Near-open front unrounded vowel
| Near-open front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| æ | |||
| IPA number | 325 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | æ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+00E6 | ||
| X-SAMPA | { | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Legend: unrounded • rounded |
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".
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
[edit]- 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
[edit]| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[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]. | |
| Arabic | Standard[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 |
| Azerbaijani | Azərbaycan | [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn] | 'Azerbaijan' | ||
| Bambam[6] | bätä | [ˈbætæ] | 'stem' | ||
| Bashkir[7] | йәй (yäy) | ⓘ | 'summer' | ||
| Bengali[8] | এক (ek) | [æk] | 'one' | 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)[9] | sac | [ˈs̺æc] | 'bag' | Majorcan /a/-fronting. See Catalan phonology |
| Valencian[10][11] & some Catalan dialects (some speakers) | raig | [ˈræt͡ɕ] | 'ray' | Palatal variant of /a/. It can be more open ([a]). See Catalan phonology | |
| taula | [ˈt̪ɑwɫɛ̞̈] | 'table' | Final unstressed /a/ found in some speakers. Can be realized as (un)rounded and further back. See Catalan phonology | ||
| Balearic (except Ibizan)[12][13] | tesi | [ˈt̪ɛ̞z̺ɪ] | 'thesis' | Main realization of /ɛ/. More open and centralized before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology | |
| Valencian (general pronunciation)[12][13] | |||||
| Chechen | аьрзу (ärzu) | [ærzu] | 'eagle' | ||
| Danish | Standard[2][14] | dansk | [ˈtænˀsk] | 'Danish' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[15] See Danish phonology |
| Dutch[16] | 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.[17] See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Cultivated New Zealand[18] | cat | ⓘ | '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 | [ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ] | 'agile' | Near-front.[21] See Estonian phonology | |
| Finnish[22] | mäki | [ˈmæki] | 'hill' | See Finnish phonology | |
| French | Parisian[23] | bain | [bæ̃] | 'bath' | Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. See French phonology |
| Quebec[24] | ver | [væːʁ] | 'worm' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables.[24] See Quebec French phonology | |
| German | Standard Austrian[25] | erlauben | [æˈlɑɔ̯bn̩] | 'allow' | Variant of pretonic [ɛɐ̯].[25] See Standard German phonology |
| West Central German accents[26] | oder | [ˈoːdæ] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ].[26] See Standard German phonology | |
| Northern accents[27] | alles | [ˈa̝ləs] | 'everything' | Lower and often also more back in other accents.[27] See Standard German phonology | |
| Western Swiss accents[28] | spät | [ʃpæːt] | 'late' | Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/.[29] See Standard German phonology | |
| Greek | Macedonia[30] | γάτα (gáta) | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Thessaly[30] | |||||
| Thrace[30] | |||||
| Pontic[31] | καλάθια (kaláthia) | [kaˈlaθæ] | 'baskets' | ||
| Hungarian[32] | nem | [næm] | 'no' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Hungarian phonology | |
| Kanoê[33] | [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[34] | rävräv | [ræβræβ] | 'evening' | ||
| Limburgish[35][36][37] | twelf | [ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf] | '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 | jachtą | [ˈjæːxt̪aː] | 'yacht' (accusative) | See Lithuanian phonology | |
| Low Saxon | Including Sallandic | gläzen | [xɫæːzn̩] | 'glasses' | |
| Luxembourgish[38] | Käpp | [kʰæpʰ] | 'heads' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[39][40] | lær | [læːɾ] | 'leather' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian[41][42] | هشت (hašt) | [hæʃt] | 'eight' | ||
| Portuguese | Some dialects[43] | pedra | [ˈpæðɾɐ] | 'stone' | Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology |
| Some European speakers[44] | também | [tɐˈmæ̃] | 'also' | Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/. | |
| Romanian | Bukovinian dialect[45] | piele | [ˈpæle] | 'skin' | Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[45] See Romanian phonology |
| Russian[46][47] | пять (pjatʹ) | ⓘ | 'five' | Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian | Zeta-Raška dialect[48] | дан / dan | [d̪æn̪] | 'day' | Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised.[48] |
| Sinhala[49] | ඇය (æya) | [æjə] | 'she' | ||
| Slovak | mäso | [mæso] | 'meat, flesh' | In conversation sometimes pronounced as [e] or [a]. See Slovak phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[50][51][52] | ära | ⓘ | 'hono(u)r' | Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology |
| Stockholm[52] | läsa | [²læːsä] | 'to read' | Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] 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 [e̞].[53] See Turkish phonology | |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- ^ a b Grønnum (1998:100)
- ^ Basbøll (2005:46)
- ^ Donaldson (1993:3)
- ^ Holes (2004:60)
- ^ Campbell (1991:5)
- ^ Berta (1998:183)
- ^ "Bengali romanization table" (PDF). Bahai Studies. Bahai Studies. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ Simonet, Ramírez Martínez & Torres-Tamarit (2025).
- ^ Saborit (2009), pp. 24–25.
- ^ Saborit (2009), pp. 25–26.
- ^ a b Recasens (1996), p. 81.
- ^ a b Rafel (1999), p. 14.
