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Vowels

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ɪ̈ · ʊ̈ 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

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents
a rounded vowel. Vowel length is indicated by appending  ː

IPA – number	319
IPA – text	ɪ
IPA – image
Entity	ɪ
X-SAMPA	I
Kirshenbaum	I
Sound sample (help·info)

The near-close near-front unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɪ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is I. The IPA symbol is a small capital letter i.

There is also a near-close central unrounded vowel in some languages.

Features

• Its vowel height is near-close, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted.
• Its vowel backness is near-front, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to a front vowel, but slightly further back in the mouth.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Czech		byli	[ˈbɪlɪ]	'they were'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		ik	[ɪ̽k]	'I'	See Dutch phonology
English		bit	[bɪt]	'bit'	See English phonology
French	Quebec	petite	[pətsɪt]	'small'	Occurs only in closed syllables. See Quebec French phonology
German		bitte	[ˈbɪtə]	'please'	See German phonology
Irish		duine	[dˠɪnʲə]	'person'	See Irish phonology
Mongolian[1]		?	[xɪɾɘ̆]	'hillside'
Plautdietsch		winta	[vɪntə]	'winter'
Portuguese	Brazilian[2]	saque	[ˈsakɪ]	'withdrawal'	Unstressed vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Norwegian		litt	[lɪt]	'a little'	See Norwegian phonology
Russian[3]		дерево	[ˈdʲerʲɪvə]	'tree'	Occurs only in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		thig	[ɪk]	'come'
Sicilian		arrìriri	[arrɪriri]	'smile'
Swedish		sill	[sɪl] (help·info)	'herring'	See Swedish phonology
Ukrainian		кит	[kɪt]	'whale'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese		chị	[cɪi]	'elder sister'	See Vietnamese phonology

References

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232 
• Iivonen, Antti; Harnud, Huhe (2005), "Acoustical comparison of the monophthong systems in Finnish, Mongolian and Udmurt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 59–71 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press