Near-open front unrounded vowel

Near-open front unrounded vowel
Near-open front unrounded vowel
æ
IPA Number	325
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	æ
Unicode (hex)	U+00E6
X-SAMPA	{
Braille
Image

IPA: Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i y	ɨ ʉ	ɯ u
Near-close	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
Close-mid	e ø	ɘ ɵ	ɤ o
Mid	e̞ ø̞	ə	ɤ̞ o̞
Open-mid	ɛ œ	ɜ ɞ	ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ	ɐ
Open	a ɶ	ä	ɑ ɒ

Legend: unrounded • rounded

The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound. 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.

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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard^[4]	'perd'	[pæːrt]	'horse'	Allophone of /ɛ/, in some dialects, before /k χ l r/. See Afrikaans phonology
Äiwoo		ikuwä	[ikuwæ]	'I go'	Distinguished from both [a] and [ɑ~ɒ].
Arabic	Standard^[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
Azerbaijani		'Azərbaycan'	[ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn]	'Azerbaijan'
Bambam^[6]		'bätä'	[ˈbætæ]	'stem'
Bashkir^[7]		йәй / yäy	[jæj]^ⓘ	'summer'
Bengali^[8]		এক/ek	[æk]	'one'	See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian
	Moesian dialects	млечен/mlečen	[mlæt͡ʃɛn]	'made from milk'	Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in places where Standard Bulgarian would have /ɛ/. See Yat.
	Rup dialects	млечен/mlečen	[mlæt͡ʃɛn]	'made from milk'	Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in all positions. See Yat.
	Teteven dialect	мъж/măž	[mæʃ]	'man'	In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤ̞] (written as ъ).
	Erkech dialect	мъж/măž	[mæʃ]	'man'	In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤ̞] (written as ъ).
Catalan	Majorcan^[9]	tesi	[ˈt̪æzi]	'thesis'	Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology
Catalan	Valencian^[9]	tesi	[ˈt̪æzi]	'thesis'	Main realization of /ɛ/. See Catalan phonology
Chechen		аьрзу / ärzu	[ærzu]	'eagle'
Danish	Standard^[2]^[10]	dansk	[ˈtænˀsk]	'Danish'	Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.^[11] See Danish phonology
Dutch^[12]		pen	[pæn]	'pen'	Allophone of /ɛ/ before /n/ and coda /l/. In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where [ɛ] is used in Standard Dutch.^[13] See Dutch phonology
English	Cultivated New Zealand^[14]	cat	[kʰæt]^ⓘ	'cat'	Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology
	General American^[15]				See English phonology
	Conservative Received Pronunciation^[16]				Fully open [a] in contemporary RP.^[16] See English phonology
Estonian^[17]		väle	[ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ]	'agile'	Near-front.^[17] See Estonian phonology
Finnish^[18]		mäki	[ˈmæki]	'hill'	See Finnish phonology
French	Parisian^[19]	bain	[bæ̃]	'bath'	Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. See French phonology
French	Quebec^[20]	ver	[væːʁ]	'worm'	Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables.^[20] See Quebec French phonology
German	Standard Austrian^[21]	erlauben	[æˈlɑɔ̯bn̩]	'allow'	Variant of pretonic [ɛɐ̯].^[21] See Standard German phonology
	West Central German accents^[22]	oder	[ˈoːdæ]	'or'	Used instead of [ɐ].^[22] See Standard German phonology
	Northern accents^[23]	alles	[ˈa̝ləs]	'everything'	Lower and often also more back in other accents.^[23] See Standard German phonology
	Western Swiss accents^[24]	spät	[ʃpæːt]	'late'	Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/.^[25] See Standard German phonology
Greek	Macedonia^[26]	γάτα/gáta	[ˈɣætæ]	'cat'	See Modern Greek phonology
	Thessaly^[26]
	Thrace^[26]
	Pontic^[27]	καλάθια/kaláthia	[kaˈlaθæ]	'baskets'
Hungarian^[28]		nem	[næm]	'no'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Hungarian phonology
Kanoê^[29]		[æː]		'tobacco'
Kazakh		әйел/äiel	[æ̝ˈje̘l̪ʲ]	'woman'	Varies between near-open and open-mid.
Kurdish	Sorani (Central)	گاڵته/ galte	[gäːɫtʲæ]	'joke'	Equal to Palewani (Southern) front [a]. See Kurdish phonology
Lakon^[30]		rävräv	[ræβræβ]	'evening'
Limburgish^[31]^[32]^[33]		twelf	[ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf]	'twelve'	Front^[32]^[33] or near-front,^[31] depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front.
Lithuanian		jachtą	[ˈjæːxt̪aː]	'yacht' (accusative)	See Lithuanian phonology
Luxembourgish^[34]		Käpp	[kʰæpʰ]	'heads'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Norwegian	Urban East^[35]^[36]	lær	[læːɾ]	'leather'	See Norwegian phonology
Persian^[37]^[38]		هشت/hašt	[hæʃt]	'eight'
Portuguese	Some dialects^[39]	pedra	[ˈpædɾɐ]	'stone'	Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology
Portuguese	Some European speakers^[40]	também	[tɐˈmæ̃]	'also'	Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/.
Romanian	Bukovinian dialect^[41]	piele	[ˈpæle]	'skin'	Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.^[41] See Romanian phonology
Russian^[42]^[43]		пять / pjatʹ	[pʲætʲ]^ⓘ	'five'	Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian	Zeta-Raška dialect^[44]	дан/dan	[d̪æn̪]	'day'	Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic ь and ъ. Sometimes nasalised.^[44]
Sinhala^[45]		ඇය/æya	[æjə]	'she'
Slovak		mäso	[mæso]	'meat, flesh'	In conversation sometimes pronounced as [e] or [a]. See Slovak phonology
Swedish	Central Standard^[46]^[47]^[48]	ära	[²æːɾä]^ⓘ	'hono(u)r'	Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology
Swedish	Stockholm^[48]	läsa	[²læːsä]	'to read'	Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] for other speakers
Turkish^[49]		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].^[49] See Turkish phonology

