The accented syllable in the word "except" is the second syllable, of which the vowel is an open-mid front unrounded vowel, represented in IPA as /ɛ/. The entire pronunciation of except is /ik-sept/ (transcribed in IPA as /ɪkˈsɛpt/.

The technical term for the vowel sound in the word "meal" - the "ea" sounding like the double e in "fee", for example, is a "close front unrounded vowel".

The four parameters of vowel sounds are height, backness, tenseness, and rounding. Height refers to the position of the tongue in the mouth (high, mid, or low), backness refers to the position of the tongue in relation to the back of the mouth (front, central, or back), tenseness refers to the amount of muscle tension in the tongue (tense or lax), and rounding refers to the shape of the lips (rounded or unrounded).