Near-open front unrounded vowel - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	æ
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	{
Kirshenbaum	&
Sound sample

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 {. The IPA symbol is the lowercase AE ligature, and both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".

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.

Occurs in:

• English that /ðæt/
• Possible nasalized realization in French coin /kwæ̃/