Notes

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

References

Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 978-0-203-97876-4
Berta, Árpád (1998), "Tatar and Bashkir", in Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.), The Turkic languages, Routledge, pp. 283–300
Campbell, George L. (1995), "Persian", Concise compendium of the world's languages (1st publ. ed.), London: Routledge, p. 385, ISBN 0415160499
Campbell, Philip J. (1991). "Phonology of Pitu Ulunna Salu" (PDF). In Rene van den Berg (ed.). Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures (PDF). Vol. 12, Sulawesi phonologies. Ujung Pandang, Sulawesi: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 1–52. ISBN 979-8132-85-8.
Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-9004103405
Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2013) [First published 2003], Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students (3rd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-50650-2
Cruttenden, Alan (2014), Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993), "1. Pronunciation", A Grammar of Afrikaans, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–35, ISBN 9783110134261
Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning (ed.), Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 271–300
François, Alexandre (2005), "Unraveling the history of vowels in seventeen north Vanuatu languages" (PDF), Oceanic Linguistics, 44 (2): 443–504, doi:10.1353/ol.2005.0034, S2CID 131668754
Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
Gordon, Elizabeth; Maclagan, Margaret (2004), "Regional and social differences in New Zealand: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 603–613, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Illustrations of the IPA: Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1 & 2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006290, S2CID 249412109
Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2): 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045
Holes, Clive (2004), Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 978-1-58901-022-2
Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
Majidi, Mohammad-Reza; Ternes, Elmar (1991), "Illustrations of the IPA: Persian (Farsi)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 21 (2): 96–98, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004461, S2CID 249413637
Moosmüller, Sylvia; Schmid, Carolin; Brandstätter, Julia (2015), "Standard Austrian German", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (3): 339–348, doi:10.1017/S0025100315000055
Newton, Brian (1972), The Generative Interpretation of Dialect: A Study of Modern Greek Phonology, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, vol. 8, Cambridge University Press
Okuka, Miloš (2008), Srpski dijalekti, Zagreb: Prosvjeta, ISBN 9789537611064
Perera, H.S.; Jones, D. (1919), A colloquial Sinhalese reader in phonetic transcription, Manchester: Longmans, Green & Co
Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
Popperwell, Ronald G. (2010) [First published 1963], Pronunciation of Norwegian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-15742-1
Rafel, Joaquim (1999), Aplicació al català dels principis de transcripció de l'Associació Fonètica Internacional (PDF) (3rd ed.), Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ISBN 978-84-7283-446-0
Revithiadou, Anthi; Spyropoulos, Vassilios (2009), Οφίτικη Ποντιακή: Έρευνα γλωσσικής καταγραφής με έμφαση στη διαχρονία και συγχρονία της διαλέκτου [Ofitika Pontic: A documentation project with special emphasis on the diachrony and synchrony of the dialect] (PDF) (in Greek), John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-31
Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finnish sound structure – Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody (PDF), Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 9, Oulu University Press, ISBN 978-951-42-8984-2
Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA: Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090, S2CID 242632087
Thorén, Bosse; Petterson, Nils-Owe (1992), Svenska Utifrån Uttalsanvisningar, ISBN 978-91-520-0284-1
Vanvik, Arne (1979), Norsk fonetikk, Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo, ISBN 978-82-990584-0-7
Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
Walker, Douglas (1984), The Pronunciation of Canadian French (PDF), Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, ISBN 978-0-7766-4500-1
Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128541-0 .
Yanushevskaya, Irena; Bunčić, Daniel (2015), "Russian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (2): 221–228, doi:10.1017/S0025100314000395
Bacelar, Laércio Nora (2004), Gramática da língua Kanoê (Dissertation), Nijmegen: Radboud University, hdl:2066/19429

