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 the Latin epsilon, a Latinized variant of the Greek lowercase epsilon, .

Features

Occurrence

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

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

|-

| colspan="2" |Akan (Twi)

|ɛyɛ

|

|'it is good/fine'

|See Akan phonology

|-

| Arabic || Quranic || /atāhum || || 'he came to them' || /aː/ in Modern Standard Arabic. See Arabic phonology

|-

| Armenian || Eastern || /ēj || || 'page' ||

|-

| Bavarian || Amstetten dialect || colspan="3" align="center" | || Typically transcribed in IPA with .

|-

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

|-

| colspan="2" | Breton || gwenn || [ˈɡwɛnː] || 'white' ||

|-

| colspan="2" | Bulgarian || /pet || || 'five' || See Bulgarian phonology

|-

| colspan=2| Catalan || || || 'seven' || See Catalan phonology

|-

|Chinese

|Mandarin

| /

|

|'sky'

|Height varies between mid and open depending on the speaker. See Standard Chinese phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Chuvash

|ҫепĕҫ/şepĕş

|[ˈɕɛp̬ɘɕ]

|'gentle, tender'

|

|-

| colspan="2" | Czech || || || 'ice' || In Bohemian Czech, this vowel varies between open-mid front , open-mid near-front and mid near-front . See Czech phonology

|-

| Danish || Standard || || || 'fresh' || Most often transcribed in IPA with . See Danish phonology

|-

| rowspan="2" | Dutch || Standard || || || 'bed' || See Dutch phonology

|-

| The Hague || || || 'you' || Corresponds to in standard Dutch.

|-

| rowspan="12" | English || General American || rowspan="5" | bed || rowspan="5" | || rowspan="5" | 'bed' ||

|-

| Northern England || May be somewhat lowered.

|-

| Received Pronunciation || Older RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel . See English phonology

|-

|Younger General Australian speakers

|Realization of /<nowiki/>e/ due to an ongoing short-front vowel chain shift. See Australian English phonology

|-

| Scottish ||

|-

| Cockney || rowspan="5" | fat || rowspan="5" | || rowspan="5" | 'fat' ||

|-

| Singaporean ||

|-

| New Zealand || See New Zealand English phonology

|-

|Broad Australian

|Realization of /æ/. General Australian speakers realize this vowel as or . See Australian English phonology

|-

| Some Broad<br/>South African speakers || Other speakers realize this vowel as or . See South African English phonology

|-

| Belfast || days || || 'days' || Pronounced in closed syllables; corresponds to in RP.

|-

| Zulu || mate || || 'mate' || Speakers exhibit the met–mate merger.

|-

| colspan="2" | Faroese || || || 'greedy' || See Faroese phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | French || || || 'beast' || See French phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Galician || || ||'iron' ||See Galician phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Georgian || /gedi || || 'swan' ||

|-

| rowspan="5" | German || Standard || || || 'bed' || Also described as mid . See Standard German phonology

|-

| Franconian accent<!--NOT 'dialect', the source talks about Standard German spoken with Franconian accent--> || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'or' || rowspan="2" | Used instead of . See Standard German phonology

|-

| Coastal Northern accents<!--NOT 'dialects', the source talks about Standard German spoken with Coastal Northern accents-->

|-

| Swabian accent<!--NOT 'dialect', the source talks about Standard German spoken with Swabian accent--> || || || 'fat' || Contrasts with the close-mid . See Standard German phonology

|-

| Western Swiss accents<!--NOT 'dialects', the source talks about Standard German spoken with Western Swiss accents--> || || || 'lake' || Close-mid in other accents; contrasts with the near-open . See Standard German phonology

|-

|Hebrew

|Tiberian

| /

|

|'land'

|/e̞/ in Modern Israeli Hebrew. See Tiberian Hebrew phonology and Modern Hebrew phonology

|-

| Hindustani || Hindi&ndash;Urdu || ख़ैरियत&ndash;خیریت / || || 'well-being' || See Hindustani phonology.

|-

| colspan="2" |Hungarian

|lesz

|[ˈlɛsː]

|'will be'

|Allophone of [æ].

