Near-open front unrounded vowel
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| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | ɨ ʉ | ɯ u |
| Near-close | ɪ ʏ | ʊ | |
| Close-mid | e ø | ɘ ɵ | ɤ o |
| Mid | e̞ ø̞ | ə | ɤ̞ o̞ |
| Open-mid | ɛ œ | ɜ ɞ | ʌ ɔ |
| Near-open | æ | ɐ | |
| Open | a ɶ | ä | ɑ ɒ |
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Legend: unrounded • rounded
The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, 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".
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; 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
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard | perd | [pæːrt] | 'horse' | Allophone of /ɛ/, in some dialects, before /kχlr/. See Afrikaans phonology |
| Äiwoo | ikuwä | [ikuwæ] | 'I go' | Distinguished from both [a] and [ɑ~ɒ]. | |
| Arabic | Standard | 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 |
| Azerbaijani | Azərbaycan | [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn] | 'Azerbaijan' | ||
| Bambam | bätä | [ˈbætæ] | 'stem' | ||
| Bashkir | йәй (yäy) | ⓘ | 'summer' | ||
| Bengali | ব্যাঙ/bêṅ | [bæŋ] | 'frog' | Also pronounced as /ɛ/. See Bengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian | Moesian dialects | млечен (mlečen) | [mlæt͡ʃɛn] | 'made from milk' | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in places where Standard Bulgarian would have /ɛ/. See Yat. |
| Rup dialects | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in all positions. See Yat. | ||||
| Teteven dialect | мъж (măž) | [mæʃ] | 'man' | In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤ̞] (written as ъ). | |
| Erkech dialect | |||||
| Catalan | Majorcan (some speakers) | sac | [ˈs̺æc] | 'bag' | Majorcan /a/-fronting. See Catalan phonology |
| Valencian | raig | [ˈr̺æt͡ɕ] | 'ray' | Palatal variant of /a/. It can be more open ([a]). See Catalan phonology | |
| terra | [ˈt̪ær̺æ̈] | 'Earth, land' | Final unstressed /a/ (usually involving vowel harmony). Can be realized as rounded and/or back. See Catalan phonology | ||
| tesi | [ˈt̪ɛ̞z̺ɪ] | 'thesis' | Main realization of /ɛ/. Slightly more open and centralized (near-front) [æ̠] before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology | ||
| Balearic (except Ibizan) | Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology | ||||
| Chechen | аьрзу (ärzu) | [ærzu] | 'eagle' | ||
| Danish | Standard | dansk | [ˈtænˀsk] | 'Danish' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | 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. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Cultivated New Zealand | cat | ⓘ | 'cat' | Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology |
| General American | See English phonology | ||||
| Conservative Received Pronunciation | Fully open [a] in contemporary RP. See English phonology | ||||
| Estonian | väle | [ˈvæ̈le̞ˑ] | 'agile' | Near-front. See Estonian phonology | |
| Finnish | mäki | [ˈmæki] | 'hill' | See Finnish phonology | |
| French | Parisian | bain | [bæ̃] | 'bath' | Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. 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 Austrian | erlauben | [æˈlɑɔ̯bn̩] | 'allow' | Variant of pretonic [ɛɐ̯]. See Standard German phonology |
| West Central German accents | oder | [ˈoːdæ] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ]. See Standard German phonology | |
| Northern accents | alles | [ˈæləs] | 'everything' | Lower and often also more back in other accents. See Standard German phonology | |
| Western Swiss accents | spät | [ʃpæːt] | 'late' | Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/. See Standard German phonology | |
| Greek | Macedonia | γάτα (gáta) | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Thessaly | |||||
| Thrace | |||||
| Pontic | καλάθια (kaláthia) | [kaˈlaθæ] | 'baskets' | ||
| Hindustani | Hindi | न्यूज़ीलैंड (Nyu Zilaind) | [njuːziːlænd] | 'New Zealand' | An allophone of [ɛː] that appears in English loanwords. See Hindustani phonology. |
| Urdu | نیوزی لینڈ (Nyu Zilaind) | ||||
| Hungarian | nem | [næm] | 'no' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Hungarian phonology | |
| Kanoê | [example needed] | [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 | rävräv | [ræβræβ] | 'evening' | ||
| Limburgish | twelf | [ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf] | 'twelve' | Front or near-front, depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front. | |
| Lithuanian | jachtą | [ˈjæːxt̪aː] | 'yacht' (accusative) | See Lithuanian phonology | |
| Low Saxon | Including Sallandic | gläzen | [xɫæːzn̩] | 'glasses' | |
| Luxembourgish | Käpp | [kʰæpʰ] | 'heads' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East | lær | [læːɾ] | 'leather' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian | هشت (hašt) | [hæʃt] | 'eight' | ||
| 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/. | |
| Romanian | Bukovinian dialect | piele | [ˈpæle] | 'skin' | Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects. See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | пять (pjatʹ) | ⓘ | 'five' | Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian | Zeta-Raška dialect | дан / dan | [d̪æn̪] | 'day' | Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised. |
| Sinhala | ඇය (æya) | [æjə] | 'she' | ||
| Slovak | mäso | [mæso] | 'meat, flesh' | In conversation sometimes pronounced as [e] or [a]. See Slovak phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard | ära | ⓘ | 'hono(u)r' | Allophone of /ɛː,ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology |
| Stockholm | läsa | [²læːsä] | '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 |
See also
Notes
External links
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