Near-open front unrounded vowel
The near-open 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 æ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is {.
| IPA - Unicode | æ |
| IPA - image | 
|
| X-SAMPA | { |
| |
|---|---|
Features of this vowel:
- Its vowel height is near-open, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted.
- 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.