Mid front unrounded vowel

The mid front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound that is used in some spoken languages. There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid front unrounded vowel between close-mid [e] and open-mid [ɛ], but it is normally written ⟨e⟩. If precision is required, diacritics may be used, such as ⟨e̞⟩ or ⟨ɛ̝⟩ (the former, indicating lowering, being more common). In Sinology and Koreanology, ⟨ᴇ⟩ is sometimes used, for example in the Zhengzhang Shangfang reconstructions or in Chao Yuen Ren Grammar of Spoken Chinese.

Mid front unrounded vowel
e̞
ɛ̝
IPA Number	302 430
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	e​̞
Unicode (hex)	U+0065 U+031E
X-SAMPA	e_o
Braille

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
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

For many of the languages that have only one phonemic front unrounded vowel in the mid-vowel area (neither close nor open), the vowel is pronounced as a true mid vowel and is phonetically distinct from either a close-mid or open-mid vowel. Examples are Basque, Spanish, Romanian, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Greek, Hejazi Arabic, Serbo-Croatian and Korean (Seoul dialect). A number of dialects of English also have such a mid front vowel. However, there is no general predisposition. Igbo and Egyptian Arabic, for example, have a close-mid [e], and Bulgarian has an open-mid [ɛ], but none of these languages have another phonemic mid front vowel.

Kensiu, spoken in Malaysia and Thailand, is claimed to be unique in having true-mid vowels that are phonemically distinct from both close-mid and open-mid vowels, without differences in other parameters such as backness or roundedness.^[1]

Features

• Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard[2]	bed	[bɛ̝t]	'bed'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. The height varies between mid [ɛ̝] and close-mid [e].[2] See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Hejazi[3]	بـيـت / bēt	[be̞ːt]	'home'	See Hejazi Arabic phonology
Breton[4]		[example needed]			Possible realization of unstressed /ɛ/; can be open-mid [ɛ] or close-mid [e] instead.[4]
Chinese	Mandarin[5]	也 / yě	[je̞˨˩˦]ⓘ	'also'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech	Bohemian[6]	led	[lɛ̝̈t]	'ice'	Near-front; may be open-mid [ɛ] instead.[6] See Czech phonology
Dutch	Some speakers[7]	zet	[zɛ̝t]	'shove' (n.)	Open-mid [ɛ] in Standard Dutch.[7] See Dutch phonology
English	Broad New Zealand[8]	cat	[kʰɛ̝t]	'cat'	Lower in other New Zealand varieties;[8] corresponds to [æ] in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology
	Cockney[9]	bird	[bɛ̝̈ːd]	'bird'	Near-front; occasional realization of /ɜː/. It can be rounded [œ̝ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead.[9] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩.
	Cultivated New Zealand[8]	let	[le̞t]	'let'	Higher in other New Zealand varieties.[8] See New Zealand English phonology
	Received Pronunciation[10]				Many speakers pronounce a more open vowel [ɛ] instead. See English phonology
	Inland Northern American[11]	bit	[bë̞t̚]	'bit'	Near-front,[11][12] may be [ɪ] (also [ə] in Scotland) instead for other speakers. See Northern Cities vowel shift
	Scottish[12]		[bë̞ʔ]
	Yorkshire[13]	play	[ple̞ː]	'play'
Estonian[14]		sule	[ˈsule̞ˑ]	'feather' (gen. sg.)	Common word-final allophone of /e/.[15] See Estonian phonology
Finnish[16][17]		menen	[ˈme̞ne̞n]	'I go'	See Finnish phonology
German	Standard[18]	Bett	[b̥ɛ̝t]	'bed'	More often described as open-mid front [ɛ].[19][20] See Standard German phonology
	Bernese dialect[21]	rède	[ˈrɛ̝d̥ə]	'to speak'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Bernese German phonology
Greek	Modern Standard[22][23]	πες / pes	[pe̞s̠]	'say!'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew[24]		כן/ken	[ke̞n]	'yes'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian[25]		hét	[he̞ːt̪]	'seven'	Also described as close-mid [eː].[26] See Hungarian phonology
Ibibio[27]		[sé̞]		'look'
Icelandic[28]		kenna	[ˈcʰɛ̝nːä]	'to teach'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. The long allophone is often diphthongized to [eɛ].[29] See Icelandic phonology
Italian	Standard[30]	decidere	[d̪eˈt͡ʃiːd̪eɾe̞]	'to believe'	Common realization of the unstressed /e/.[30] See Italian phonology
	Northern accents[31]	penso	[ˈpe̞ŋso]	'I think'	Common realization of /e/.[31] See Italian phonology
Japanese[32]		笑み/emi	[e̞mʲi]ⓘ	'smile'	See Japanese phonology
Jebero[33]		[ˈiʃë̞k]		'bat'	Near-front; possible realization of /ɘ/.[33]
Korean		내가 / naega	[nɛ̝ɡɐː]	'I'	Pronunciation of ⟨ɛ⟩. See Korean phonology
Latvian[34]		ēst	[ê̞ːs̪t̪]	'to eat'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨e⟩.
Limburgish	Maastrichtian[35]	bèd	[bɛ̝t]	'bed'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Weert dialect phonology
	Weert dialect[36]	zègke	[ˈzɛ̝ɡə]	'to say'
Low Saxon	Gelders-Overijssels and Drents[37]	èèt zie?	[e̞ːt]	'do they eat?'	Only around the border of eten - èten, [e:] vs [ɛ:]
Macedonian	Standard	мед	[ˈmɛd̪]	'honey'
Malay	Standard	elok	[e̞ˈlo̞ʔ]	'good'	See Malay phonology
Norwegian	Urban East[38][39]	nett	[nɛ̝tː]	'net'	See Norwegian phonology
Romanian[40]		fete	[ˈfe̞t̪e̞]	'girls'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[41]		человек	[t͡ɕɪlɐˈvʲe̞k]	'human'	Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian[42][43]		тек / tek	[t̪ĕ̞k]	'only'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak	Standard[44][45]	behať	[ˈbɛ̝ɦäc]	'to run'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene[46]		velikan	[ʋe̞liˈká̠ːn]	'giant'	Unstressed vowel,[46] as well as an allophone of /e/ before /j/ when a vowel does not follow within the same word.[47] See Slovene phonology
Spanish[48]		bebé	[be̞ˈβ̞e̞]	'baby'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard[49]	häll	[hɛ̝l̪] ⓘ	'flat rock'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. Many dialects pronounce short /e/ and /ɛ/ the same. See Swedish phonology
Tera[50]		ze	[zè̞ː]	'spoke'
Turkish[51][52]		ev	[e̞v]	'house'	See Turkish phonology
Upper Sorbian[53]		njebjo	[ˈn̠ʲɛ̝bʲɔ]	'sky'	Allophone of /ɛ/ between soft consonants and after a soft consonant, excluding /j/ in both cases.[53]
Yoruba[54]		[example needed]			Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. It is nasalized, and may be open-mid [ɛ̃] instead.[54]

