Close front unrounded vowel

File:Spectrogram of close front unrounded vowel (IPA i).png

A spectrogram of .

File:IPA i Sagittal Section.svg

Sagittal section of a vocal tract pronouncing the IPA sound Template:Angbr IPA. Note that a wavy glottis in this diagram indicates a voiced sound.

The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound that occurs in most spoken languages, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the symbol i. It is similar to the vowel sound in the English word meet—and often called long-e in American English. Although in English this sound has additional length (usually being represented as ) and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slight diphthong), some dialects have been reported to pronounce the phoneme as a pure sound. A pure sound is also heard in many other languages, such as French, in words like chic.

The close front unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the palatal approximant . They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, with the non-syllabic diacritic and are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Languages that use the Latin script commonly use the letter Template:Angle bracket to represent this sound, though there are some exceptions: in English orthography that letter is usually associated with (as in bite) or (as in bit), and is more commonly represented by Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket or Template:Angle bracket, as in the words scene, bean, meet, niece, conceive; (see Great Vowel Shift). Irish orthography reflects both etymology and whether preceding consonants are broad or slender, so such combinations as Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket all represent .

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
AfrikaansTemplate:Sfnp				'thief'	See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	/diin		'religion'	See Arabic phonology
CatalanTemplate:Sfnp				'sic'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	MandarinTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	/	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Zh-qī.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'seven'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Chuvash		çип	[ɕ̬ip]	'thread'
CzechTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Cs-bílý.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'white'	See Czech phonology
DutchTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Nl-biet.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'beet'	See Dutch phonology
EnglishTemplate:Sfnp	Most dialects	free	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "En-us-free.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'free'	Depending on dialect, can be pronounced as . See English phonology
	AustralianTemplate:Sfnp	bit		'bit'	Also described as near-close front Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Australian English phonology
FrenchTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'finished'	See French phonology
GermanTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "De-Ziel.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'goal'	See Standard German phonology
Greek	Modern StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	/ kípos		'garden'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew	Modern Standard			'thinking'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
HungarianTemplate:Sfnp				'arch'	See Hungarian phonology
ItalianTemplate:Sfnp				'rage'	See Italian phonology
JapaneseTemplate:Sfnp		/	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "ja-gin.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'silver'	See Japanese phonology
Khmer		/ Template:Transliteration		'doctrine'	See Khmer phonology
KoreanTemplate:Sfnp		/		'child'	See Korean phonology
KurdishTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	Kurmanji (Northern)			'milk'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	/şîr
	Palewani (Southern)
Lithuanian				'man'	See Lithuanian orthography
Malay	Malaysian Malay	ikut	[i.kʊt]	'to follow'	See Malay phonology
Malayalam		ഇല		'leaf'	See Malayalam phonology
MpadeTemplate:Sfnp				'monkey'
PolishTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Pl-miś-2.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'teddy bear'	See Polish phonology
PortugueseTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Fino_european_pt.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'thin'	Also occurs as an unstressed allophone of other vowels. May be represented by Template:Angle bracket. See Portuguese phonology
RomanianTemplate:Sfnp				'island'	See Romanian phonology
Rungus				'to come'
RussianTemplate:Sfnp		/list	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ru-лист.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'leaf'	Only occurs word-initially or after palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-CroatianTemplate:Sfnp		/		'hayfork'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
SpanishTemplate:Sfnp				'type'	May also be represented by Template:Angle bracket. See Spanish phonology
SothoTemplate:Sfnp				'to call'	Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels.Template:Sfnp See Sotho phonology
Swedish	Central StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'to become'	Often realized as a sequence or (hear the word: {{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "sv-bli.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler); it may also be fricated or, in some regions, fricated and centralized (Template:IPAblink).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Swedish phonology
Tagalog				'bird'
ThaiTemplate:Sfnp		/krit		'dagger'
TurkishTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'rope'	See Turkish phonology
UkrainianTemplate:Sfnp		/misto		'city, town'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		es i	[eːs iː]	'I went'	See Welsh phonology
YorubaTemplate:Sfnp				'spoon'

External links

• Template:Phoible