External links

List of languages with [æ] on PHOIBLE

[1] While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".

[gr100-2] Grønnum (1998:100)

[3] Basbøll (2005:46)

[4] Donaldson (1993:3)

[5] Holes (2004:60)

[6] Campbell (1991:5)

[7] Berta (1998:183)

[8] "Bengali romanization table" (PDF). Bahai Studies. Bahai Studies. Retrieved 30 October 2020.

[rafel14-9] Rafel (1999:14)

[10] Basbøll (2005:45)

[11] Basbøll (2005:32)

[12] Collins & Mees (2003:92, 129)

[13] Collins & Mees (2003:92, 128–129, 131)

[14] Gordon & Maclagan (2004:609)

[15] Wells (1982:486)

[gimson-16] Cruttenden (2014:119–120)

[asuteras-17] Asu & Teras (2009:368)

[18] Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)

[19] Collins & Mees (2013:226)

[wal75-20] Walker (1984:75)

[moos-21] Moosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015:342)

[dud40-22] Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:40)

[dud64-23] Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:64)

[24] Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:65)

[25] Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:34, 64–65)

[Newton-26] Newton (1972:11)

[27] Revithiadou & Spyropoulos (2009:41)

[28] Szende (1994:92)

[29] Bacelar (2004:60)

[30] François (2005:466)

[ga159-31] Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)

[pet119-32] Peters (2006:119)

[ver221-33] Verhoeven (2007:221)

[34] Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)

[35] Vanvik (1979:13)

[36] Popperwell (2010:16, 21–22)

[ipa_handbook-37] Majidi & Ternes (1991)

[38] Campbell (1995)

[39] Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction – by Milton M. Azevedo Page 186.

[40] Lista das marcas dialetais e outros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP (in Portuguese)

[FOOTNOTEPop193829-41] Pop (1938), p. 29.

[42] Jones & Ward (1969:50)

[43] Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224–225)

[FOOTNOTEOkuka2008171-44] Okuka 2008, p. 171.

[45] Perera & Jones (1919:5)

[Eliasson273-46] Eliasson (1986:273)

[thoren15-47] Thorén & Petterson (1992:15)

[Riad38-48] Riad (2014:38)

[gk10-49] Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)

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Near-open front unrounded vowel

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links

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