Open-mid front unrounded vowel

Open-mid front unrounded vowel
ɛ
Image
IPA number	303
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɛ
Unicode (hex)	U+025B
X-SAMPA	E
Kirshenbaum	E
Sound
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The open-mid front unrounded vowel, or low-mid 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 Greek epsilon, ⟨ɛ⟩.

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.

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
This table contains phonetic symbols. They may not display correctly in some browsers (Help).
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• 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.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Adyghe		Ӏуэ	[ʔʷɛ] (help·info)	'to tell'
Albanian		tre	[tɾɛ]	'three'
Catalan[1]		mel	[ˈmɛɫ]	'honey'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	蛇/se4	[sɛː˩]	'snake'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	斜/xié	[ɕjɛ˧˥]	'tilted'	See Mandarin phonology
	Wu	颜/ ngae	[ŋɛ˥˨]	'face'
Czech		Amerika	[amɛrɪka]	'America'	See Czech phonology
Dutch	Standard	bed	[bɛt]	'bed'	See Dutch phonology
	Southern	ijs	[ɛːs]	'ice'	Some dialects, corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
	The Hague				Corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
English	GA	bed	[bɛd]	'bed'	See English phonology
	New Zealand	fat	[fɛt]	'fat'
Faroese		elska	[ɛlska]	'love'
French[2]		bête	[bɛt]	'animal'	See French phonology
Galician		pé	[pɛ]	'foot'
Georgian[3]		გედი	[ɡɛdi]	'swan'
German		Bett	[bɛt]	'bed'	See German phonology
Hindi		शहर	[ʃɛɦɛr]	'city'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		nem	[nɛm]	'no'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		ég	[jɛɣ]	'I'	See Icelandic phonology
Italian[4]		bene	[ˈbɛːne]	'good'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		Ӏуэ	[ʔʷɛ] (help·info)	'to tell'
Korean		태양	[tʰɛ.jaŋ]	'Sun'	See Korean phonology
Lithuanian		mane	[mɐˈnɛ]	'me' (acc.)
Macedonian		елен	[ɛlɛn]	'deer'	See Macedonian phonology
Ngwe	Njoagwi dialect	[lɛ̀rɛ́]		'eye'
North Frisian		tech	[tɛx]	'closed'
Norwegian		nett	[nɛt]	'net'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish[5]		ten	[tɛn] (help·info)	'this one'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[6]		café	[kɐˈfɛ]	'coffee'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian[7]		это	[ˈɛtə] (help·info)	'this'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		aig	[ɛk]	'at'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Serbo-Croatian		mleko/млеко	[mlɛːko]	'milk'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Seri		me	[mɛ]	'you'
Slovak		pes	[pɛs]	'dog'
Swedish		ät	[ɛːt]	'eat' (imp.)	See Swedish phonology
Turkish		süre	[syɾɛ]	'duration'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		береза	[bɛˈrɛzɑ]	'birch'	See Ukrainian phonology
Urdu		شہر	[ʃɛɦɛr]	'city'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Vietnamese		e	[ɛ]	'to fear'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian		têd	[tɛːt]	'languid'
Yoruba		ẹsẹ̀	[ɛ̄sɛ]	'leg'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107 
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121 
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264 

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 Stop 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