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Front vowel#Articulatorily fronted vowels

{{Short description|Type of vowel}}{{more citations needed|date=October 2021}}

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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.{{cite book|last=Tsur|first=Reuven|title=The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception|publisher=Duke University Press|date=February 1992|page=20|isbn=0-8223-1170-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yh4p69MaI4C&q=dark+vowels&pg=PA20}}

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.

Partial list

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

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

As above, other front vowels can be indicated with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as {{angbr IPA|i̞}}, {{angbr IPA|e̝}} or {{angbr IPA|ɪ̟}} for a near-close front unrounded vowel.

Articulatorily fronted vowels

File:Esling vowel chart.png

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 {{IPA|[ɪ ʏ]}}, {{IPA|[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, {{IPA|/a/}} may be fronted to {{IPA|[æ]}} next to {{IPAslink|j}} or {{IPAslink|ħ}}.Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012) [https://www.mcgill.ca/mcgwpl/files/mcgwpl/moisik2012.pdf "The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"]

Effect on preceding consonant

{{main|Palatalization (sound change)}}

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 {{angbr|c}} and {{angbr|g}} of almost all Romance languages, the {{angbr|k}} and {{angbr|g}} in Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and Icelandic, and the {{angbr|κ}}, {{angbr|γ}} and {{angbr|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 {{IPA|/*k/}}, and yell, yarn, yearn, yeast from {{IPA|/*ɡ/}}.)

class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
!Before back vowel: hard

!Before front vowel: soft

English {{angbr|C}}

|call {{IPAc-en|k|ɔː|l}}

|cell {{IPAc-en|s|ɛ|l}}

English {{angbr|G}}

|gall {{IPAc-en|ɡ|ɔː|l}}

|gel {{IPAc-en|dʒ|ɛ|l}}

French {{angbr|C}}

|{{lang|fr|Calais|italics=no}} {{IPA|fr|kalɛ||fr-Calais.ogg}}

|{{lang|fr|cela|italics=no}} {{IPA|fr|səla||fr-cela.ogg}}

French {{angbr|G}}

|{{lang|fr|gare|italics=no}} {{IPA|fr|ɡaʁ||fr-gare.ogg}}

|{{lang|fr|gel|italics=no}} {{IPA|fr|ʒɛl||fr-gel.ogg}}

Greek {{angbr|Γ}}

|{{lang|el|γάιδαρος}} {{IPA|el|ˈɣai̯ðaros||EL-γάιδαρος.ogg}}

|{{lang|el|γη}} {{IPA|el|ʝi||el-γη.ogg}}

Greek {{angbr|Χ}}

|{{lang|el|Χανιά}} {{IPA|el|xaˈɲa||el-Χανιά.ogg}}

|{{lang|el|χαίρετε}} {{IPA|el|ˈçerete||EL-χαίρετε.ogg}}

Italian {{angbr|C}}

|{{lang|it|caro|italics=no}} {{IPA|it|ˈkaːro||it-caro.ogg}}

|{{lang|it|città|italics=no}} {{IPA|it|tʃitˈta||it-città.ogg}}

Italian {{angbr|G}}

|{{lang|it|gatto|italics=no}} {{IPA|it|ˈɡatto||it-gatto.ogg}}

|{{lang|it|gente|italics=no}} {{IPA|it|ˈdʒɛnte||it-gente.ogg}}

Italian {{angbr|SC}}

|{{lang|it|scusa|italics=no}} {{IPA|it|ˈskuːza||it-scusa.ogg}}

|{{lang|it|pesce|italics=no}} {{IPA|it|ˈpeʃʃe||it-pesce.ogg}}

Japanese {{angbr|S}}

|{{transl|ja|sūdoku|italics=no}} {{IPA|ja|sɯꜜːdokɯ||ja-Sudoku.oga}}

|{{transl|ja|shiitake|italics=no}} {{IPA|ja|ɕiꜜːtake||ja-Shiitake.oga}}{{efn|name=rōmaji|Palatalization of {{IPA|/si/}}, {{IPA|/ti/}} etc. is shown in spelling in Hepburn romanization.}}

Japanese {{angbr|T}}

|{{transl|ja|atatakai|italics=no}} {{IPA|ja|atatakaꜜi||ja-atatakai.ogg}}

|{{transl|ja|dotchi|italics=no}} {{IPA|ja|dotꜜtɕi||ja-docchi-which.ogg}}{{efn|name=rōmaji}}

Swedish {{angbr|K}}

|{{lang|sv|karta|italics=no}} {{IPA|sv|ˈkɑ̂ːʈa||sv-karta.ogg}}

|{{lang|sv|kär|italics=no}} {{IPA|sv|ɕæːr||sv-kär.ogg}}

Swedish {{angbr|G}}

|{{lang|sv|god|italics=no}} {{IPA|sv|ɡuːd||sv-god.ogg}}

|{{lang|sv|göra|italics=no}} {{IPA|sv|ˈjœ̂ːra||sv-göra.ogg}}

Swedish {{angbr|SK}}

|{{lang|sv|skal|italics=no}} {{IPA|sv|skɑːl||sv-skal.ogg}}

|{{lang|sv|skälla|italics=no}} {{IPA|sv|ˈɧɛ̂lːa||sv-skälla.ogg}}

Occurrences

According to PHOIBLE, /{{IPA link|i}}/ is the most common phonemic front vowel, occurring in around 92% of inventories, while /{{IPA link|ɶ}}/ is the least common, occurring in only one inventory on the database.

class="wikitable

|+ Frequency of front vowels{{Cite book|location=Jena|editor=Steven Moran and Daniel McCloy|publisher=Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History|title=PHOIBLE 2.0|url=https://phoible.org|year=2019}}

! Vowel !! %

/{{IPA link|i}}/92
/{{IPA link|a}}/88
/{{IPA link|e}}/61
/{{IPA link|ɛ}}/37
/{{IPA link|ɪ}}/15
/{{IPA link|æ}}/7
/{{IPA link|y}}/6
/{{IPA link|ø}}/3
/{{IPA link|œ}}/3
/{{IPA link|ʏ}}/1
/{{IPA link|ɶ}}/0{{efn|Of the phonological inventories

listed on PHOIBLE, ɶ only occurs in Northern Altai}}

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See also

References

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Category:Vowels by backness

Category:Phonology