Notes

1. Bishop, N. (1996). A preliminary description of Kensiw (Maniq) phonology. Mon-Khmer Studies 25.
2. Wissing (2016), section "The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/".
3. Abdoh (2010), p. 84.
4. Ternes (1992), p. 433.
5. Lee & Zee (2003), p. 110.
6. Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
7. Collins & Mees (2003), p. 131.
8. Gordon & Maclagan (2004), p. 609.
9. Wells (1982), p. 305.
10. Roach (2004), p. 242.
11. Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (15 July 1997). "A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English". Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
12. Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006), p. 7.
13. Roca & Johnson (1999), p. 179.
14. Asu & Teras (2009), pp. 368–369.
15. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
16. Iivonen & Harnud (2005), pp. 60, 66.
17. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008), p. 21.
18. Kohler (1999), p. 87.
19. Hall (2003), pp. 82, 107.
20. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
21. Marti (1985), p. 27.
22. Arvaniti (2007), p. 28.
23. Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
24. Laufer (1999), p. 98.
25. Szende (1994), p. 92.
26. Kráľ (1988), p. 92.
27. Urua (2004), p. 106.
28. Brodersen (2011).
29. Árnason (2011), pp. 57–60.
30. Bertinetto & Loporcaro (2005), pp. 137–138.
31. Bertinetto & Loporcaro (2005), p. 137.
32. Okada (1999), p. 117.
33. Valenzuela & Gussenhoven (2013), p. 101.
34. Grigorjevs & Jaroslavienė (2015), p. 79, 85.
35. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999), p. 159.
36. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 107.
37. Reeks Nederlandse Dialectatlassen Zuid-Drente en Noord-Overijssel 1982. H. Entjes.
38. Strandskogen (1979), pp. 15–16.
39. Vanvik (1979), p. 13.
40. Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
41. Jones & Ward (1969), p. 41.
42. Kordić (2006), p. 4.
43. Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
44. Pavlík (2004), pp. 93, 95.
45. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010), p. 375.
46. Tatjana Srebot-Rejec. "On the vowel system in present-day Slovene" (PDF).
47. Šuštaršič, Komar & Petek (1999), p. 138.
48. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
49. Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
50. Tench (2007), p. 230.
51. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
52. Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 10.
53. Šewc-Schuster (1984), p. 34.
54. Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

