Near-open front unrounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨æ⟩ in IPA
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The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is â¨Ã¦â©, a lowercase of the â¨Ãâ© ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".
| Near-open front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| æ | |||
| IPA number | 325 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | æ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+00E6 | ||
| X-SAMPA | { | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
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;[2][3] see open front rounded vowel for more information.
In practice, â¨Ã¦â© is sometimes used to represent the open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.
In IPA transcriptions of Hungarian and Valencian, this vowel is typically written with â¨Éâ©.
Features
- Its vowel height is near-open, also known as near-low, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but is slightly more constricted â that is, the tongue is positioned similarly to a low vowel, but slightly higher.
- 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[4] | perd | [pæËrt] | 'horse' | Allophone of /É/, in some dialects, before /k Ï l r/. See Afrikaans phonology |
| Ãiwoo | ikuwä | [ikuwæ] | 'I go' | Distinguished from both [a] and [É ~ É]. | |
| Arabic | Standard[5] | Ùتاب (kitÄb) | [kiËtæËb] | '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 |
| Azerbaijani | AzÉrbaycan | [ÉËzæɾbÉjËdÍ¡ÊÉn] | 'Azerbaijan' | ||
| Bambam[6] | bätä | [Ëbætæ] | 'stem' | ||
| Bashkir[7] | йÓй (yäy) | â | 'summer' | ||
| Bengali[8] | বà§à¦¯à¦¾à¦/bêṠ| [bæÅ] | 'frog' | Also pronounced as /É/. See Bengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian | Moesian dialects | млеÑен (mleÄen) | [mlætÍ¡ÊÉn] | 'made from milk' | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *Ä in places where Standard Bulgarian would have /É/. See Yat. |
| Rup dialects | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *Ä in all positions. See Yat. | ||||
| Teteven dialect | мÑж (mÄž) | [mæÊ] | 'man' | In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤÌ] (written as Ñ). | |
| Erkech dialect | |||||
| Catalan | Majorcan (some speakers)[9] | sac | [Ës̺æc] | 'bag' | Majorcan /a/-fronting. See Catalan phonology |
| Valencian[10][11][12][13] | raig | [Ër̺ætÍ¡É] | 'ray' | Palatal variant of /a/. It can be more open ([a]). See Catalan phonology | |
| terra | [Ët̪ær̺æÌ] | 'Earth, land' | Final unstressed /a/ (usually involving vowel harmony). Can be realized as rounded and/or back. See Catalan phonology | ||
| tesi | [Ët̪ÉÌz̺ɪ] | 'thesis' | Main realization of /É/. Slightly more open and centralized (near-front) [Ã¦Ì ] before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology | ||
| Balearic (except Ibizan)[12][13] | Main realization of /É/. See Catalan phonology | ||||
| Chechen | аÑÑÐ·Ñ (ärzu) | [ærzu] | 'eagle' | ||
| Danish | Standard[2][14] | dansk | [ËtænËsk] | 'Danish' | Most often transcribed in IPA with â¨aâ© â the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[15] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch[16] | pen | [pæn] | 'pen' | Allophone of /É/ before /n/ and coda /l/. In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where [É] is used in Standard Dutch.[17] See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Cultivated New Zealand[18] | cat | â | 'cat' | Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology |
| General American[19] | See English phonology | ||||
| Conservative Received Pronunciation[20] | Fully open [a] in contemporary RP.[20] See English phonology | ||||
| Estonian[21] | väle | [ËvæÌleÌË] | 'agile' | Near-front.[21] See Estonian phonology | |
| Finnish[22] | mäki | [Ëmæki] | 'hill' | See Finnish phonology | |
| French | Parisian[23] | bain | [bæÌ] | 'bath' | Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with â¨ÉÌâ©. See French phonology |
| Quebec[24] | ver | [væËÊ] | 'worm' | Allophone of /É/ before /Ê/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables.[24] See Quebec French phonology | |
| German | Standard Austrian[25] | erlauben | [æËlÉÉ̯bnÌ©] | 'allow' | Variant of pretonic [ÉÉ̯].[25] See Standard German phonology |
| West Central German accents[26] | oder | [ËoËdæ] | 'or' | Used instead of [É].[26] See Standard German phonology | |
| Northern accents[27] | alles | [ËælÉs] | 'everything' | Lower and often also more back in other accents.[27] See Standard German phonology | |
| Western Swiss accents[28] | spät | [ÊpæËt] | 'late' | Open-mid [ÉË] or close-mid [eË] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ÉË/.[29] See Standard German phonology | |
| Greek | Macedonia[30] | γάÏα (gáta) | [Ëɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Thessaly[30] | |||||
| Thrace[30] | |||||
| Pontic[31] | καλάθια (kaláthia) | [kaËlaθæ] | 'baskets' | ||
| Hindustani | Hindi | नà¥à¤¯à¥à¤à¤¼à¥à¤²à¥à¤à¤¡ (Nyu Zilaind) | [njuËziËlænd] | 'New Zealand' | An allophone of [ÉË] that appears in English loanwords. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Urdu | ÙÛÙØ²Û ÙÛÙÚ (Nyu Zilaind) | ||||
| Hungarian[32] | nem | [næm] | 'no' | Typically transcribed in IPA with â¨Éâ©. See Hungarian phonology | |
| Kanoê[33] | [example needed] | [æË] | 'tobacco' | ||
| Kazakh | Óйел (äiel) | [æÌËjeÌl̪ʲ] | 'woman' | Varies between near-open and open-mid. | |
| Kurdish | Sorani (Central) | گاڵت٠(galte) | [gäËÉ«tʲæ] | 'joke' | Equal to Palewani (Southern) front [a]. See Kurdish phonology |
| Lakon[34] | rävräv | [ræβræβ] | 'evening' | ||
| Limburgish[35][36][37] | twelf | [ËtβÌÃ¦Ì lÉf] | 'twelve' | Front[36][37] or near-front,[35] depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front. | |
| Lithuanian | jachtÄ | [ËjæËxt̪aË] | 'yacht' (accusative) | See Lithuanian phonology | |
| Low Saxon | Including Sallandic | gläzen | [xɫæËznÌ©] | 'glasses' | |
| Luxembourgish[38] | Käpp | [kʰæpʰ] | 'heads' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[39][40] | lær | [læËɾ] | 'leather' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian[41][42] | Ùشت (haÅ¡t) | [hæÊt] | 'eight' | ||
| Portuguese | Some dialects[43] | pedra | [ËpæðɾÉ] | 'stone' | Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /É/. See Portuguese phonology |
| Some European speakers[44] | também | [tÉËmæÌ] | 'also' | Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽÌ/. | |
| Romanian | Bukovinian dialect[45] | piele | [Ëpæle] | 'skin' | Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[45] See Romanian phonology |
| Russian[46][47] | пÑÑÑ (pjatʹ) | â | 'five' | Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian | Zeta-RaÅ¡ka dialect[48] | дан / dan | [d̪æn̪] | 'day' | Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *Ñ and *Ñ. Sometimes nasalised.[48] |
| Sinhala[49] | à¶à¶º (æya) | [æjÉ] | 'she' | ||
| Slovak | mäso | [mæso] | 'meat, flesh' | In conversation sometimes pronounced as [e] or [a]. See Slovak phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[50][51][52] | ära | â | 'hono(u)r' | Allophone of /ÉË, É/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology |
| Stockholm[52] | läsa | [²læËsä] | 'to read' | Realization of /ÉË, É/ for younger speakers. Higher [ÉË, ÉÌ ~ É] for other speakers | |
| Turkish[53] | 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 [eÌ].[53] See Turkish phonology | |