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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.[1]
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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.
The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close front unrounded vowel [i]
- close front compressed vowel [y]
- near-close front unrounded vowel [ɪ]
- near-close front compressed vowel [ʏ]
- close-mid front unrounded vowel [e]
- close-mid front compressed vowel [ø]
- open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ]
- open-mid front compressed vowel [œ]
- near-open front unrounded vowel [æ]
- open front unrounded vowel [a]
- open front rounded vowel [ɶ]
There also are front vowels without dedicated symbols in the IPA:
- close front protruded vowel [yʷ]
- near-close front protruded vowel [ʏʷ]
- close-mid front protruded vowel [øʷ]
- mid front unrounded vowel [e̞] or [ɛ̝]
- mid front compressed vowel [ø̞] or [œ̝]
- mid front protruded vowel [ø̞ʷ] or [œ̝ʷ]
- open-mid front protruded vowel [œʷ]
As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as ⟨i̞⟩, ⟨e̝⟩ or ⟨ɪ̟⟩ for a near-close front unrounded vowel.
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 [ɪ ʏ], [ɨ ʉ], 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, /a/ may be fronted to [æ] next to /j/ or /ħ/.[2]
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 ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ of almost all Romance languages, the ⟨k⟩ and ⟨g⟩ in Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic, and the ⟨κ⟩, ⟨γ⟩ and ⟨χ⟩ 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 /*k/, and yell, 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] [lower-alpha 1] |
| Japanese ⟨T⟩ | atatakai [atatakaꜜi] | dotchi [dotꜜtɕi] [lower-alpha 1] |
| Swedish ⟨K⟩ | karta [ˈkɑ̂ːʈa] | kär [ɕæːr] |
| Swedish ⟨G⟩ | god [ɡuːd] | göra [ˈjœ̂ːra] |
| Swedish ⟨SK⟩ | skal [skɑːl] | skälla [ˈɧɛ̂lːa] |
- Palatalization of /si/, /ti/ etc. is shown in spelling in Hepburn romanization.
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