Front vowel - Definition and Overview

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]

In some languages, the open front vowels do not pattern or group with the other front vowels in their phonologies.

Effect on preceding consonant

In the phonology of many Indo-European languages, front vowels have a special effect on certain preceding palatal consonants, bringing them forward to alveolar or postalveolar consonant sounds. This is not unique to Indo-European — similar effects can be observed in other languages including Japanese. See also palatalization.

Some examples in familiar languages include the "C" and "G" in Italian and French, and the "K" in Norwegian and Swedish. English follows the same pattern as French but without as much regularity.

	Before back vowel: hard	Before front vowel: soft
English "C"	call (/k/all)	cell (/s/ell)
English "G"	gall (/g/all)	gel (/dʒ/ell)
French "C"	calque (/k/alk)	celà (/s/ə-la)
French "G"	gare (/g/Ar)	gel (/ʒ/el)
Italian "C"	cara (/k/A-ra)	ciao (/ʧ/AH-oh)
Italian "G"	gallo (/g/AL-lo)	genere (/ʤ/en-EH-reh)
Swedish "K"	karta (/k/AR-TA)	kär (/ʃ/æhr)