Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:IPA vowels Template:IPA notice 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 approximately 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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, 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 listEdit
The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close front compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-close front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-close front compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close-mid front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close-mid front compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open-mid front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open-mid front compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-open front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open front rounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
There also are front vowels without dedicated symbols in the IPA:
- close front protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- near-close front protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- close-mid front protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- mid front unrounded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- mid front compressed vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- mid front protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} or {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- open-mid front protruded vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA for a near-close front unrounded vowel.
Articulatorily fronted vowelsEdit
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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, 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, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} may be fronted to {{#invoke:IPA|main}} next to Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink.<ref>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 consonantEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} 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 Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr of almost all Romance languages, the Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr in Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic, and the Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr 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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and yell, yarn, yearn, yeast from {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.)
| Before back vowel: hard | Before front vowel: soft | |
|---|---|---|
| English Template:Angbr | call Template:IPAc-en | cell Template:IPAc-en |
| English Template:Angbr | gall Template:IPAc-en | gel Template:IPAc-en |
| French Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| French Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Greek Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Greek Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Italian Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Italian Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Italian Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Japanese Template:Angbr | Template:Transliteration {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | Template:Transliteration {{#invoke:IPA|main}}Template:Efn |
| Japanese Template:Angbr | Template:Transliteration {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | Template:Transliteration {{#invoke:IPA|main}}Template:Efn |
| Swedish Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Swedish Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
| Swedish Template:Angbr | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} | lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} |
OccurrencesEdit
According to PHOIBLE, /Template:IPA link/ is the most common phonemic front vowel, occurring in around 92% of inventories, while /Template:IPA link/ is the least common, occurring in only one inventory on the database.<ref name="phoible"/>
| Vowel | % |
|---|---|
| /Template:IPA link/ | 92 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 88 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 61 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 37 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 15 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 7 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 6 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 3 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 3 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 1 |
| /Template:IPA link/ | 0Template:Efn |