Front Vowel
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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 In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
. Front vowels are sometimes also called bright vowels because they are perceived as sounding brighter than the
back vowel A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be ...
s. Near-front vowels are essentially a type of front vowel; no language is known to contrast front and near-front vowels based on backness alone. Rounded front vowels are typically
centralized Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
, that is, near-front in their articulation. This is one reason they are written to the right of unrounded front vowels in the IPA vowel chart.


Partial list

The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in the
International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
are: * close front unrounded vowel *
close front compressed vowel The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is /y/, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y. Acr ...
*
near-close front unrounded vowel The near-close front unrounded vowel, or near-high 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 , i.e. a small capital letter ...
* near-close front compressed vowel * close-mid front unrounded vowel *
close-mid front compressed vowel The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is , a lowercase letter o with a diagonal s ...
* open-mid front unrounded vowel *
open-mid front compressed vowel The open-mid front rounded vowel, or low-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is . The symbol œ is a lowercase ligature o ...
*
near-open front unrounded vowel The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low 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 lowercase of the ligature. Bot ...
* open front unrounded vowel * open front rounded vowel There also are front vowels without dedicated symbols in the IPA: *
close front protruded vowel The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is /y/, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y. Acr ...
*
near-close front protruded vowel The near-close front rounded vowel, or near-high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol ...
*
close-mid front protruded vowel The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is , a lowercase letter o with a diagonal s ...
* mid front unrounded vowel or * mid front compressed vowel or * mid front protruded vowel or * open-mid front protruded vowel As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics of
relative articulation In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same pho ...
applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as , or 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 , , 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 Palatals are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex. Characteris ...
and in some languages pharyngeals. For example, may be fronted to next to or .Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012
"The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"
/ref>


Effect on preceding consonant

In the history of many languages, for example
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and Japanese, front vowels have altered preceding velar or
alveolar consonant Alveolar (; UK also ) consonants are place of articulation, articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus, alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alve ...
s, bringing their place of articulation towards palatal or
postalveolar Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
. 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 and of almost all Romance languages, the and in Norwegian,
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, Faroese and Icelandic, and the , and 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 , and ''yell, yarn, yearn, yeast'' from .)


See also

*
Back vowel A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be ...
* List of phonetics topics


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Front Vowel Vowels by backness Phonology