Open-mid front unrounded vowel

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IPA – number	303
IPA – text	ɛ
IPA – image
Entity	ɛ
X-SAMPA	E
Kirshenbaum	E
Sound sample (help·info)

The open-mid 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 <ɛ>, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is E.

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel.
• 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 not rounded.

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		tre	[tɾɛ]	'three'
Catalan		cafè	[kəˈfɛ]	'coffee'	See Catalan phonology
Dutch		bed	[bɛt]	'bed'	See Dutch phonology
Eng lish	GA	bed	[bɛd]	'bed'	See English phonology
	NZE	fat	[fɛ̝t]	'fat'
Faroese		elska	[ɛlska]	'love'
French		bête	[bɛt]	'animal'	Phonemically contrasts with nasalized form (/ɛ̃/). See French phonology
German		Bett	[bɛt]	'bed'	See German phonology
Hungarian		nem	[nɛm]	'no'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		ég	[jɛɣ]	'I'
Italian		sette	[ˈsɛtte]	'seven; sects'	See Italian phonology
Kabardian		Iэ	[ʔɛ]	'to tell'
Norwegian		nett	[nɛt]	'net'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish		lek	[lɛk]	'medicine'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		café	[kɐfɛ]	'coffee'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian		это	[ˈɛtə]	'this'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		aig	[ɛk]	'at'
Seri		me	[mɛ]	'you'
Vietnamese		té	[tɛ́]	'to fall'
Yoruba		ẹsẹ̀	[ɛ̄sɛ]	'leg/foot'