| Near-open front unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| æ | |||
| IPA number | 325 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | æ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+00E6 | ||
| X-SAMPA | { | ||
| Braille |  | ||
| |||
| IPA:Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legend:unrounded • rounded |
Thenear-open front unrounded vowel, ornear-low front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨æ⟩, a lowercase of the⟨Æ⟩ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".
The rounded counterpart of[æ], thenear-open front rounded vowel (for which the IPA provides no separate symbol) has been reported to occur allophonically inDanish;[2][3] seeopen front rounded vowel for more information.
In practice, ⟨æ⟩ is sometimes used to represent theopen front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.
In IPA transcriptions ofHungarian andValencian, this vowel is typically written with ⟨ɛ⟩.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard[4] | perd | [pæːrt] | 'horse' | Allophone of/ɛ/, in some dialects, before/kχlr/. SeeAfrikaans phonology |
| Äiwoo | ikuwä | [ikuwæ] | 'I go' | Distinguished from both [a] and [ɑ~ɒ]. | |
| Arabic | Standard[5] | كتاب (kitāb) | [kiˈtæːb] | 'book' | Allophone of/a/ in the environment of plain labial and coronal consonants as well as/j/ (depending on the speaker's accent). SeeArabic phonology |
| Azerbaijani | Azərbaycan | [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn] | 'Azerbaijan' | ||
| Bambam[6] | bätä | [ˈbætæ] | 'stem' | ||
| Bashkir[7] | йәй (yäy) | [jæj]ⓘ | 'summer' | ||
| Bengali[8] | ব্যাঙ | [bæŋ] | 'frog' | SeeBengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian | Moesian dialects | млечен (mlečen) | [mlæt͡ʃɛn] | 'made from milk' | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in places where Standard Bulgarian would have /ɛ/. SeeYat. |
| Rup dialects | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in all positions. SeeYat. | ||||
| Teteven dialect | мъж (măž) | [mæʃ] | 'man' | In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤ̞] (written as ъ). | |
| Erkech dialect | |||||
| Catalan | Majorcan (some speakers)[9] | sac | [ˈs̺æc] | 'bag' | Majorcan /a/-fronting. SeeCatalan phonology |
| Valencian[10][11] and some Catalan dialects (some speakers) | raig | [ˈr̺æt͡ɕ] | 'ray' | Palatal variant of/a/. It can be more open ([a]). SeeCatalan phonology | |
| taula | [ˈt̪ɑwɫɛ̞̈] | 'table' | Final unstressed/a/ found in some speakers. Can be realized as (un)rounded and further back. SeeCatalan phonology | ||
| Balearic (except Ibizan)[12][13] | tesi | [ˈt̪ɛ̞z̺ɪ] | 'thesis' | Main realization of/ɛ/. More open and centralized before liquids and in monosyllabics. SeeCatalan phonology | |
| Valencian (general pronunciation)[12][13] | |||||
| Chechen | аьрзу (ärzu) | [ærzu] | 'eagle' | ||
| Danish | Standard[2][14] | dansk | [ˈtænˀsk] | 'Danish' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers.[15] SeeDanish phonology |
| Dutch[16] | pen | [pæn] | 'pen' | Allophone of/ɛ/ before/n/ and coda/l/. In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where[ɛ] is used in Standard Dutch.[17] SeeDutch phonology | |
| English | CultivatedNew Zealand[18] | cat | [kʰæt]ⓘ | 'cat' | Higher in other New Zealand varieties. SeeNew Zealand English phonology |
| General American[19] | SeeEnglish phonology | ||||
| ConservativeReceived Pronunciation[20] | Fully open[a] in contemporary RP.[20] SeeEnglish phonology | ||||
| Estonian[21] | väle | [ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ] | 'agile' | Near-front.[21] SeeEstonian phonology | |
