Close-mid front unrounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨e⟩ in IPA
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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⟩.
| Close-mid front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| e | |||
| IPA number | 302 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | e | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0065 | ||
| X-SAMPA | e | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
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
- 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 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.
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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] | [example needed] | |||
| 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 | ⓘ | '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] | [example needed] | 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 | ⓘ | '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 | ⓘ | '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: ⓘ). 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] | [example needed] | ||||