References

• Abdoh, Eman Mohammed (2010), A Study of the Phonological Structure and Representation of First Words in Arabic (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-01, retrieved 2017-04-05
• Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
• Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
• Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966), A Grammar of Yoruba, [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Bertinetto, Marco; Loporcaro, Michele (2005), "The sound pattern of Standard Italian, as compared with the varieties spoken in Florence, Milan and Rome", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 131–151, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002148
• Brodersen, Randi Benedikte (2011). "Islændinges udtale af dansk". Sprogmuseet (in Danish). Archived from the original on 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-9004103405
• Dankovičová, Jana (1999), "Czech", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 70–74, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
• Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
• Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
• Grigorjevs, Juris; Jaroslavienė, Jurgita (2015), "Comparative study of the qualitative features of the Lithuanian and Latvian monophthongs", Baltistica, 50 (1): 57–89, doi:10.15388/baltistica.50.1.2225Gordon, Elizabeth; Maclagan, Margaret (2004), "Regional and social differences in New Zealand: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 603–613, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
• Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2): 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045
• Hall, Christopher (2003) [First published 1992], Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English (2nd ed.), Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-6689-4
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162
• Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1–2): 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307, S2CID 145635698
• Iivonen, Antti; Harnud, Huhe (2005), "Acoustical comparison of the monophthong systems in Finnish, Mongolian and Udmurt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (1): 59–71, doi:10.1017/S002510030500191X, S2CID 145733117
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Kohler, Klaus J. (1999), "German", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 86–89, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
• Kráľ, Ábel (1988), Pravidlá slovenskej výslovnosti, Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
• Laufer, Asher (1999), "Hebrew", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, pp. 96–99
• Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003), "Standard Chinese (Beijing)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 109–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208
• Marti, Werner (1985), Berndeutsch-Grammatik, Bern: Francke, ISBN 978-3-7720-1587-8
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
• Pavlík, Radoslav (2004), "Slovenské hlásky a medzinárodná fonetická abeceda" (PDF), Jazykovedný časopis, 55: 87–109
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768
• Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999), A Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing
• Sarlin, Mika (2014) [First published 2013], "Sounds of Romanian and their spelling", Romanian Grammar (2nd ed.), Helsinki: Books on Demand GmbH, pp. 16–37, ISBN 978-952-286-898-5
• Scobbie, James M; Gordeeva, Olga B.; Matthews, Benjamin (2006), Acquisition of Scottish English Phonology: an overview, Edinburgh: QMU Speech Science Research Centre Working Papers
• Šewc-Schuster, Hinc (1984), Gramatika hornjo-serbskeje rěče, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
• Strandskogen, Åse-Berit (1979), Norsk fonetikk for utlendinger, Oslo: Gyldendal, ISBN 978-82-05-10107-4
• Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finnish sound structure – Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody (PDF), Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 9, Oulu University Press, ISBN 978-951-42-8984-2
• Šuštaršič, Rastislav; Komar, Smiljana; Petek, Bojan (1999), "Slovene", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 135–139, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0, S2CID 249404451
• Szende, Tamás (1994), "Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090, S2CID 242632087
• Tench, Paul (2007), "Tera", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (1): 228–234, doi:10.1017/s0025100307002952
• Ternes, Elmar (1992), "The Breton language", in MacAulay, Donald (ed.), The Celtic Languages, Cambridge University Press, pp. 371–452, ISBN 978-0-521-23127-5
• Trudgill, Peter (2009), "Greek Dialect Vowel Systems, Vowel Dispersion Theory, and Sociolinguistic Typology", Journal of Greek Linguistics, 9 (1): 80–97, doi:10.1163/156658409X12500896406041
• Urua, Eno-Abasi E. (2004), "Ibibio", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 105–109, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001550
• Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Gussenhoven, Carlos (2013), "Shiwilu (Jebero)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 97–106, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000370
• Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 978-82-990584-0-7
• Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759. ISBN 0-52128540-2.
• Wissing, Daan (2016). "Afrikaans phonology – segment inventory". Taalportaal. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0, archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-25, retrieved 2015-04-12
• Kordić, Snježana (2006), Serbo-Croatian, Languages of the World/Materials; 148, Munich & Newcastle: Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-161-1

External links

• List of languages with [e̞] on PHOIBLE
• List of languages with [ɛ̝] on PHOIBLE