Front vowel

Template:Short description Template:IPA vowels Template:IPA notice Front vowels are a class of vowel sounds used in spoken languages that are produced when the tongue is positioned toward the front of the mouth. Front vowels appear in most of the world's languages, with [i] and [e] being present in 92% and 61% of languages according to PHOIBLE.

Front vowels can be rounded, but are typically unrounded, meaning that the lips are relaxed while speakers are producing them. This is because languages want to maximize the degree of contrast between vowels. Rounding has the effect of bringing a vowel further back in the mouth, so across the world's languages, it's more common for front vowels to be unrounded than rounded, and for back vowels to be rounded rather than unrounded. This is reflected in the position of rounded front vowels on the IPA vowel chart. They are written to the right of the unrounded front vowels to note that they are typically centralized.

Partial list

The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• close front unrounded vowel
• close front compressed vowel
• near-close front unrounded vowel
• near-close front compressed vowel
• close-mid front unrounded vowel
• close-mid front compressed vowel
• open-mid front unrounded vowel
• open-mid front compressed vowel
• near-open front unrounded vowel
• open front unrounded vowel
• open front rounded vowel

There also are front vowels without dedicated symbols in the IPA:

• close front protruded vowel
• near-close front protruded vowel
• close-mid front protruded vowel
• mid front unrounded vowel or
• mid front compressed vowel or
• mid front protruded vowel or
• open-mid front protruded vowel

As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA for a near-close front unrounded vowel.

Articulatory Characteristics

File:Esling vowel chart.png

Fronted vowels are one of three articulatory dimensions of vowel space. The prototypical fronted vowel is [i]. Below it in the chart are fronted vowels with jaw opening.

In articulatory phonetics, fronted vowels contrast with raised vowels and retracted vowels. In this conception, fronted vowels are a broader category than those listed in the IPA chart, including 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, may be fronted to next to Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink.

Acoustic Characteristics

Acoustically, front vowels have a higher second formant (F2)—the second harmonic from the fundamental frequency—than central and back vowels. The second formant corresponds with how far forward the tongue can be positioned relative to the very back of the mouth. Open-front vowels have a lower F2 than close-front vowels because there is less room for the tongue to move forward when the jaw is hinged open.

Effect on preceding consonant

In many languages, front vowels influence the place of articulation of surrounding consonants. In the following examples, front vowels have altered preceding velar and alveolar consonants, bringing their place of articulation towards palatal or postalveolar. These changes often start as allophonic variation, but may become phonemic.

This historical palatalization is reflected in the orthographies of several European languages, including the Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr of almost all Romance languages, the Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr in Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic, and the Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr 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 , and yell, yarn, yearn, yeast from .)

	Before back vowel: hard	Before front vowel: soft
English Template:Angbr	call Template:IPAc-en	cell Template:IPAc-en
English Template:Angbr	gall Template:IPAc-en	gel Template:IPAc-en
French Template:Angbr
French Template:Angbr
Greek Template:Angbr
Greek Template:Angbr
Italian Template:Angbr
Italian Template:Angbr
Italian Template:Angbr
Japanese Template:Angbr		Template:Efn
Japanese Template:Angbr		Template:Efn
Swedish Template:Angbr
Swedish Template:Angbr
Swedish Template:Angbr

See also

• Central vowel
• Back vowel
• List of phonetics topics
• Relative articulation