Near-close near-front unrounded vowel

Near-close near-front unrounded vowel
ɪ
Image
IPA number	319
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɪ
Unicode (hex)	U+026A
X-SAMPA	I
Kirshenbaum	I
Sound
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The near-close near-front unrounded vowel, or near-high near-front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɪ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is I. The IPA symbol is a small capital letter i.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.

There is also a near-close central unrounded vowel in some languages.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
• Its vowel backness is near-front, which means the tongue is positioned almost as far forward as a front vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chinese	Cantonese	冰/bing1	[pɪŋ˥]	'ice'	See Cantonese phonology
	Wu	一/ ih	[iɪʔ˥]	'one'
Czech		byli	[ˈbɪlɪ]	'they were'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		ik	[ɪ̽k]	'I'	See Dutch phonology
English		bit	[bɪt]	'bit'	See English phonology
French	Quebec	petite	[pətsɪt]	'small'	Occurs only in closed syllables. See Quebec French phonology
German		bitte	[ˈbɪtə]	'please'	See German phonology
Irish		duine	[dˠɪnʲə]	'person'	See Irish phonology
Mongolian[1]		?	[xɪɾɘ̆]	'hillside'
Plautdietsch		winta	[vɪntə]	'winter'
Portuguese	Brazilian[2]	saque	[ˈsakɪ]	'withdrawal'	Unstressed vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Norwegian		litt	[lɪt]	'a little'	See Norwegian phonology
Russian[3]		дерево	[ˈdʲerʲɪvə]	'tree'	Occurs only in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		thig	[hɪk]	'come'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sicilian		arrìriri	[arrɪriri]	'smile'
Swedish		sill	[sɪl] (help·info)	'herring'	See Swedish phonology
Ukrainian		ходити	[xɔdɪtɪ]	'to walk'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		chị	[cɪj˧ˀ˨]	'elder sister'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian	Standard	lippe	[ɫɪpə]	'lip'
	Hindelopers	beast	[bɪːst]	'animal'

References

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 
• Iivonen, Antti; Harnud, Huhe (2005), "Acoustical comparison of the monophthong systems in Finnish, Mongolian and Udmurt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 59–71, doi:10.1017/S002510030500191X 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 

v t e   International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics* Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Extensions to the IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Conlang X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet   Consonants v t e IPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post​alv. Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ ɲ̥ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Trill ʙ r ɽ͡r ʀ я * Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̠ ʎ̯ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ Co-articulated consonants Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Vowels: IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view