| Above: | Mid front unrounded vowel |
| Ipa Symbol: | e̞ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ɛ̝ |
| Ipa Number: | 302 430 |
| Decimal1: | 101 |
| Decimal2: | 798 |
| X-Sampa: | e_o |
| Braille: | e |
| Braille2: | 6 |
| Braille3: | gh |
pronounced as /vowels/
The mid front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound that is used in some spoken languages. There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid front unrounded vowel between close-mid pronounced as /[e]/ and open-mid pronounced as /[ɛ]/, but it is normally written (IPA|e). If precision is required, diacritics may be used, such as (IPA|e̞) or (IPA|ɛ̝) (the former, indicating lowering, being more common). In Sinology and Koreanology, (ᴇ) is sometimes used, for example in the Zhengzhang Shangfang reconstructions or in Chao Yuen Ren Grammar of Spoken Chinese.
For many of the languages that have only one phonemic front unrounded vowel in the mid-vowel area (neither close nor open), the vowel is pronounced as a true mid vowel and is phonetically distinct from either a close-mid or open-mid vowel. Examples are Basque, Spanish, Romanian, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Greek, Hejazi Arabic, Serbo-Croatian and Korean (Seoul dialect). A number of dialects of English also have such a mid front vowel. However, there is no general predisposition. Igbo and Egyptian Arabic, for example, have a close-mid pronounced as /[e]/, and Bulgarian has an open-mid pronounced as /[ɛ]/, but none of these languages have another phonemic mid front vowel.
Kensiu, spoken in Malaysia and Thailand, is claimed to be unique in having true-mid vowels that are phonemically distinct from both close-mid and open-mid vowels, without differences in other parameters such as backness or roundedness.[1]
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Afrikaans: [[Afrikaans alphabet|b'''e'''d]] | pronounced as /[bɛ̝t]/ | 'bed' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɛ). The height varies between mid pronounced as /[ɛ̝]/ and close-mid pronounced as /link/. See Afrikaans phonology | ||
| Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|بـ'''يـ'''ت]]|rtl=yes / bēt | pronounced as /[be̞ːt]/ | 'home' | See Hejazi Arabic phonology | |||
| Possible realization of unstressed pronounced as //ɛ//; can be open-mid pronounced as /link/ or close-mid pronounced as /link/ instead. | ||||||
| [[Chinese characters|也]] / [[Hanyu Pinyin|yě]] | 'also' | See Standard Chinese phonology | ||||
| Bohemian | Czech: [[Czech orthography|l'''e'''d]] | pronounced as /[lɛ̝̈t]/ | 'ice' | Near-front; may be open-mid pronounced as /link/ instead. See Czech phonology | ||
| Some speakers | Dutch; Flemish: [[Dutch orthography|z'''e'''t]] | pronounced as /[zɛ̝t]/ | 'shove' (n.) | Open-mid pronounced as /link/ in Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology | ||
| cat | pronounced as /[kʰɛ̝t]/ | 'cat' | Lower in other New Zealand varieties; corresponds to pronounced as /link/ in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology | |||
| bird | pronounced as /[bɛ̝̈ːd]/ | 'bird' | Near-front; occasional realization of pronounced as //ɜː//. It can be rounded pronounced as /link/ or, more often, unrounded central pronounced as /link/ instead. Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɜː). | |||
| let | pronounced as /[le̞t]/ | 'let' | Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology | |||
| Many speakers pronounce a more open vowel pronounced as /link/ instead. See English phonology | ||||||
| Inland Northern American[2] | bit | pronounced as /[bë̞t̚]/ | 'bit' | Near-front, may be pronounced as /link/ (also pronounced as /link/ in Scotland) instead for other speakers. See Northern Cities vowel shift | ||
| pronounced as /[bë̞ʔ]/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /[ple̞ː]/ | 'play' | |||||
| Estonian: [[Estonian alphabet|sul'''e''']] | pronounced as /[ˈsule̞ˑ]/ | 'feather' (gen. sg.) | Common word-final allophone of pronounced as //e//. See Estonian phonology | |||
| Finnish: [[Finnish alphabet|m'''e'''n'''e'''n]] | pronounced as /[ˈme̞ne̞n]/ | 'I go' | See Finnish phonology | |||
| German: [[German orthography|B'''e'''tt]] | pronounced as /[b̥ɛ̝t]/ | 'bed' | align=left | More often described as open-mid front pronounced as /link/. See Standard German phonology | ||
