The Front vowel reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Front vowel

A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. The front vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

• close front unrounded vowel [i]
• close front rounded vowel [y]
• close-mid front unrounded vowel [e]
• close-mid front rounded vowel [ø]
• open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ]
• open-mid front rounded vowel [œ]
• near-open front unrounded vowel [æ]
• open front unrounded vowel [a]
• open front rounded vowel [ɶ]

See also

• near-front vowel
• central vowel
• near-back vowel
• back vowel

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