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 /kχlr/. 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	[ˈt̪ɛ̞zi]	'thesis'	Main realization of /ɛ/. More open and centralized before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology
Catalan	Valencian^[9]	tesi	[ˈt̪ɛ̞zi]	'thesis'
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
Low Saxon	Including Sallandic	gläzen	[xɫæːzn̩]	'glasses'
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 ^bGrønnum (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 ^bRafel (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 ^bCruttenden (2014:119–120)
^ ^a ^bAsu & Teras (2009:368)
^Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
^Collins & Mees (2013:226)
^ ^a ^bWalker (1984:75)
^ ^a ^bMoosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015:342)
^ ^a ^bDudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:40)
^ ^a ^bDudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:64)
^Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:65)
^Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:34, 64–65)
^ ^a ^b ^cNewton (1972:11)
^Revithiadou & Spyropoulos (2009:41)
^Szende (1994:92)
^Bacelar (2004:60)
^François (2005:466)
^ ^a ^bGussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
^ ^a ^bPeters (2006:119)
^ ^a ^bVerhoeven (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 ^bPop (1938), p. 29.
^Jones & Ward (1969:50)
^Yanushevskaya & Bunčić (2015:224–225)
^ ^a ^bOkuka 2008, p. 171.
^Perera & Jones (1919:5)
^Eliasson (1986:273)
^Thorén & Petterson (1992:15)
^ ^a ^bRiad (2014:38)
^ ^a ^bGöksel & 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)

[1]

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links