|-

| colspan="2"| Italian|| || || 'good' || See Italian phonology

|-

|-

| colspan="2" | Kaingang || mbre || || 'with' ||

|-

| colspan="2" | Korean || / || || 'cicada'|| Merged with /e/ for many speakers. See Korean phonology

|-

| rowspan="3" |Kurdish

|Kurmanji (Northern)

|

|

| rowspan="3" |'seventeen'

| rowspan="3" |See Kurdish phonology

|-

|Sorani (Central)

| rowspan="2" |/hevde

|

|-

|Pehlewî (Southern)

|

|-

| colspan="2" | Limburgish || || || 'cream' || The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.

|-

| colspan="2" | Lithuanian || || || 'throw' || See Lithuanian phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Lower Sorbian || || || 'sickle' ||

|-

| colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'star' || Allophone of before . See Luxembourgish phonology

|-

|Macedonian || Standard || /med || || 'honey' || See Macedonian language § Vowels

|-

| rowspan="7" |Malay

|Standard

|paling

|

|'most'

|Possible realisation of and in closed final syllables. See Malay phonology

|-

| rowspan="2" |Negeri Sembilan

|cepat

|

|'quick'

| rowspan="2" |See Negeri Sembilan Malay

|-

|karpet

|

|'carpet'

|-

|Kelatan-Pattani

|ayam

|

|'chicken'

|See Kelatan-Pattani

|-

|Terengganu

|biasa

|

|'normal'

|See Terengganu Malay

|-

| rowspan="2" |Perak

|mata

|

|'eye'

| rowspan="2" |See Perak Malay

|-

|kero

|

|'crab'

|-

| colspan"2"| Norman || Jersey || affaûrder || || 'to afford' ||

|-

| Norwegian || Sognamål || || || 'plague' || See Norwegian phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Occitan || || || 'Greek' || See Occitan phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Polish || || || 'this one' (nom. m.) || See Polish phonology

|-

| rowspan="2" | Portuguese || Most dialects|| || || 'foot' || Stressed vowel might be lower . The presence and use of other unstressed ⟨e⟩ allophones, such as , varies according to dialect.

|-

| Some speakers || || || 'time'|| Timbre differences for nasalized vowels are mainly kept in European Portuguese. See Portuguese phonology

|-

| Romanian|| Transylvanian dialects || || || '(he) sees' || Corresponds to mid in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology

|-

| colspan="2"| Russian || /eto || || 'this' || See Russian phonology

|-

| colspan=2| Shiwiar || || || || Allophone of .

|-

| colspan="2" | Slovene || || || 'throw' (n.) || See Slovene phonology

|-

| rowspan="2" | Spanish || Eastern Andalusian || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'the mothers' || rowspan="2" | Corresponds to in other dialects, but in these dialects they are distinct. See Spanish phonology

|-

| Murcian

|-

| colspan="2" |Swahili

|shule

|[ʃulɛ]

|'school'

|

|-

| Swedish || Central Standard || || || 'eat' (imp.) || Somewhat retracted. See Swedish phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Tagalog || || || 'fake' || See Tagalog phonology

|-

| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Telugu

|చేప/cēa

|[tʃɛːa]

|'Fish'

|-

|మేక/mēka

|[mɛːka]

|'Goat'

|-

| colspan="2" | Thai || / trae || || 'horn (instrument)'

|

|-

| colspan="2" | Turkish || || || 'country' || Allophone of described variously as "word-final" and "occurring in final open syllable of a phrase". See Turkish phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Ukrainian ||/den' |||| 'day'|| See Ukrainian phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | Upper Sorbian || || || 'calf' ||

|-

| colspan="2" |Welsh

|nesaf

|[nɛsav]

|'next'

|See Welsh phonology

|-

| colspan="2" | West Frisian || || || 'grandma' || See West Frisian phonology

|-

| colspan="2" |Yiddish

| /

|

|'Elul'

|See Yiddish phonology

|-

| colspan="2"| Yoruba || lang="yo"| ẹsẹ̀ || || 'leg' ||

|}

See also

  • Index of phonetics articles

Notes

References