Open-mid front unrounded vowel - Definition and Overview

IPA - Unicode	ɛ
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	E
Kirshenbaum	E
Sound sample

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.

Features of this vowel:

• 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.

This vowel occurs in English, and is the sound represented by the letter e in the words pet and bed.