- ^ Basbøll (2005:45)
- ^ Basbøll (2005:32)
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003:92, 129)
- ^ Collins & Mees (2003:92, 128–129, 131)
- ^ Gordon & Maclagan (2004:609)
- ^ Wells (1982:486)
- ^ a b Cruttenden (2014:119–120)
- ^ a b Asu & Teras (2009:368)
- ^ Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
- ^ Collins & Mees (2013:226)
- ^ a b Walker (1984:75)
- ^ a b Moosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015:342)
- ^ a b Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:40)
- ^ a b Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:64)
- ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:65)
- ^ Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:34, 64–65)
- ^ a b c Newton (1972:11)
- ^ Revithiadou & Spyropoulos (2009:41)
- ^ Szende (1994:92)
- ^ Bacelar (2004:60)
- ^ François (2005:466)
- ^ a b Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
- ^ a b Peters (2006:119)
- ^ a b Verhoeven (2007:221)
- ^ Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
- ^ Vanvik (1979:13)
- ^ Popperwell (2010:16, 21–22)
- ^ Majidi & Ternes (1991)
- ^ Campbell (1995)
- ^ Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction – by Milton M. Azevedo Page 186.
- ^ Lista das marcas dialetais e outros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (in Portuguese)
- ^ a b Pop (1938), p. 29.
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:50)
- ^ Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224–225)
- ^ a b Okuka 2008, p. 171.
- ^ Perera & Jones (1919:5)
- ^ Eliasson (1986:273)
- ^ Thorén & Petterson (1992:15)
- ^ a b Riad (2014:38)
- ^ a b Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
References
[edit]- Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
- Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 978-0-203-97876-4
- Berta, Árpád (1998), "Tatar and Bashkir", in Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.), The Turkic languages, Routledge, pp. 283–300
- Campbell, George L. (1995), "Persian", Concise compendium of the world's languages (1st publ. ed.), London: Routledge, p. 385, ISBN 0415160499
- Campbell, Philip J. (1991). "Phonology of Pitu Ulunna Salu" (PDF). In Rene van den Berg (ed.). Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures (PDF). Vol. 12, Sulawesi phonologies. Ujung Pandang, Sulawesi: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 1–52. ISBN 979-8132-85-8.
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-9004103405
- Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2013) [First published 2003], Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students (3rd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-50650-2
- Cruttenden, Alan (2014), Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
- Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993), "1. Pronunciation", A Grammar of Afrikaans, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–35, ISBN 9783110134261
- Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
- Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning (ed.), Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 271–300
- François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of vowels in seventeen north Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034, S2CID 131668754
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
- Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
- Gordon, Elizabeth; Maclagan, Margaret (2004), "Regional and social differences in New Zealand: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 603–613, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
- Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Illustrations of the IPA: Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1 & 2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006290, S2CID 249412109
- Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2): 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045, archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-11, retrieved 2016-01-17
- Holes, Clive (2004), Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 978-1-58901-022-2
- Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Majidi, Mohammad-Reza; Ternes, Elmar (1991), "Illustrations of the IPA: Persian (Farsi)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 96–98, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004461, S2CID 249413637
- Moosmüller, Sylvia; Schmid, Carolin; Brandstätter, Julia (2015), "Standard Austrian German", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (3): 339–348, doi:10.1017/S0025100315000055
- Newton, Brian (1972), The Generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, vol. 8, Cambridge University Press
- Okuka, Miloš (2008), Srpski dijalekti, Zagreb: Prosvjeta, ISBN 9789537611064
- Perera, H.S.; Jones, D. (1919), A colloquial Sinhalese reader in phonetic transcription, Manchester: Longmans, Green & Co
- Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
- Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
- Popperwell, Ronald G. (2010) [First published 1963], Pronunciation of Norwegian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-15742-1
- Rafel, Joaquim (1999), Aplicació al català dels principis de transcripció de l'Associació Fonètica Internacional (PDF) (3rd ed.), Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 978-84-7283-446-0
- Revithiadou, Anthi; Spyropoulos, Vassilios (2009), Οφίτικη Ποντιακή: Έρευνα γλωσσικής καταγραφής με έμφαση στη διαχρονία και συγχρονία της διαλέκτου [Ofitika Pontic: A documentation project with special emphasis on the diachrony and synchrony of the dialect] (PDF) (in Greek), John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-31
- Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
- Saborit, Josep (2009), Millorem la pronúncia (in Catalan), Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
- Simonet, Miquel; Ramírez Martínez, Marta; Torres-Tamarit, Francesc (2025), Velar palatalization, phonologization, and sound change – A comparative acoustic study of /k/-fronting in Majorcan Catalan, Journal of Phonetics
- Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finnish sound structure – Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody (PDF), Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 9, Oulu University Press, ISBN 978-951-42-8984-2
- Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA: Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090, S2CID 242632087
- Thorén, Bosse; Petterson, Nils-Owe (1992), Svenska Utifrån Uttalsanvisningar, ISBN 978-91-520-0284-1
- Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 978-82-990584-0-7
- Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
- Walker, Douglas (1984), The Pronunciation of Canadian French (PDF), Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, ISBN 978-0-7766-4500-1
- Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128541-0.
- Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395
- Bacelar, Laércio Nora (2004), Gramática da língua Kanoê (Dissertation), Nijmegen: Radboud University, hdl:2066/19429