Close front unrounded vowel
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Close_front_unrounded_vowel".

e•d (enlarge)	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i • y ɨ • ʉ ɯ • u ɪ  ʏ   ʊ e • ø ɘ • ɵ ɤ • o ə ɛ • œ ɜ • ɞ ʌ • ɔ æ ɐ a • ɶ ɑ • ɒ
Near‑close
Close‑mid
Mid
Open‑mid
Near‑open
Open

IPA – number	301
IPA – text	i
IPA – image
Entity	i
X-SAMPA	i
Kirshenbaum	i
Sound sample (help·info)

The close front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is i, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is i.

The vowel [i] is very common, occurring phonemically in almost all languages with three or more vowels and phonetically in many more languages.^{citation needed}

Features

• Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.

Occurrence

Close front compressed vowel

The near-close near-front compressed vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. There is no diacritic in the IPA to indicate compression, but since the Swedish back vowel /u/ and Norwegian central vowel /ʉ/ are also labially compressed (see close central compressed vowel and close back compressed vowel), <ʉ̟> is frequently chosen as an ad hoc transcription for Swedish. Another possibility would be to use the spread-lip diacritic [  ͍ ] as an ad hoc symbol with a rounded vowel letter of the correct articulation, and that will be used here.

Features

• Its vowel height is near-close, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel.
• Its vowel backness is near-front, which means the tongue is positioned almost as far forward as a front vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is compressed, which means the corners of the mouth are drawn slightly together and the lips may be compressed horizontally, but do not protrude.

Occurrence

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45-47
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239-245
• Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121
• Rood, David S & Allan R. Taylor (2006), "Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan Language, Part I", Handbook of North American Indians 17: 440-482
• Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41