Near-open front unrounded vowel

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 æ, a lowercase of the Æ ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".

Near-open front unrounded vowel
æ
IPA Number325
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)æ
Unicode (hex)U+00E6
X-SAMPA{
Braille⠩ (braille pattern dots-146)

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, æ 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 ɛ.

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 – 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

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
AfrikaansStandard[4]perd[pæːrt]'horse'Allophone of /ɛ/, in some dialects, before /k χ l r/. See Afrikaans phonology
Äiwoo ikuwä [ikuwæ] 'I go' Distinguished from both [a] and [ɑ~ɒ].
ArabicStandard[5]كتاب / kitāb[kiˈtæːb]'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
Bambam[6]bätä[ˈbætæ]'stem'
Bashkir[7] йәй / yäy [jæj] 'summer'
Bengali[8]/ek[æk]'one'See Bengali phonology
CatalanMajorcan[9]tesi[ˈt̪æzi]'thesis'Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology
Valencian[9]
Chechenаьрзу / ärzu[ærzu]'eagle'
DanishStandard[2][10]dansk[ˈtænˀsk]'Danish'Most often transcribed in IPA with a – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[11] See Danish phonology
Dutch[12]pen[pæn]'pen'Allophone of /ɛ/ before /n/ and coda /l/. In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where [ɛ] is used in Standard Dutch.[13] See Dutch phonology
EnglishCultivated New Zealand[14]cat[kʰæt]'cat'Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology
General American[15]See English phonology
Conservative Received Pronunciation[16]Fully open [a] in contemporary RP.[16] See English phonology
Estonian[17]väle[ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ]'agile'Near-front.[17] See Estonian phonology
Finnish[18]mäki[ˈmæki]'hill'See Finnish phonology
FrenchParisian[19]bain[bæ̃]'bath'Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ɛ̃. See French phonology
Quebec[20]ver[væːʁ]'worm'Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables.[20] See Quebec French phonology
GermanStandard Austrian[21]erlauben[æˈlɑɔ̯bn̩]'allow'Variant of pretonic [ɛɐ̯].[21] See Standard German phonology
West Central German accents[22]oder[ˈoːdæ]'or'Used instead of [ɐ].[22] See Standard German phonology
Northern accents[23]alles[ˈa̝ləs]'everything'Lower and often also more back in other accents.[23] See Standard German phonology
Western Swiss accents[24]spät[ʃpæːt]'late'Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/.[25] See Standard German phonology
GreekMacedonia[26]γάτα/gáta[ˈɣætæ]'cat'See Modern Greek phonology
Thessaly[26]
Thrace[26]
Pontic[27]καλάθια/kaláthia[kaˈlaθæ]'baskets'
Hungarian[28]nem[næm]'no'Typically transcribed in IPA with ɛ. See Hungarian phonology
Kanoê[29] [æː] 'tobacco'
Kazakh әйел/äiel [æ̝ˈje̘l̪ʲ] 'woman' Varies between near-open and open-mid.
Kurdish Sorani (Central) گاڵته/ galte [gäːɫtʲæ] 'joke' Equal to Palewani (Southern) front [a]. See Kurdish phonology
Lakon[30]rävräv[ræβræβ]'evening'
Limburgish[31][32][33]twelf[ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf]'twelve'Front[32][33] or near-front,[31] depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front.
Lithuanianjachtą[ˈjæːxt̪aː]'yacht' (accusative)See Lithuanian phonology
Luxembourgish[34]Käpp[kʰæpʰ]'heads'See Luxembourgish phonology
NorwegianUrban East[35][36]lær[læːɾ]'leather'See Norwegian phonology
Persian[37][38]هشت/hašt[hæʃt]'eight'
PortugueseSome dialects[39]pedra[ˈpædɾɐ]'stone'Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology
Some European speakers[40]também[tɐˈmæ̃]'also'Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/.
RomanianBukovinian dialect[41]piele[ˈpæle]'skin'Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[41] See Romanian phonology
Russian[42][43]пять / pja[pʲætʲ]'five'Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-CroatianZeta-Raška dialect[44]дан/dan[d̪æn̪]'day'Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised.[44]
Sinhala[45]ඇය/æya[æjə]'she'
SwedishCentral Standard[46][47][48]ära[²æːɾä]'hono(u)r'Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology
Stockholm[48]läsa[²læːsä]'to read'Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] for other speakers
Turkish[49]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 [].[49] See Turkish phonology

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. Grønnum (1998:100)
  3. Basbøll (2005:46)
  4. Donaldson (1993:3)
  5. Holes (2004:60)
  6. Campbell (1991:5)
  7. Berta (1998:183)
  8. "Bengali romanization table" (PDF). Bahai Studies. Bahai Studies. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  9. Rafel (1999:14)
  10. Basbøll (2005:45)
  11. Basbøll (2005:32)
  12. Collins & Mees (2003:92, 129)
  13. Collins & Mees (2003:92, 128–129, 131)
  14. Gordon & Maclagan (2004:609)
  15. Wells (1982:486)
  16. Cruttenden (2014:119–120)
  17. Asu & Teras (2009:368)
  18. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
  19. Collins & Mees (2013:226)
  20. Walker (1984:75)
  21. Moosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015:342)
  22. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:40)
  23. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:64)
  24. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:65)
  25. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:34, 64–65)
  26. Newton (1972:11)
  27. Revithiadou & Spyropoulos (2009:41)
  28. Szende (1994:92)
  29. Bacelar (2004:60)
  30. François (2005:466)
  31. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
  32. Peters (2006:119)
  33. Verhoeven (2007:221)
  34. Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
  35. Vanvik (1979:13)
  36. Popperwell (2010:16, 21–22)
  37. Majidi & Ternes (1991)
  38. Campbell (1995)
  39. Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction – by Milton M. Azevedo Page 186.
  40. Lista das marcas dialetais e ouros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (in Portuguese)
  41. Pop (1938), p. 29.
  42. Jones & Ward (1969:50)
  43. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224–225)
  44. Okuka 2008, p. 171.
  45. Perera & Jones (1919:5)
  46. Eliasson (1986:273)
  47. Thorén & Petterson (1992:15)
  48. Riad (2014:38)
  49. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)

References

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