A spectrogram of[i].Sagittal section of a vocal tract pronouncing the IPA sound ⟨i⟩. Note that a wavyglottis in this diagram indicates a voiced sound.
Theclose front unrounded vowel, orhigh front unrounded vowel,[1] is a type ofvowel sound that occurs in most spokenlanguages, represented in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet by the symboli. It is similar to the vowel sound in theEnglish wordmeet—and often calledlong-e inAmerican English.[2] Although in English this sound has additionallength (usually being represented as/iː/) and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slightdiphthong), some dialects have been reported to pronounce the phoneme as a pure sound.[3] A pure[i] sound is also heard in many other languages, such asFrench, in words likechic.
The close front unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of thepalatal approximant[j]. Theyalternate with each other in certain languages, such asFrench, and in thediphthongs of some languages,[i̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and[j] are used in differenttranscription systems to represent the same sound.
Languages that use theLatin script commonly use the letter⟨i⟩ to represent this sound, though there are some exceptions: inEnglish orthography that letter is usually associated with/aɪ/ (as inbite) or/ɪ/ (as inbit), and/iː/ is more commonly represented by⟨e⟩,⟨ea⟩,⟨ee⟩,⟨ie⟩ or⟨ei⟩, as in the wordsscene,bean,meet,niece,conceive; (seeGreat Vowel Shift).Irish orthography reflects both etymology and whether preceding consonants are broad or slender, so such combinations as⟨aí⟩,⟨ei⟩, and⟨aío⟩ all represent/iː/.
Itsvowel height isclose, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as aconsonant.
Itsvowel backness isfront, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as aconsonant.
Often realized as a sequence[ij] or[iʝ] (hear the word:[nɪ̝ːʝ̊]ⓘ); it may also be fricated[iᶻː] or, in some regions, fricated and centralized ([ɨᶻː]).[38][39] SeeSwedish phonology
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Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish",Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142,ISBN978-0-521-63751-0
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Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean",Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122,ISBN978-0-521-63751-0
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Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish",Journal of the International Phonetic Association,33 (2):255–259,doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373,ISSN0025-1003
Okada, Hideo (1999),"Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.),Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119,ISBN978-0-52163751-0
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Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation",Journal of the International Phonetic Association,34 (2):239–245,doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768,ISSN0025-1003
Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch",Journal of the International Phonetic Association,35 (2):243–247,doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999),"Turkish"(PDF),Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158,ISBN978-0-521-65236-0, archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2018-07-25, retrieved2015-11-20
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