Editing Front vowel (section)

{{Short description|Type of vowel}}
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{{IPA vowels|class=floatright}}
{{IPA notice}}
A '''front vowel''' is a class of [[vowel]] sounds used in some spoken [[language]]s, 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 vowel]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tsur|first=Reuven|title=The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception|publisher=Duke University Press|date=February 1992|page=20|isbn=0-8223-1170-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yh4p69MaI4C&q=dark+vowels&pg=PA20}}</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 [[Centralization (phonetics)#Centralized|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.