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
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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.^[1] 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.

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 the 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 i • y ɨ • ʉ ɯ • u ɪ • ʏ ɪ̈ • ʊ̈ ɯ̽ • ʊ e • ø ɘ • ɵ ɤ • o e̞ • ø̞ ə • ɵ̞ ɤ̞ • o̞ ɛ • œ ɜ • ɞ ʌ • ɔ æ •  ɐ • ɞ̞ a • ɶ ä • ɒ̈ ɑ • ɒ 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[4]	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[5]	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[6][7][8]	Valencian	tesi	[ˈt̪ɛ̞z̥ɪ̝]	'thesis'	Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology
		set	[ˈs̠æ̠t̪]	'seven'	Near-front. Allophone of /ɛ/ found in contact with liquids and in monosyllabic terms. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩
	Majorcan
	Minorcan
	Some Valencian and Balearic speakers[9]	llamp	[ˈl̠ʲɛ̞mp]	'lightning'	Allophone of /a/ in contact with palatal consonants. In some variants it can merge with /ɛ/.
	Western Catalan[10][11]	taula	[ˈt̪ɑ̟wɫæ̝]	'table'	Somewhat retracted. Unstressed allophone of /a/ in the coda. It can alternate with rounded allophones in the Valencian dialects.
Danish	Standard[2][12]	Dansk	[ˈd̥ænsɡ̊]	'Danish'	Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ - the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[13] See Danish phonology
Dutch Low Saxon	Some dialects	dät	[dæt]	'that'	More back in other dialects
English	Australian[14]	cat	[kʰæt]	'cat'	Many younger speakers realize it as fully open [a],[15] whereas in broader accents it may be open-mid [ɛ]. See English phonology and Australian English phonology
	Cultivated New Zealand[16]				Higher in other New Zealand varieties.
	General American[17]
	Received Pronunciation[18]				Lower [a] for many younger speakers
	Norfolk[19]		[kʰæ̠t]		Near-front.[19]
	Cockney[20]	town	[tˢæːn]	'town'	May be lower [aː] or a diphthong [æə̯] instead. It corresponds to /aʊ̯/ in other dialects
Estonian[21]		väle	[ˈvæ̠lɛˑ]	'agile'	Near-front.[21] See Estonian phonology
Finnish[22]		mäki	[ˈmæki]	'hill'	See Finnish phonology
French	Popular Parisian[23]	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.[24] See Quebec French phonology
Garhwali	Standard	ले	[læ]	'take it'	Allophone of /e/
German	Standard[25]	Pointe	[ˈpʰo̯æ̃ːtʰə]	'punch line'	Nasalized.[25] Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃ː⟩. Present only in loanwords. See German phonology
Greek	Macedonia[26]	γάτα/gáta	[ˈɣætæ]	'cat'	See Modern Greek phonology
	Thessaly[26]
	Thrace[26]
	Pontic[27]	καλάθια/kaláthia	[kaˈlaθæ]	'baskets'
Hindi		बैल	[bæl]	'oxen'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian[28]		nem	[næm]	'no'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Hungarian phonology
Italian	Bari	Bari	[ˈbæri]	'Bari'
Jalapa Mazatec		tsæ	[tsǣ]	'guava'
Lakon[29]		rävräv	[ræβræβ]	'evening'
Latvian		ezers	[ˈæz̪ærs̪]	'lake'
Limburgish	Hasselt dialect[30]	mès	[mæs²]	'knife'
	Maastrichtian[31]	twelf	[ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf]	'twelve'	Near-front.[31]
Lithuanian		eglė	[ˈæːɡʲlʲeː]	'spruce tree'	See Lithuanian phonology
Luxembourgish[32][33]		Käpp	[kʰæp]	'heads'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Norwegian	Standard Eastern[34]	lær	[l̪æːɾ]	'leather'	See Norwegian phonology
	Bergen[35]	ett	[æt]	'one'	Corresponds to /æ/ and /ɛ/ in other dialects. May also be realized as [ɪ].
Persian		در	[dær]	'door'	See Persian phonology
Polish[36]		ten	[t̪æn̪]	'this one' (masc. nom.)	Rare realization of /ɛ/.[37] See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Some dialects[38]	pedra	[ˈpæðɾɐ]	'stone'	Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology
	Some European speakers[39]	também	[tɐˈmæ̃]	'also'	Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/.
Ripuarian	Kerkrade dialect[40]	dem	[dæm]		Allophone of /ɛ/ before /m, n, ŋ, l, ʁ/.[40]
Romanian	Bukovinian dialect[41]	piele	[pæle]	'skin'	Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[41] See Romanian phonology
Russian[42][43]		пять	[pʲætʲ]	'five'	Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Sinhala		කැමති	[kæməti]	'to like'
Slovak[44]		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/ in some instances. In some variants it can merge with /a/ ([a]). See Spanish phonology
	Murcian
Swedish	Central Standard[45][46][47]	ära	[ˈæ̂ːˈɾâ]	'honour'	Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology
	Stockholm[47]	läsa	[ˈlæ̂ːˈsâ]	'to read'	Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] for other speakers
Turkish[48]		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].[48] 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

References

1. Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
2. Grønnum (1998:100)
3. Basbøll (2005:46)
4. Donaldson (1993:3)
5. Holes (2004:60)
6. Recasens (1996:81)
7. Recasens (1996:130–131)
8. Rafel (1999:14)
9. Saborit (2009:24-25)
10. Recasens (1996:?)
11. Saborit (2009:25-26)
12. Basbøll (2005:45)
13. Basbøll (2005:32)
14. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009a)
15. Cox (2012:160)
16. Gordon & Maclagan (2004:609)
17. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009b)
18. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009c), Roach (2004:242)
19. Lodge (2009:168)
20. Wells (1982:309)
21. Asu & Teras (2009:368)
22. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
23. "Les Accents des Français". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
24. Walker (1984:75)
25. Mangold (2005:37)
26. Newton (1972:11)
27. Revithiadou & Spyropoulos (2009:41)
28. Szende (1994:92)
29. François (2005:466)
30. Peters (2006:119)
31. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
32. Trouvain & Gilles (2009:75)
33. Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
34. Vanvik (1979:13)
35. Vanvik (1979:15)
36. Rocławski (1976:75, 108)
37. Rocławski (1976:108)
38. Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction – by Milton M. Azevedo Page 186.
39. Lista das marcas dialetais e ouros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (Portuguese)
40. Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997:16)
41. Pop (1938), p. 29.
42. Jones & Ward (1969:50)
43. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224–225)
44. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
45. Eliasson (1986:273)
46. Thorén & Petterson (1992:15)
47. Riad (2014:38)
48. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)

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