Near-open front unrounded vowel

The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase of the ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".

The rounded counterpart of , the near-open front rounded vowel (for which the IPA provides no separate symbol) has been reported to occur allophonically in Danish; see open front rounded vowel for more information.

In practice, 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 .

Features

Occurrence

{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"

! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes

| Afrikaans || Standard || || || 'horse'|| Allophone of , in some dialects, before . See Afrikaans phonology

| colspan="2" |Äiwoo

|ikuwä

|[ikuwæ]

|'I go'

|Distinguished from both and .

| Arabic || Standard || (kitāb) || || 'book' || Allophone of in the environment of plain labial and coronal consonants as well as (depending on the speaker's accent). See Arabic phonology

| colspan="2" | Azerbaijani

| ||

| 'Azerbaijan'

| colspan="2" | Bambam || bätä || || 'stem' ||

| colspan="2" | Bashkir

| (yäy)

| 'summer'

| colspan="2" | Bengali || /bêṅ || || 'frog' || Also pronounced as . See Bengali phonology

| rowspan="4" | Bulgarian

|Moesian dialects

| rowspan="2" | (mlečen)

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" |'made from milk'

|Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in places where Standard Bulgarian would have //. See Yat.

| Rup dialects || Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in all positions. See Yat.

| Teteven dialect || rowspan="2" | (măž) || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'man' || rowspan="2" | In place of Standard Bulgarian [] (written as ъ).

| Erkech dialect

| rowspan="5" | Catalan || Majorcan (some speakers) || || || 'bag' || Majorcan /a/-fronting. See Catalan phonology

| rowspan="3" | Valencian || || || 'ray' || Palatal variant of . It can be more open (). See Catalan phonology

| || || 'Earth, land' || Final unstressed (usually involving vowel harmony). Can be realized as rounded and/or back. See Catalan phonology

| rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'thesis' || Main realization of . Slightly more open and centralized (near-front) before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology

| Balearic (except Ibizan) || Main realization of . See Catalan phonology

| colspan="2" | Chechen || () || || 'eagle' ||

| Danish || Standard || || || 'Danish' || Most often transcribed in IPA with – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers. See Danish phonology

| colspan="2" | Dutch || || || 'pen' || Allophone of before and coda . In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where is used in Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology

| rowspan="3" | English || Cultivated New Zealand || rowspan="3" | cat || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | 'cat' || Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology

| General American || See English phonology

| Conservative Received Pronunciation || Fully open in contemporary RP. || || || 'agile' || Near-front. || || || 'hill' || See Finnish phonology

| rowspan="2" | French || Parisian || || || 'bath' || Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with . See French phonology

| Quebec || || || 'worm' || Allophone of before or in open syllables, and of in closed syllables. || || || 'allow' || Variant of pretonic . || || || 'or' || Used instead of . || || || 'everything' || Lower and often also more back in other accents. || || || 'late' || Open-mid or close-mid in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid . See Standard German phonology

| rowspan="4" | Greek || Macedonia || rowspan="3" | (gáta) || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | 'cat' || rowspan="4" | See Modern Greek phonology

| Thessaly || || || 'baskets'

| rowspan="2" | Hindustani || Hindi || न्यूज़ीलैंड (Nyu Zilaind) || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'New Zealand' || rowspan="2" | An allophone of that appears in English loanwords. See Hindustani phonology.

| Urdu || نیوزی لینڈ (Nyu Zilaind)

| colspan="2" | Hungarian || || || 'no' || Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Hungarian phonology

| colspan="2" |Kanoê

|'tobacco'

| colspan="2" | Kazakh

| (äiel)

|'woman'

|Varies between near-open and open-mid.

|Kurdish

|Sorani (Central)

| (galte)

|'joke'

|Equal to Palewani (Southern) front . See Kurdish phonology

| colspan="2" | Lakon|| || || 'evening'||

| colspan="2" | Limburgish || || || 'twelve' || Front || || || 'heads' || See Luxembourgish phonology

| Norwegian || Urban East || || || 'leather' || See Norwegian phonology

| colspan="2" | Persian|| (hašt) || [hæʃt]||'eight'||

| rowspan="2" | Portuguese || Some dialects|| || || 'stone' || Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer . See Portuguese phonology

| Some European speakers|| || || 'also' || Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel .

| Romanian|| Bukovinian dialect || || || 'skin' || Corresponds to in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects. See Romanian phonology

| colspan="2" | Russian || (pjatʹ) || || 'five' || Allophone of between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology

| Serbo-Croatian || Zeta-Raška dialect || / || || 'day' || Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised.

| colspan="2" | Sinhala || ඇය (æya) || || 'she' ||

| colspan="2" |Slovak

|'meat, flesh'

|In conversation sometimes pronounced as or . See Slovak phonology

| rowspan="2" | Swedish || Central Standard || || || 'hono(u)r' || Allophone of before . See Swedish phonology

| Stockholm || || || 'you' || Allophone of before syllable-final . In a limited number of words (but not before ), it is in free variation with .