Close front unrounded vowel

The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound that occurs in most spoken languages, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the symbol i. It is similar to the vowel sound in the English word meet—and often called long-e in American English. Although in English this sound has additional length (usually being represented as /iː/) and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slight diphthong), some dialects have been reported to pronounce the phoneme as a pure sound. A pure [i] sound is also heard in many other languages, such as French, in words like chic.

Close front unrounded vowel
i
IPA number	301
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	i
Unicode (hex)	U+0069
X-SAMPA	i
Braille

IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

A spectrogram of [i].

Sagittal section of a vocal tract pronouncing the IPA sound ⟨i⟩. Note that a wavy glottis in this diagram indicates a voiced sound.

The close front unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the palatal approximant [j]. They alternate with each other in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [i̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [j] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Languages that use the Latin script commonly use the letter ⟨i⟩ to represent this sound, though there are some exceptions: in English orthography that letter is usually associated with /aɪ/ (as in bite) or /ɪ/ (as in bit), and /iː/ is more commonly represented by ⟨e⟩, ⟨ea⟩, ⟨ee⟩, ⟨ie⟩ or ⟨ei⟩, as in the words scene, bean, meet, niece, conceive; (see Great Vowel Shift). Irish orthography reflects both etymology and whether preceding consonants are broad or slender, so such combinations as ⟨aí⟩, ⟨ei⟩, and ⟨aío⟩ all represent /iː/.

Features

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans		dief	[dif]	'thief'	See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Standard	دين/diin	[d̪iːn]	'religion'	See Arabic phonology
Catalan		sic	[ˈsik]	'sic'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin	七 / qī		'seven'	See Standard Chinese phonology
Chuvash		çип	[ɕ̬ip]	'thread'
Czech		bílý		'white'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		biet		'beet'	See Dutch phonology
English	Most dialects	free		'free'	Depending on dialect, can be pronounced as [ɪi]. See English phonology
	Australian	bit	[bit]	'bit'	Also described as near-close front [ɪ̟]. See Australian English phonology
French		fini	[fini]	'finished'	See French phonology
German		Ziel		'goal'	See Standard German phonology
Greek	Modern Standard	κήπος / kípos	[ˈc̠ipo̞s̠]	'garden'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew^[citation needed]	Modern Standard	חשיבה	[χäʃivä]	'thinking'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hungarian		ív	[iːv]	'arch'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		bile	[ˈbiːle̞]	'rage'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		銀/gin		'silver'	See Japanese phonology
Khmer		លទ្ធិ / lôtthĭ	[lattʰiʔ]	'doctrine'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		아이 / ai	[ɐi]	'child'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	şîr	[ʃiːɾ]	'milk'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	شیر/şîr
	Palewani (Southern)
Lithuanian		vyras	[viːrɐs̪]	'man'	See Lithuanian orthography
Malay	Malaysian Malay	ikut	[i.kʊt]	'to follow'	See Malay phonology
Malayalam		ഇല	[ilɐ]	'leaf'	See Malayalam phonology
Mpade		fli	[fli]	'monkey'
Polish		miś		'teddy bear'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		fino		'thin'	Also occurs as an unstressed allophone of other vowels. May be represented by ⟨y⟩. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		insulă	[ˈin̪s̪ulə]	'island'	See Romanian phonology
Rungus		rikot	[ˈri.kot]	'to come'
Russian		лист/list		'leaf'	Only occurs word-initially or after palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		виле / vile	[ʋîle̞]	'hayfork'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish		tipo	[ˈt̪ipo̞]	'type'	May also be represented by ⟨y⟩. See Spanish phonology
Sotho		ho bitsa	[huˌbit͡sʼɑ̈]	'to call'	Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels. See Sotho phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	bli	[bliː]	'to become'	Often realized as a sequence [ij] or [iʝ] (hear the word: ); it may also be fricated [iᶻː] or, in some regions, fricated and centralized ([ɨᶻː]). See Swedish phonology
Tagalog		ibon	[ˈʔibɔn]	'bird'
Thai		กริช/krit	[krìt]	'dagger'
Turkish		ip	[ip]	'rope'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		місто/misto	['misto]	'city, town'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		es i	[eːs iː]	'I went'	See Welsh phonology
Yoruba		síbí	[síbí]	'spoon'