| Finnish[22] | mäki | [ˈmæki] | 'hill' | SeeFinnish phonology | |
| French | Parisian[23] | bain | [bæ̃] | 'bath' | Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. SeeFrench phonology |
| Quebec[24] | ver | [væːʁ] | 'worm' | Allophone of/ɛ/ before/ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of/a/ in closed syllables.[24] SeeQuebec French phonology | |
| German | Standard Austrian[25] | erlauben | [æˈlɑɔ̯bn̩] | 'allow' | Variant of pretonic[ɛɐ̯].[25] SeeStandard German phonology |
| West Central German accents[26] | oder | [ˈoːdæ] | 'or' | Used instead of[ɐ].[26] SeeStandard German phonology | |
| Northern accents[27] | alles | [ˈa̝ləs] | 'everything' | Lower and often also more back in other accents.[27] SeeStandard German phonology | |
| Western Swiss accents[28] | spät | [ʃpæːt] | 'late' | Open-mid[ɛː] or close-mid[eː] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid/ɛː/.[29] SeeStandard German phonology | |
| Greek | Macedonia[30] | γάτα (gáta) | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | SeeModern Greek phonology |
| Thessaly[30] | |||||
| Thrace[30] | |||||
| Pontic[31] | καλάθια (kaláthia) | [kaˈlaθæ] | 'baskets' | ||
| Hungarian[32] | nem | [næm] | 'no' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. SeeHungarian phonology | |
| Kanoê[33] | [example needed] | [æː] | 'tobacco' | ||
| Kazakh | әйел (äiel) | [æ̝ˈje̘l̪ʲ] | 'woman' | Varies between near-open and open-mid. | |
| Kurdish | Sorani (Central) | گاڵته (galte) | [gäːɫtʲæ] | 'joke' | Equal toPalewani (Southern) front[a]. SeeKurdish phonology |
| Lakon[34] | rävräv | [ræβræβ] | 'evening' | ||
| Limburgish[35][36][37] | twelf | [ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf] | 'twelve' | Front[36][37] or near-front,[35] depending on the dialect. The example word is from theMaastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front. | |
| Lithuanian | jachtą | [ˈjæːxt̪aː] | 'yacht' (accusative) | SeeLithuanian phonology | |
| Low Saxon | IncludingSallandic | gläzen | [xɫæːzn̩] | 'glasses' | |
| Luxembourgish[38] | Käpp | [kʰæpʰ] | 'heads' | SeeLuxembourgish phonology | |
| Norwegian | Urban East[39][40] | lær | [læːɾ] | 'leather' | SeeNorwegian phonology |
| Persian[41][42] | هشت (hašt) | [hæʃt] | 'eight' | ||
| Portuguese | Some dialects[43] | pedra | [ˈpæðɾɐ] | 'stone' | Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer/ɛ/. SeePortuguese phonology |
| Some European speakers[44] | também | [tɐˈmæ̃] | 'also' | Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel/ẽ̞/. | |
| Romanian | Bukovinian dialect[45] | piele | [ˈpæle] | 'skin' | Corresponds to[je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects.[45] SeeRomanian phonology |
| Russian[46][47] | пять (pjatʹ) | [pʲætʲ]ⓘ | 'five' | Allophone of/a/ betweenpalatalized consonants. SeeRussian phonology | |
| Serbo-Croatian | Zeta-Raška dialect[48] | дан /dan | [d̪æn̪] | 'day' | Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised.[48] |
| Sinhala[49] | ඇය (æya) | [æjə] | 'she' | ||
| Slovak | mäso | [mæso] | 'meat, flesh' | In conversation sometimes pronounced as[e] or[a]. SeeSlovak phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[50][51][52] | ära | [²æːɾä]ⓘ | 'hono(u)r' | Allophone of/ɛː,ɛ/ before/r/. SeeSwedish phonology |
| Stockholm[52] | läsa | [²læːsä] | 'to read' | Realization of/ɛː,ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher[ɛː,ɛ̝~ɛ] for other speakers | |
| Turkish[53] | sen | [s̪æn̪] | 'you' | Allophone of/e/ before syllable-final/m,n,l,r/. In a limited number of words (but not before/r/), it is in free variation with[e̞].[53] SeeTurkish phonology | |
