Front vowel

Last updated February 03, 2023

	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

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherwise make it a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also called bright vowels because they are perceived as sounding brighter than the back vowels.^[1]

Partial list

The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

There also are front vowels without dedicated symbols in the IPA:

close front protruded vowel [yʷ]
near-close front protruded vowel [ʏʷ]
close-mid front protruded vowel [øʷ]
mid front unrounded vowel [e̞] or [ɛ̝]
mid front compressed vowel [ø̞] or [œ̝]
mid front protruded vowel [ø̞ʷ] or [œ̝ʷ]
open-mid front protruded vowel [œʷ]

As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as ⟨i̞⟩, ⟨e̝⟩ or ⟨ɪ̟⟩ for a near-close front unrounded vowel.

Articulatorily fronted vowels

In articulation, fronted vowels, where the tongue moves forward from its resting position, contrast with raised vowels and retracted vowels. In this conception, fronted vowels are a broader category than those listed in the IPA chart, including [ɪ ʏ], [ɨ ʉ], and, marginally, mid-central vowels. Within the fronted vowels, vowel height (open or close) is determined by the position of the jaw, not by the tongue directly. Phonemic raised and retracted vowels may be phonetically fronted by certain consonants, such as palatals and in some languages pharyngeals. For example, /a/ may be fronted to [æ] next to /j/ or /ħ/.^[2]

Effect on preceding consonant

In the history of many languages, for example French and Japanese, front vowels have altered preceding velar or alveolar consonants, bringing their place of articulation towards palatal or postalveolar. This change can be allophonic variation, or it can have become phonemic.

This historical palatalization is reflected in the orthographies of several European languages, including the ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ of almost all Romance languages, the ⟨k⟩ and ⟨g⟩ in Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic, and the ⟨κ⟩, ⟨γ⟩ and ⟨χ⟩ in Greek. English follows the French pattern, but without as much regularity. However, for native or early borrowed words affected by palatalization, English has generally altered the spelling after the pronunciation (Examples include cheap, church, cheese, churn from /*k/, and yell, yarn, yearn, yeast from /*ɡ/.)

	Before back vowel: hard	Before front vowel: soft
English ⟨C⟩	call /kɔːl/	cell /sɛl/
English ⟨G⟩	gall /ɡɔːl/	gel /dʒɛl/
French ⟨C⟩	Calais [kalɛ] ( listen )	cela [səla] ( listen )
French ⟨G⟩	gare [ɡaʁ] ( listen )	gel [ʒɛl] ( listen )
Greek ⟨Γ⟩	γάιδαρος [ˈɣai̯ðaros] ( listen )	γη [ʝi] ( listen )
Greek ⟨Χ⟩	Χανιά [xaˈɲa] ( listen )	χαίρετε [ˈçerete] ( listen )
Italian ⟨C⟩	caro [ˈkaːro] ( listen )	città [tʃitˈta] ( listen )
Italian ⟨G⟩	gatto [ˈɡatto] ( listen )	gente [ˈdʒɛnte] ( listen )
Italian ⟨SC⟩	scusa [ˈskuːza] ( listen )	pesce [ˈpeʃʃe] ( listen )
Japanese ⟨S⟩	sūdoku [sɯꜜːdokɯ] ( listen )	shiitake [ɕiꜜːtake] ( listen )^{[lower-alpha 1]}
Japanese ⟨T⟩	atatakai [atatakaꜜi] ( listen )	dotchi [dotꜜtɕi] ( listen )^{[lower-alpha 1]}
Swedish ⟨K⟩	karta [ˈkɑ̂ːʈa] ( listen )	kär [ɕæːr] ( listen )
Swedish ⟨G⟩	god [ɡuːd] ( listen )	göra [ˈjœ̂ːra] ( listen )
Swedish ⟨SK⟩	skal [skɑːl] ( listen )	skälla [ˈɧɛ̂lːa] ( listen )

1 2 Palatalization of /si/, /ti/ etc. is shown in spelling in Hepburn romanization.

Related Research Articles

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In phonetics, palatalization or palatization is a way of pronouncing a consonant in which part of the tongue is moved close to the hard palate. Consonants pronounced this way are said to be palatalized and are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by affixing the letter ⟨ʲ⟩ to the base consonant. Palatalization cannot minimally distinguish words in most dialects of English, but it may do so in languages such as Russian, Mandarin, and Irish.

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A central vowel, formerly also known as a mixed vowel, is any in a class of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.

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References

↑ Tsur, Reuven (February 1992). The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception. Duke University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-8223-1170-4.
↑ Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012) "The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"

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[rōmaji-3] 1 2 Palatalization of /si/, /ti/ etc. is shown in spelling in Hepburn romanization.

[1] Tsur, Reuven (February 1992). The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception. Duke University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-8223-1170-4.

[2] Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012) "The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"

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