Notes

1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
2. Maddox, Maeve (18 September 2007). "DailyWritingTips: The Six Spellings of "Long E"". www.dailywritingtips.com. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
3. Labov, William; Sharon, Ash; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter. chpt. 17. ISBN 978-3-11-016746-7.
4. Donaldson (1993), p. 2.
5. Thelwall (1990), p. 38.
6. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 54.
7. Lee & Zee (2003), p. 110.
8. Duanmu (2007), pp. 35–36.
9. Dankovičová (1999), p. 72.
10. Šimáčková, Podlipský & Chládková (2012), p. 228.
11. Gussenhoven (1992), p. 47.
12. Verhoeven (2005), p. 245.
13. Roach (2004), p. 240.
14. Cox & Palethorpe (2007), p. 344.
15. Cox & Fletcher (2017), p. 65.
16. Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.
17. Collins & Mees (2013), p. 225.
18. Hall (2003), pp. 78, 107.
19. Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015), p. 34.
20. Arvaniti (2007), p. 28.
21. Trudgill (2009), p. 81.
22. Szende (1994), p. 92.
23. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 119.
24. Okada (1999), p. 117.
25. Lee (1999), p. 121.
26. Thackston (2006a), p. 1.
27. Khan & Lescot (1970), pp. 8–16.
28. Allison (2006).
29. Jassem (2003), p. 105.
30. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 92.
31. Sarlin (2014), p. 18.
32. Forschner, T. A. (December 1994). Outline of A Momogun Grammar (Rungus Dialect) (PDF). Kudat. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 February 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
33. Jones & Ward (1969), p. 30.
34. Landau et al. (1999), p. 67.
35. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 256.
36. Doke & Mofokeng (1974), p. ?.
37. Engstrand (1999), p. 140.
38. Riad (2014), p. 21.
39. Engstrand (1999), p. 141.
40. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
41. Zimmer & Orgun (1999), p. 155.
42. Göksel & Kerslake (2005), p. 10.
43. Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.
44. Bamgboṣe (1966), p. 166.

References

• Allison, Sean (2006), Alphabet et orthographe de Kotoko de Makary (mpadɨ) (Makary Kotoko Orthography Statement), SIL
• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.692.1365, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
• Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966), A Grammar of Yoruba, [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2013) [First published 2003], Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students (3rd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-50650-2
• Cox, Felicity; Fletcher, Janet (2017) [First published 2012], Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-316-63926-9
• Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2007), "Australian English" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 341–350, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003192
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, ISSN 0025-1003, S2CID 249414876
• Dankovičová, Jana (1999), "Czech", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 70–74, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
• Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
• Doke, Clement Martyn; Mofokeng, S. Machabe (1974), Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar (3rd ed.), Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa, ISBN 978-0-582-61700-1
• Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993), "1. Pronunciation", A Grammar of Afrikaans, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–35, ISBN 9783110134261
• Duanmu, San (2007) [First published 2000], The Phonology of Standard Chinese (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-921578-2
• Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
• Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the usage of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISSN 0025-1003, S2CID 249404451
• Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, ISSN 0025-1003, S2CID 243772965
• Hall, Christopher (2003) [First published 1992], Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English (2nd ed.), Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-6689-4
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191, ISSN 0025-1003
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Khan, Celadet Bedir; Lescot, Roger (1970), Grammaire Kurde (Dialecte kurmandji) (PDF), Paris: La librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient Adrien Maisonneuve, retrieved 28 October 2017
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0
• Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122, ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0
• Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003), "Standard Chinese (Beijing)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 109–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373, ISSN 0025-1003
• Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
• Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768, ISSN 0025-1003
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628, ISSN 0025-1003
• Sarlin, Mika (2014) [First published 2013], "Sounds of Romanian and their spelling", Romanian Grammar (2nd ed.), Helsinki: Books on Demand GmbH, pp. 16–37, ISBN 978-952-286-898-5
• Šimáčková, Šárka; Podlipský, Václav Jonáš; Chládková, Kateřina (2012), "Czech spoken in Bohemia and Moravia" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (2): 225–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000102
• Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA:Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090, ISSN 0025-1003, S2CID 242632087
• Thackston, W.M. (2006a), —Sorani Kurdish— A Reference Grammar with Selected Readings (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2021, retrieved 29 October 2017
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, ISSN 0025-1003, S2CID 243640727
• Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (1): 24–26, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746, ISSN 0025-1003, S2CID 242001518
• Trudgill, Peter (2009), "Greek Dialect Vowel Systems, Vowel Dispersion Theory, and Sociolinguistic Typology", Journal of Greek Linguistics, 9 (1): 80–97, doi:10.1163/156658409X12500896406041
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0, archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-25, retrieved 2015-11-20

External links

• List of languages with [i] on PHOIBLE