 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Front vowel" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Front vowels are a class ofvowel sounds used in spokenlanguages that are produced when the tongue is positioned toward the front of the mouth. Front vowels appear in most of the world's languages, with [i] and [e] being present in 92% and 61% of languages according toPHOIBLE.
Front vowels can be rounded, but are typically unrounded, meaning that the lips are relaxed while speakers are producing them. This is because languages want to maximize the degree of contrast between vowels.[1] Rounding has the effect of bringing a vowel further back in the mouth, so across the world's languages, it's more common for front vowels to be unrounded than rounded, and for back vowels to be rounded rather than unrounded.[2] This is reflected in the position of rounded front vowels on the IPA vowel chart. They are written to the right of the unrounded front vowels to note that they are typicallycentralized.
The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet are:
There also are front vowels without dedicated symbols in the IPA:
As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics ofrelative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as ⟨i̞⟩, ⟨e̝⟩ or ⟨ɪ̟⟩ for a near-close front unrounded vowel.
In articulatory phonetics, fronted vowels contrast withraised vowels andretracted vowels. In this conception, fronted vowels are a broader category than those listed in the IPA chart, including central vowels[ɨʉɘɵəɜ]. 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 aspalatals and, in some languages,pharyngeals. For example,/a/ may be fronted to[æ] next to/j/ or/ħ/.[3]
Acoustically, front vowels have a highersecond formant (F2)—the second harmonic from the fundamental frequency—than central and back vowels. The second formant corresponds with how far forward the tongue can be positioned relative to the very back of the mouth. Open-front vowels have a lower F2 than close-front vowels because there is less room for the tongue to move forward when the jaw is hinged open.
In many languages, front vowels influence the place of articulation of surrounding consonants. In the following examples, front vowels have altered precedingvelar andalveolar consonants, bringing theirplace of articulation towardspalatal orpostalveolar. These changes often start asallophonic variation, but may becomephonemic.
This historical palatalization is reflected in theorthographies of several European languages, including the⟨c⟩ and⟨g⟩ of almost allRomance languages, the⟨k⟩ and⟨g⟩ inNorwegian,Swedish,Faroese andIcelandic, and the⟨κ⟩,⟨γ⟩ and⟨χ⟩ inGreek.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 includecheap, church, cheese, churn from/*k/, andyell, yarn, yearn, yeast from/*ɡ/.)
| Before back vowel: hard | Before front vowel: soft | |
|---|---|---|
| English⟨C⟩ | call/kɔːl/ | cell/sɛl/ |
| English⟨G⟩ | gall/ɡɔːl/ | gel/dʒɛl/ |
| French⟨C⟩ | Calais[kalɛ]ⓘ | cela[səla]ⓘ |
| French⟨G⟩ | gare[ɡaʁ]ⓘ | gel[ʒɛl]ⓘ |
| Greek⟨Γ⟩ | γάιδαρος[ˈɣai̯ðaros]ⓘ | γη[ʝi]ⓘ |
| Greek⟨Χ⟩ | Χανιά[xaˈɲa]ⓘ | χαίρετε[ˈçerete]ⓘ |
| Italian⟨C⟩ | caro[ˈkaːro]ⓘ | città[tʃitˈta]ⓘ |
| Italian⟨G⟩ | gatto[ˈɡatto]ⓘ | gente[ˈdʒɛnte]ⓘ |
| Italian⟨SC⟩ | scusa[ˈskuːza]ⓘ | pesce[ˈpeʃʃe]ⓘ |
| Japanese⟨S⟩ | sūdoku[sɯꜜːdokɯ]ⓘ | shiitake[ɕiꜜːtake]ⓘ[a] |
| Japanese⟨T⟩ | atatakai[atatakaꜜi]ⓘ | dotchi[dotꜜtɕi]ⓘ[a] |
| Swedish⟨K⟩ | karta[ˈkɑ̂ːʈa]ⓘ | kär[ɕæːr]ⓘ |
| Swedish⟨G⟩ | god[ɡuːd]ⓘ | göra[ˈjœ̂ːra]ⓘ |
| Swedish⟨SK⟩ | skal[skɑːl]ⓘ | skälla[ˈɧɛ̂lːa]ⓘ |
