Near-open front unrounded vowel

Near-open front unrounded vowel
æ
IPA number	325
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	æ
Unicode (hex)	U+00E6
X-SAMPA	{
Kirshenbaum	&
Braille
Sound
source · help

The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is simply an open or low front unrounded vowel. 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".

The IPA prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of this article follows this preference. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

In practice, /æ/ is sometimes used to represent an open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.

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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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• 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 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
Afrikaans	Standard	perd	[pæːrt]	'horse'	Allophone of /ɛ/ before sequences /rs/, /rt/, /rd/ and, in some dialects, before /k x l r/. See Afrikaans phonology
Ahtna		kuggaedi	[kʰuk̠æti]	'mosquito'
Arabic	Standard	كتاب	[kiˈt̪æːb]	'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		səs	[sæs]	'sound'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		nata	[næːta]	'ear'	In some speakers of the Urmia and Jilu dialects; Others may use [a]. Outside these dialects, [ä] is widespread; However, the Tyari dialects may use [ɑ].
Bengali		এক	[æk]	'one'	See Bengali phonology
Catalan	Valencian	set	[ˈs̠æt̪]	'seven'	Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɛ⟩. [æ] may approach /a/ in contact with liquids or in monosyllabic terms. See Catalan phonology
	Some Balearic speakers
	Some Valencian and Balearic speakers	llamp	[ˈl̠ʲæmp]	'lightning'	Allophone of /a/ in contact with palatal consonants. In some variants it can merge with /ɛ/.
	Many Western Catalan dialects	taula	[ˈt̪ɑ̟wɫæ̝]	'table'	Typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɛ⟩. Unstressed allophone of /a/ and /e/ in the coda. It can alternate with [ɒ] or always be pronounced [ɒ] in the Valencian dialects.
Danish	Standard	Dansk	[ˈd̥ænsɡ̊]	'Danish'	Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨a⟩ - the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers. See Danish phonology
Dutch Low Saxon	Some dialects	dät	[dæt]	'that'	More back in other dialects
English	Australian	cat	[kʰæt]	'cat'	Contrasts with /æː/; may be higher [ɛ] in broader accents. See English phonology and Australian English phonology
	General American
	Received Pronunciation				Lower [a] for many younger speakers
	Norfolk		[kʰæ̠t]		Near-front.
	Cockney	town	[tˢæːn]	'town'	May be lower [aː] or a diphthong [æə̯] instead. It corresponds to /aʊ̯/ in other dialects
Estonian		väle	[ˈvælɛˑ]	'agile'	Near-front. See Estonian phonology
Finnish		mäki	[ˈmæki]	'hill'	See Finnish phonology
French	Popular Parisian	tard	[ˈtæʀ]	'late'	See French phonology
	Quebec	ver	[væːʁ]	'worm'	Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables. See Quebec French phonology
German	Standard	Pointe	[ˈpʰo̯æ̃ːtʰə]	'punch line'	Nasalized. Most often transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɛ̃(ː)⟩. Present only in loanwords. See German phonology
Greek	Macedonia	γάτα/gáta	[ˈɣætæ]	'cat'	See Modern Greek phonology
	Thessaly
	Thrace
	Pontic	καλάθια/kaláthia	[kaˈlaθæ]	'baskets'
Hindi		बैल	[bæl]	'oxen'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Jalapa Mazatec		tsæ	[tsǣ]	'guava'
Lakon		rävräv	[ræβræβ]	'evening'
Latvian		ezers	[ˈæz̪ærs̪]	'lake'
Lithuanian		eglė	[ˈæːɡʲlʲeː]	'spruce tree'
Luxembourgish		Käpp	[kʰæp]	'heads'	Described variously as near-open and slightly lowered near-open. See Luxembourgish phonology
Norwegian	Bergen	ett	[æt]	'one'	Corresponds to /æ/ and /ɛ/ in other dialects. May also be pronounced as [ɪ]. See Norwegian phonology
	Standard Eastern	lær	[l̪æːɾ]	'leather'
Persian		در	[dær]	'door'	See Persian phonology
Portuguese	Some dialects	pedra	[ˈpæðɾɐ]	'stone'	Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology
	Some European speakers	também	[tɐˈmæ̃]	'also'	Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/.
Ripuarian	Kerkrade dialect	dem	[dæm]		Allophone of /ɛ/ before /m, n, ŋ, l, ʁ/.
Romanian	Bukovinian dialect	piele	[pæle]	'skin'	Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects. See Romanian phonology
Russian		пять	[pʲætʲ]	'five'	Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Sinhala		කැමති	[kæməti]	'to like'
Slovak		väzy	[ˈʋæzɪ]	'ligaments'	Somewhat rare pronunciation, with [ɛ] being more common. See Slovak phonology
Spanish	Eastern Andalusian	seis	[ˈsæɪ̯ʰ]	'six'	Lowered allophone of /e/ before /s/ ([ɛʰ]) in some instances. In some variants it can merge with /a/ ([æ̞]). See Spanish phonology
	Murcian
Swedish	Central Standard	ära	[ˈæ̂ːˈɾâ]	'honour'	Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology
	Stockholm	läsa	[ˈlæ̂ːˈsâ]	'to read'	Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] for other speakers
Turkish		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 [e̞]. See Turkish phonology
Vietnamese	Northern	pha	[fæ]	'phase'	Some dialects. Corresponds to [a] in other dialects. See Vietnamese phonology
Yaghan		mæpi	[mæpi]	'reed'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

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