| Swiss German; Alemannic; Alsatian: r'''è'''de | pronounced as /[ˈrɛ̝d̥ə]/ | 'to speak' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɛ). See Bernese German phonology | |||
| Modern Standard | pronounced as /[pe̞s̠]/ | 'say!' | See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| Hebrew: [[hebrew alphabet|כן]]|rtl=yes/ken | pronounced as /[ke̞n]/ | 'yes' | Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology | |||
| Hungarian: [[Hungarian orthography|h'''é'''t]] | pronounced as /[he̞ːt̪]/ | 'seven' | Also described as close-mid pronounced as /link/. See Hungarian phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[sé̞]/ | 'look' | |||||
| Icelandic: [[Icelandic orthography|k'''e'''nna]] | pronounced as /[ˈcʰɛ̝nːä]/ | 'to teach' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɛ). The long allophone is often diphthongized to pronounced as /[eɛ]/. See Icelandic phonology | |||
| Standard | Italian: [[Italian alphabet|cred'''e'''rci]] | pronounced as /[ˈkreːd̪e̞rt͡ʃi]/ | 'to believe' | Common realization of the unstressed pronounced as //e//. See Italian phonology | ||
| Northern accents | Italian: [[Italian alphabet|p'''e'''nso]] | pronounced as /[ˈpe̞ŋso]/ | 'I think' | Common realization of pronounced as //e//. See Italian phonology | ||
| Japanese: [[Japanese orthography|笑み]]/emi | 'smile' | See Japanese phonology | ||||
| pronounced as /[ˈiʃë̞k]/ | 'bat' | Near-front; possible realization of pronounced as //ɘ//. | ||||
| Korean: [[Hangul|내가]] / Korean: [[Romanization of Korean|n'''ae'''ga]] | pronounced as /[nɛ̝ɡɐː]/ | 'I' | Pronunciation of (IPA|ɛ). See Korean phonology | |||
| Latvian | pronounced as /[ê̞ːs̪t̪]/ | 'to eat' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|e). | |||
| Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: b'''è'''d | pronounced as /[bɛ̝t]/ | 'bed' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɛ). See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Weert dialect phonology | |||
| Weert dialect | Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: z'''è'''gke | pronounced as /[ˈzɛ̝ɡə]/ | 'to say' | |||
| Gelders-Overijssels and Drents[3] | èèt zie? | pronounced as /[e̞ːt]/ | 'do they eat?' | Only around the border of eten - èten, [e:] vs [ɛ:] | ||
| Standard | Macedonian: [[Macedonian alphabet|м'''е'''д]] | pronounced as /[ˈmɛd̪]/ | 'honey' | |||
| Malay | Standard | elok | [e̞ˈlo̞ʔ] | 'good' | See Malay phonology | |
| Norwegian: [[Norwegian alphabet|n'''e'''tt]] | pronounced as /[nɛ̝tː]/ | 'net' | See Norwegian phonology | |||
| Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[Romanian alphabet|f'''e'''t'''e''']] | pronounced as /[ˈfe̞t̪e̞]/ | 'girls' | See Romanian phonology | |||
| Russian: [[Russian orthography|челов'''е'''к]] | pronounced as /[t͡ɕɪlɐˈvʲe̞k]/ | 'human' | Occurs only after soft consonants. See Russian phonology | |||
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|т'''е'''к]] / [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|t'''e'''k]] | pronounced as /[t̪ĕ̞k]/ | 'only' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |||
| Standard | Slovak: [[Slovak orthography|b'''e'''hať]] | pronounced as /[ˈbɛ̝ɦäc]/ | 'to run' | See Slovak phonology | ||
| Slovene[4] | Slovenian: [[Slovene orthography|v'''e'''likan]] | pronounced as /[ʋe̞liˈká̠ːn]/ | 'giant' | Unstressed vowel, as well as an allophone of pronounced as //e// before pronounced as //j// when a vowel does not follow within the same word. See Slovene phonology | ||
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|b'''e'''b'''é''']] | pronounced as /[be̞ˈβ̞e̞]/ | 'baby' | See Spanish phonology | |||
| Central Standard | Swedish: [[Swedish alphabet|h'''ä'''ll]] | pronounced as /[hɛ̝l̪]/ | 'flat rock' | Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɛ). Many dialects pronounce short pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //ɛ// the same. See Swedish phonology | ||
| z'''e''' | pronounced as /[zè̞ː]/ | 'spoke' | ||||
| Turkish: [[Turkish alphabet|'''e'''v]] | pronounced as /[e̞v]/ | 'house' | See Turkish phonology | |||
| Upper Sorbian: nj'''e'''bjo | pronounced as /[ˈn̠ʲɛ̝bʲɔ]/ | 'sky' | Allophone of pronounced as //ɛ// between soft consonants and after a soft consonant, excluding pronounced as //j// in both cases. | |||
| Typically transcribed in IPA with (IPA|ɛ̃). It is nasalized, and may be open-mid pronounced as /link/ instead. | ||||||
pronounced as /navigation/