Mid front unrounded vowel

Mid front unrounded vowel
e̞
ɛ̝
IPA number	302 430
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	e​̞
Unicode (hex)	U+0065 U+031E
X-SAMPA	e_o
Braille
Sound
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The mid front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. While 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], 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⟩, (small capital E, U+1D07, ᴇ) is used sometimes.

For many languages that have only one phonemic front unrounded vowel in the mid-vowel area (i.e. neither close nor open), this vowel is pronounced as a true mid vowel, phonetically distinct from either a close-mid or open-mid vowel. Examples are Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Greek and Turkish. A number of dialects of English also have such a mid front vowel. However, there is no general predisposition for this. Igbo, for example, has a close-mid [e], whereas Bulgarian has an open-mid [ɛ], even though neither language has another phonemic mid front vowel.

The Kensiu language 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.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• 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 as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Hejazi	ليش	[le̞ːʃ]	'why'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨eː⟩.
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		he̞	[he̞ː]	'yes'	Usually shifted to [e] and [ɪ] in the Urmia and Jilu dialects.
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect
Catalan	Modern Alguerese	sec	[se̞k]	'dry'	/ɛ/ and /e/ merge into [e̞] in these dialects. See Catalan phonology
	Northern
Chinese	Mandarin	飛/fēi	[fe̞ɪ̯˥]	'to fly'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Czech	Bohemian	led	[lë̞t]	'ice'	Near-front; may be open-mid [ɛ] instead. See Czech phonology
Danish	Conservative	hæl	[ˈhe̞ːˀl]	'heel'	Realized as close-mid [eː] in contemporary standard Danish; most often, it is transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect	wel	[β̞e̞ɫ]	'well'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect phonology
English	Broad New Zealand	cat	[kʰe̞t]	'cat'	Lower in other New Zealand varieties; corresponds to [æ] in other accents.
	Cardiff	square	[skwe̞ː]	'square'	May be open-mid [ɛː] instead.
	Cultivated New Zealand	let	[le̞t]	'let'	Higher in other New Zealand varieties.
	Received Pronunciation				Many speakers pronounce a more open vowel [ɛ] instead. See English phonology
	Inland Northern American	bit	[bë̞t̚]	'bit'	Near-front, may be [ɪ] (also [ə] in Scotland) instead for other speakers. See Northern Cities vowel shift
	Scottish		[bë̞ʔ]
	Yorkshire	play	[ple̞ː]	'play'
Estonian		keha	[ˈke̞ɦɑ̝ˑ]	'body'	See Estonian phonology
Finnish		menen	[ˈme̞ne̞n]	'I go'	See Finnish phonology
German	Standard	Bett	[bɛ̝̈t]	'bed'	Near-front; also described as open-mid front [ɛ]. See Standard German phonology
	Bernese dialect	rède	[ˈre̞d̥ə]	'to speak'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Bernese German phonology
Greek		φαινόμενο / fainómeno	[fe̞ˈno̞me̞no̞]	'phenomenon'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		כן	[ke̞n]	'yes'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		hét	[he̞ːt̪]	'seven'	Also described as close-mid [eː]. See Hungarian phonology
Ibibio		[sé̞]		'look'
Italian	Piedmont	bene	[ˈbe̞ːne̞]	'good'	Corresponds to /ɛ/ and /e/ in standard Italian. See Italian phonology
Japanese		笑み	[e̞mʲi]	'smile'	See Japanese phonology
Jebero		[ˈiʃë̞k]		'bat'	Near-front; possible realization of /ɘ/.
Korean		베개	[pe̞ˈɡɛ]	'pillow'	See Korean phonology
Limburgish	Maastrichtian	bed	[be̞t]	'bed'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩.
	Weert dialect	zegke	[ˈze̞ɡə]	'to say'
Norwegian	Standard Eastern	nett	[n̻e̞t̻ː]	'net'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Norwegian phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian	energia	[ẽ̞ne̞ɦˈʑi.ɐ]	'energy'	Unstressed vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Ripuarian	Kerkrade dialect	birk	[be̞ʁk]		Allophone of /e/ before /m, n, ŋ, l, ʁ/.
Romanian		fete	[ˈfe̞t̪e̞]	'girls'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		человек	[t͡ɕɪlɐˈvʲe̞k]	'human'	Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		питање / pitanje	[pǐːt̪äːɲ̟e̞]	'question'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak	Standard	behať	[ˈbe̞ɦäc̟]	'to run'	Backness varies between front and near-front. See Slovak phonology
Slovene		velikan	[ʋe̞liˈká̠ːn]	'giant'	Unstressed vowel, as well as an allophone of /e/ before /j/ when a vowel does not follow within the same word. See Slovene phonology
Sorbian	Upper	njebjo	[ˈɲ̟e̞bʲɔ]	'sky'	Allophone of /ɛ/ between soft consonants and after a soft consonant, excluding /j/ in both cases. See Upper Sorbian phonology
Spanish		bebé	[be̞ˈβ̞e̞]	'baby'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	häll	[he̞l̪]	'flat rock'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. Many dialects pronounce short /e/ and /ɛ/ the same. See Swedish phonology
Tagalog		daliri	[dɐˈliɾe̞]	'finger'	See Tagalog phonology
Tera		ze	[zè̞ː]	'spoke'
Turkish		ev	[e̞v]	'house'	See Turkish phonology
Võro
West Frisian		ik	[e̞k]	'I'	Also described as close-mid [e]; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɪ⟩. See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba					Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. It is nasalized, and may be open-mid [ɛ̃] instead.

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