Open-mid front unrounded vowel

Open-mid front unrounded vowel
ɛ
IPA Number	303
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɛ
Unicode (hex)	U+025B
X-SAMPA	E
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
IPA help  audio full chart Legend: unrounded • rounded

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 a Latinized variant of the Greek lowercase epsilon, ⟨ɛ⟩.

Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
• 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
Akan (Twi)		ɛyɛ	[ɛjɛ]	'it is good/fine'	See Akan phonology
Arabic					See Imāla
Armenian	Eastern	էջ/ēj	[ɛd͡ʒ]	'page'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect				Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨æ⟩.
Bengali		এক/ek	[ɛk]	'one'	Alternative transcription and phonetic realisation of [æ] and an allophone of [e]. See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian		пет/pet	[pɛt̪]	'five'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan		set	[ˈsɛt]	'seven'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	天 / tiān		'sky'	Height varies between mid and open depending on the speaker. See Standard Chinese phonology
Chuvash		ҫепĕç	['ɕɛp̬ɘɕ]	'gentle, tender'
Czech		led	[lɛt]	'ice'	In Bohemian Czech, this vowel varies between open-mid front [ɛ], open-mid near-front [ɛ̠] and mid near-front [ɛ̝̈]. See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard	frisk	[ˈfʁɛsk]	'fresh'	Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨æ⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard	bed		'bed'	See Dutch phonology
	The Hague	jij		'you'	Corresponds to [ɛi] in standard Dutch.
English	General American	bed		'bed'
	Northern England				May be somewhat lowered.
	Received Pronunciation				Older RP speakers pronounce a closer vowel [e̞]. See English phonology
	General Australian				Realization of [e], particularly by younger speakers. See Australian English phonology
	Scottish
	Cockney	fat	[fɛt]	'fat'
	Singaporean
	New Zealand				See New Zealand English phonology
	Some Broad South African speakers				Other speakers realize this vowel as [æ] or [a]. See South African English phonology
	Belfast	days	[dɛːz]	'days'	Pronounced [iə] in closed syllables; corresponds to [eɪ] in RP.
	Zulu	mate	[mɛt]	'mate'	Speakers exhibit a met-mate merger.
Faroese		frekt	[fɹɛʰkt]	'greedy'	See Faroese phonology
French		bête		'beast'	See French phonology
Galician		ferro	[ˈfɛro̝]	'iron'	See Galician phonology
Georgian		გედი/gedi	[ɡɛdi]	'swan'
German	Standard	Bett		'bed'	Also described as mid [ɛ̝]. See Standard German phonology
	Franconian accent	oder	[ˈoːdɛ]	'or'	Used instead of [ɐ]. See Standard German phonology
	Coastal Northern accents
	Swabian accent	fett	[fɛt]	'fat'	Contrasts with the close-mid [e]. See Standard German phonology
	Western Swiss accents	See	[z̥ɛː]	'lake'	Close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the near-open [æː]. See Standard German phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	रहना	[ˈɾɛɦna]	'to stay'	See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	رہنا
Italian		bene		'good'	See Italian phonology
Kaingang		mbre	[ˈᵐbɾɛ]	'with'
Korean		매미 / maemi	[mɛːmi]	'cicada'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	hevde	[hɛvdɛ]	'seventeen'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	هه‌ڤده/hevde	[hɛvdæ]
	Pehlewî (Southern)		[hɛvdæ]
Limburgish		crème	[kʀ̝ɛːm]	'cream'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lithuanian		mesti	[mɛs̪t̪ɪ]	'throw'	See Lithuanian phonology
Lower Sorbian		serp	[s̪ɛrp]	'sickle'
Luxembourgish		Stär	[ʃtɛːɐ̯]	'star'	Allophone of /eː/ before /ʀ/. See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian	Standard	мед/med	[ˈmɛd̪]	'honey'	See Macedonian language § Vowels
Malay	Standard	paling	[pälɛŋ]	'to play'	Possible realisation of /i/ and /e/ in closed final syllables. See Malay phonology
	Negeri Sembilan	cepat	[cɔpɛɁ]	'quick'	See Negeri Sembilan Malay
	Kelatan-Pattani	ayam	[äjɛː]	'chicken'	See Kelatan-Pattani
	Terengganu	biasa	[bɛsə]	'normal'	See Terengganu Malay
	Perak	mata	[matɛ]	'eye'	See Perak Malay
Norman	Jersey	affaûrder	[afɔrˈdɛ]	'to afford'
Norwegian	Sognamål	pest	[pʰɛst]	'plague'	See Norwegian phonology
Occitan		grèga	[ˈɣɾɛɣɔ]	'Greek'	See Occitan phonology
Polish		ten		'this one' (nom. m.)	See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Most dialects	pé	[ˈpɛ]	'foot'	Stressed vowel might be lower [æ]. The presence and use of other unstressed ⟨e⟩ allophones, such as [e̞ e ɪ i ɨ], varies according to dialect.
	Some speakers	tempo	[ˈt̪ɛ̃mpu]	'time'	Timbre differences for nasalized vowels are mainly kept in European Portuguese. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Transylvanian dialects	vede	[ˈvɛɟe]	'(he) sees'	Corresponds to mid [e̞] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian		это/eto		'this'	See Russian phonology
Shiwiar					Allophone of /a/.
Slovene		met	[mɛ́t]	'throw' (n.)	See Slovene phonology
Spanish	Eastern Andalusian	las madres	[læ̞ː ˈmæ̞ːð̞ɾɛː]	'the mothers'	Corresponds to [e̞] in other dialects, but in these dialects they are distinct. See Spanish phonology
	Murcian
Swahili		shule	[ʃulɛ]	'school'
Swedish	Central Standard	ät	[ɛ̠ːt̪]	'eat' (imp.)	Somewhat retracted. See Swedish phonology
Tagalog		peke	[ˈpɛxɛʔ]	'fake'	See Tagalog phonology
Telugu		చేప	[tʃɛːa]	'Fish'
		మేక	[mɛːka]	'Goat'
Thai		แตร / trae	[trɛː˧]	'horn (instrument)'
Turkish		ülke	[y̠l̠ˈcɛ]	'country'	Allophone of /e/ described variously as "word-final" and "occurring in final open syllable of a phrase". See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		день/den'	[dɛnʲ]	'day'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian		čelo	[ˈt͡ʃɛlɔ]	'calf'
Welsh		nesaf	[nɛsav]	'next'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		beppe	[ˈbɛpə]	'grandma'	See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba		ẹsẹ̀	[ɛ̄sɛ]	'leg'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles