Near-open front unrounded vowel
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The near-open 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 æ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is {. The IPA symbol is the lowercase ae ligature, and both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".
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[edit] Features
Its vowel height is near-open, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted. Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
[edit] Occurrence
Arabic Standard[1] كتاب [‎kiˈt̪æËb] 'book' Allophone of /a/ in the environment of plain labial and coronal consonants as well as /j/. See Arabic phonology
Russian[2] пÑÑ‚ÑŒ [pʲætʲ] 'five' Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
[edit] References
^ Holes (2004:60) ^ Jones & Ward (1969:50)
[edit] Bibliography
Holes, Clive (2004), Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 1589010221 Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
