hungarian[33] hét [heːt̪] 'seven' Also described as mid [e̞ː].[34] See Hungarian phonology
Italian Standard[35] stelle [ˈs̪t̪elle] 'stars' See Italian phonology
Khmer ទុរេន / turen [tureːn] 'durian' See Khmer phonology
Korean 메아리 / meari [meɐɾi] 'echo' See Korean phonology
Limburgish Most dialects[36][37][38] 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 Standard kecil [kə.t͡ʃel] 'small' Allophone of /i/ in closed-final syllables. May be [ɪ] or [e̞] depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology
habis [ha.bes] 'run out' Allophone of [ɪ]. See Malay phonology
Malayalam ചെവി/čevi [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] 'ear' See Malayalam phonology
Marathi एक/ek [e:k] 'one' See Marathi phonology
Norwegian le [leː] 'laugh' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian.[39][40] See Norwegian phonology
Mpade[41] faɗe [faɗe] 'night'
Persian سه/se [se] 'three'
Polish[42] dzień [d͡ʑeɲ̟]ⓘ 'day' Allophone of /ɛ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[43] mesa [ˈmezɐ] 'table' See Portuguese phonology
Romanian umple [ˈumple] 'to fill' See Romanian phonology
Russian[44] шея/šeja [ˈʂejə]ⓘ 'neck' Close-mid [e] before and between soft consonants, mid [e̞] after soft consonants.[44] See Russian phonology
Saterland Frisian[45] 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].[45]
Slovene[46] sedem [ˈsèːdəm] 'seven' See Slovene phonology
Sotho[47] ho jwetsa [hʊ̠ʒʷet͡sʼɑ̈] 'to tell' Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels.[47] See Sotho phonology
Swedish Central Standard[48][49] se [s̪eː] 'see' Often diphthongized to [eə̯] (hear the word: [s̪eə̯]ⓘ). See Swedish phonology
Tahitian vahine [vahine] 'woman'
Tamil செவி/čevi [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] 'ear' See Tamil phonology
Ukrainian ефі́рний efirný [eˈfirnɪj] 'ethereal' See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh chwech [χweːχ] 'six' See Welsh phonology
Yoruba[50]

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. Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/".
  3. Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
  4. Mikael Madeg, Traité de prononciation du breton du Nord-Ouest à l’usage des bretonnants, Emgleo Breiz, Brest, 2010
  5. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
  6. 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. Gordon & Maclagan (2004), p. 609.
  12. Wells (1982), p. 487.
  13. Wells (1982), p. 626.
  14. Mahboob & Ahmar (2004), p. 1010.
  15. Watt & Allen (2003), pp. 268–269.
  16. Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006), p. 7.
  17. Deterding (2000), p. ?.
  18. "Week 18 (ii). Northern Ireland" (PDF).
  19. Collins & Mees (1990), p. 95.
  20. Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180, S2CID 232345844
  21. Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 358, doi:10.1017/s0025100307003180, S2CID 232345844
  22. Wells (1982), p. 305.
  23. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 368.
  24. Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
  25. Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
  26. Kohler (1999), p. 87.
  27. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
  28. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), pp. 64–65.
  29. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 64.
  30. Trudgill (2009), pp. 83–84.
  31. Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
  32. Laufer (1999), p. 98.
  33. Kráľ (1988), p. 92.
  34. Szende (1994), p. 92.
  35. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
  36. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
  37. Peters (2006), p. 119.
  38. Verhoeven (2007), p. 221.
  39. Vanvik (1979), pp. 13–14.
  40. Kvifte & Gude-Husken (2005), p. 4.
  41. Allison (2006).
  42. Jassem (2003), p. 106.
  43. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  44. Jones & Ward (1969), pp. 41, 44.
  45. Peters (2019), p. ?.
  46. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 137.
  47. Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
  48. Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
  49. Rosenqvist (2007), p. 9.
  50. Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

References