Near-open front unrounded vowel

The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. 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".

Near-open front unrounded vowel
æ
IPA Number325
Encoding
Entity (decimal)æ
Unicode (hex)U+00E6
X-SAMPA{
Braille
Audio sample
source · help

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

  • 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

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
AfrikaansStandard[4]perd[pæːrt]'horse'Allophone of /ɛ/, in some dialects, before /k χ l r/. See Afrikaans phonology
ArabicStandard[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
Bashkir[6] йәй / yäy [jæj]  'summer'
Bengali[7]/ek[æk]'one'Allophone of /ɛ/ or /e/. See Bengali phonology
CatalanMajorcan[8]tesi[ˈt̪æzi]'thesis'Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology
Valencian[8]
DanishStandard[2][9]dansk[ˈtænsk]'Danish'Most often transcribed in IPA with a – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[10] See Danish phonology
Dutch[11]pen[pæn]'pen'Allophone of /ɛ/ before /n/ and the velarized or pharyngealized allophone of /l/. In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where [ɛ] is used in Standard Dutch.[12] See Dutch phonology
EnglishCultivated New Zealand[13]cat[kʰæt] 'cat'Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology
General American[14]See English phonology
Conservative Received Pronunciation[15]Fully open [a] in contemporary RP.[15] See English phonology
Estonian[16]väle[ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ]'agile'Near-front.[16] See Estonian phonology
Finnish[17]mäki[ˈmæki]'hill'See Finnish phonology
FrenchParisian[18]bain[bæ̃]'bath'Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ɛ̃. See French phonology
Quebec[19]ver[væːʁ]'worm'Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables.[19] See Quebec French phonology
GermanStandard Austrian[20]erlauben[æˈlɑɔ̯bm̩]'allow'Variant of pretonic [ɛɐ̯].[20] See Standard German phonology
West Central German accents[21]oder[ˈoːdæ]'or'Used instead of [ɐ].[21] See Standard German phonology
Northern accents[22]alles[ˈa̝ləs]'everything'Lower and often also more back in other accents.[22] See Standard German phonology
Western Swiss accents[23]spät[ʃpæːt]'late'Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/.[24] See Standard German phonology
GreekMacedonia[25]γάτα/gáta[ˈɣætæ]'cat'See Modern Greek phonology
Thessaly[25]
Thrace[25]
Pontic[26]καλάθια/kaláthia[kaˈlaθæ]'baskets'
Hungarian[27]nem[næm]'no'Typically transcribed in IPA with ɛ. See Hungarian phonology
Kurdish Sorani (Central) گاڵته/ gältyä [gäːɫtʲæ] 'joke' Equal to Palewani (Southern) front [a]. See Kurdish phonology
Lakon[28]rävräv[ræβræβ]'evening'
Limburgish[29][30][31]twelf[ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf]'twelve'Front[30][31] or near-front,[29] depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front.
Lithuanianjachtą[ˈjæːxt̪aː]'yacht' (accusative)See Lithuanian phonology
Luxembourgish[32]Käpp[kʰæpʰ]'heads'See Luxembourgish phonology
NorwegianUrban East[33][34]lær[læːɾ]'leather'See Norwegian phonology
Persian[35][36]هشت/ašt[hæʃt]'eight'
PortugueseSome dialects[37]pedra[ˈpædɾɐ]'stone'Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology
Some European speakers[38]também[tɐˈmæ̃]'also'Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/.
RomanianBukovinian dialect[39]piele[ˈpæle]'skin'Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[39] See Romanian phonology
Russian[40][41]пять[pʲætʲ] 'five'Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-CroatianZeta-Raška dialect[42]дан/dan[d̪æn̪]'day'Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised.[42]
Sinhala[43]ඇය/æya[æjə]'she'
SlovakSome speakers[44]väzy[ˈʋæzi̞]'ligaments'Many speakers pronounce it the same as [ɛ̝]. See Slovak phonology
SwedishCentral Standard[45][46][47]ära[²æːɾä] 'hono(u)r'Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology
Stockholm[47]läsa[²læːsä]'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 [].[48] See Turkish phonology

See also

Notes

  1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. Grønnum (1998:100)
  3. Basbøll (2005:46)
  4. Donaldson (1993:3)
  5. Holes (2004:60)
  6. Berta (1998:183)
  7. "Bengali romanization table" (PDF). Bahai Studies. Bahai Studies. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  8. Rafel (1999:14)
  9. Basbøll (2005:45)
  10. Basbøll (2005:32)
  11. Collins & Mees (2003:92, 129)
  12. Collins & Mees (2003:92, 128–129, 131)
  13. Gordon & Maclagan (2004:609)
  14. Wells (1982:486)
  15. Gimson (2014:119–120)
  16. Asu & Teras (2009:368)
  17. Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
  18. Collins & Mees (2013:226)
  19. Walker (1984:75)
  20. Moosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015:342)
  21. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:40)
  22. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:64)
  23. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:65)
  24. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:34, 64–65)
  25. Newton (1972:11)
  26. Revithiadou & Spyropoulos (2009:41)
  27. Szende (1994:92)
  28. François (2005:466)
  29. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
  30. Peters (2006:119)
  31. Verhoeven (2007:221)
  32. Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
  33. Vanvik (1979:13)
  34. Popperwell (2010:16, 21–22)
  35. Majidi & Ternes (1991)
  36. Campbell (1995)
  37. Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction – by Milton M. Azevedo Page 186.
  38. Lista das marcas dialetais e ouros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (in Portuguese)
  39. Pop (1938), p. 29.
  40. Jones & Ward (1969:50)
  41. Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224–225)
  42. Okuka 2008, p. 171.
  43. Perera & Jones (1919:5)
  44. Hanulíková & Hamann (2010:374)
  45. Eliasson (1986:273)
  46. Thorén & Petterson (1992:15)
  47. Riad (2014:38)
  48. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.