Close front unrounded vowel
The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound that occurs in most spoken languages, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the symbol i. It is similar to the vowel sound in the English word meet—and often called long-e in American English.[2] Although in English this sound has additional length (usually being represented as /iː/) and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slight diphthong), some dialects have been reported to pronounce the phoneme as a pure sound.[3] A pure [i] sound is also heard in many other languages, such as French, in words like chic.
Close front unrounded vowel | |
---|---|
i | |
IPA Number | 301 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) | i |
Unicode (hex) | U+0069 |
X-SAMPA | i |
Braille | |
Audio sample | |
source · help |
IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Vowels beside dots are: unrounded • rounded |
The close front unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the palatal approximant [j]. The two are almost identical featurally. They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [i̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [j] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.
Languages that use the Latin script commonly use the letter ⟨i⟩ to represent this sound, though there are some exceptions: in English orthography that letter is usually associated with /aɪ/ (as in bite) or /ɪ/ (as in bit), and /iː/ is more commonly represented by ⟨e⟩, ⟨ea⟩, ⟨ee⟩, ⟨ie⟩ or ⟨ei⟩, as in the words scene, bean, meet, niece, conceive; (see Great Vowel Shift). Irish orthography reflects both etymology and whether preceding consonants are broad or slender, so such combinations as ⟨aí⟩, ⟨ei⟩, and ⟨aío⟩ all represent /iː/.
Features
- Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- 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[4] | dief | [dif] | 'thief' | See Afrikaans phonology | |
Arabic | Standard[5] | دين/diin | [d̪iːn] | 'religion' | See Arabic phonology |
Chinese | Mandarin[6][7] | 七 / qī | 'seven' | See Standard Chinese phonology | |
Czech[8][9] | bílý | 'white' | See Czech phonology | ||
Dutch[10][11] | biet | 'beet' | See Dutch phonology | ||
English[12] | All dialects | free | 'free' | Depending on dialect, can be pronounced as a diphthong. See English phonology | |
Australian[13] | bit | [bit] | 'bit' | Also described as near-close front [ɪ̟].[14] See Australian English phonology | |
French[15][16] | fini | [fini] | 'finished' | See French phonology | |
German[17][18] | Ziel | 'goal' | See Standard German phonology | ||
Greek | Modern Standard[19][20] | κήπος / kípos | [ˈc̠ipo̞s̠] | 'garden' | See Modern Greek phonology |
Hungarian[21] | ív | [iːv] | 'arch' | See Hungarian phonology | |
Italian[22] | bile | [ˈbiːle̞] | 'rage' | See Italian phonology | |
Japanese[23] | 銀/gin | 'silver' | See Japanese phonology | ||
Korean[24] | 아이 / ai | [ɐi] | 'child' | See Korean phonology | |
Kurdish[25][26] | Kurmanji (Northern) | şîr | [ʃiːɾ] | 'milk' | See Kurdish phonology |
Sorani (Central) | شیر/šîr | ||||
Palewani (Southern) | |||||
Polish[27] | miś | 'teddy bear' | See Polish phonology | ||
Portuguese[28] | fino | [ˈfinu] | 'thin' | Also occurs as an unstressed allophone of other vowels. May be represented by ⟨y⟩. See Portuguese phonology | |
Romanian[29] | insulă | [ˈin̪s̪ulə] | 'island' | See Romanian phonology | |
Russian[30] | лист/list | 'leaf' | Only occurs word-initially or after palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology | ||
Serbo-Croatian[31] | vile | [ʋîle̞] | 'hayfork' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
Spanish[32] | tipo | [ˈt̪ipo̞] | 'type' | May also be represented by ⟨y⟩. See Spanish phonology | |
Sotho[33] | ho bitsa | [huˌbit͡sʼɑ̈] | 'to call' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels.[33] See Sotho phonology | |
Swedish | Central Standard[34][35] | bli | [bliː] | 'to stay' | Often realized as a sequence [ij] or [iʝ] (hear the word: |
Thai[37] | กริช/krit | [krìt] | 'dagger' | ||
Turkish[38][39] | ip | [ip] | 'rope' | See Turkish phonology | |
Ukrainian[40] | місто/misto | ['misto] | 'city, town' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
Yoruba[41] | síbí | [síbí] | 'spoon' |
Notes
- While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
- Maddox, Maeve. "DailyWritingTips: The Six Spellings of "Long E"". www.dailywritingtips.com. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
- Labov, William; Sharon, Ash; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter. chpt. 17. ISBN 978-3-11-016746-7.
- Donaldson (1993), p. 2.
- Thelwall (1990), p. 38.
- Lee & Zee (2003), p. 110.
- Duanmu (2007), pp. 35–36.
- Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
- Šimáčková, Podlipský & Chládková (2012), p. 228.
- Gussenhoven (1992), p. 47.
- Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
- Roach (2004), p. 240.
- Cox & Palethorpe (2007), p. 344.
- Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 65.
- Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
- Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
- Hall (2003), pp. 78, 107.
- Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
- Arvaniti (2007), p. 28.
- Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
- Szende (1994), p. 92.
- Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
- Okada (1999), p. 117.
- Lee (1999), p. 121.
- Thackston (2006a), p. 1.
- Khan & Lescot (1970), pp. 8-16.
- Jassem (2003), p. 105.
- Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 92.
- Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
- Jones & Ward (1969), p. 30.
- Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
- Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
- Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
- Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
- Riad (2014), p. 21.
- Engstrand (1999), p. 141.
- Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
- Zimmer & Organ (1999), p. 155.
- Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 10.
- Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
- Bamgboṣe (1969), p. 166.
References
- Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
- Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966), A Grammar of Yoruba, [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- 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
- Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012], Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9
- Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2007), "Australian English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 341–350, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003192
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, ISSN 0025-1003
- Dankovičová, Jana (1999), "Czech", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 70–74, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
- Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
- Doke, Clement Martyn; Mofokeng, S. Machabe (1974), Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar (3rd ed.), Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa, ISBN 978-0-582-61700-1
- Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993), "1. Pronunciation", A Grammar of Afrikaans, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–35, ISBN 9783110134261
- Duanmu, San (2007) [First published 2000], The Phonology of Standard Chinese (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-921578-2
- Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
- Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISSN 0025-1003
- Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
- Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, ISSN 0025-1003
- Hall, Christopher (2003) [First published 1992], Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English (2nd ed.), Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-6689-4
- Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191, ISSN 0025-1003
- Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
- Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
- Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003), "Standard Chinese (Beijing)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 109–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373, ISSN 0025-1003
- Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
- Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
- Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768, ISSN 0025-1003
- Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628, ISSN 0025-1003
- Sarlin, Mika (2014) [First published 2013], "Sounds of Romanian and their spelling", Romanian Grammar (2nd ed.), Helsinki: Books on Demand GmbH, pp. 16–37, ISBN 978-952-286-898-5
- Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA:Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090, ISSN 0025-1003
- Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, ISSN 0025-1003
- Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (1): 24–26, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746, ISSN 0025-1003
- Trudgill, Peter (2009), "Greek Dialect Vowel Systems, Vowel Dispersion Theory, and Sociolinguistic Typology", Journal of Greek Linguistics, 9 (1): 80–97, doi:10.1163/156658409X12500896406041
- Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
- Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
External links
- List of languages with [i] on PHOIBLE