# Close-mid front unrounded vowel

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The close-mid front unrounded vowel, or high-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 ⟨e⟩.
For the close-mid front unrounded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨ɪ⟩ or ⟨i⟩, see near-close front unrounded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨e⟩, the vowel is listed here.

## Features

* Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
* 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 | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Afrikaans | Standard | bed | [bet] | 'bed' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. The height varies between close-mid [e] and mid [ɛ̝]. See Afrikaans phonology |
| Arabic | Standard | مَجۡر۪ىٰهَا/majreha | [mad͡ʒ.reː.haː] | | See imalah |
| Azerbaijani | Azerbaijani | gecə | [ɟeˈd͡ʒæ] | 'night' | |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect | | | | |
| Breton | Breton | eget | [eˈɡet] | 'than' | |
| Catalan | Catalan | séc | [ˈsek] | 'fold' | See Catalan phonology |
| Chinese | Shanghainese | 该/kè | [ke̠ʔ˩] | 'should' | Near-front; realization of /ɛ/, which appears only in open syllables. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ɪ/ ([ɪ̞]), which appears only in closed syllables. |
| Chuvash | Chuvash | эрешмен/ereşmen | [erɛʃ'mɛnʲ] | 'spider' | |
| Danish | Standard | hæl | [ˈheːˀl] | 'heel' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Belgian | vreemd | [vreːmt] | 'strange' | In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [eɪ]. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Australian | bed | [bed] | 'bed' | See Australian English phonology |
| English | New Zealand | bed | [bed] | 'bed' | The height varies from near-close in broad varieties to mid in the Cultivated variety. See New Zealand English phonology |
| English | General American | may | [meː] | 'may' | Most often a closing diphthong [eɪ]. |
| English | General Indian | may | [meː] | 'may' | |
| English | General Pakistani | may | [meː] | 'may' | Can be a diphthong [eɪ] instead, depending on speaker. |
| English | Geordie | may | [meː] | 'may' | |
| English | Scottish | may | [meː] | 'may' | |
| English | Singaporean | may | [meː] | 'may' | |
| English | Ulster | may | [meː] | 'may' | Pronounced [ɛː~iə] in Belfast. |
| English | Some Cardiff speakers | square | [skweː] | 'square' | More often open-mid [ɛː]. |
| English | Scouse | square | [skweː] | 'square' | May (less commonly) be less open [ɪː] or more open [ɛː] instead |
| English | Scottish | bit | [bë̞ʔ] | 'bit' | Near-front, may be [ɪ] (also [ə]) instead for other speakers. |
| English | Cockney | bird | [bɛ̝̈ːd] | 'bird' | Near-front; occasional realization of /ɜː/. It can be rounded [œ̝ː] or, more often, unrounded central [ɜ̝ː] instead. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. |
| Estonian | Estonian | keha | [ˈkeɦɑ̝ˑ] | 'body' | See Estonian phonology |
| French | French | beauté | [bot̪e] | 'beauty' | See French phonology |
| German | Standard | Seele | | 'soul' | See Standard German phonology |
| German | Many speakers | Jäger | [ˈjeːɡɐ] | 'hunter' | Outcome of the /ɛː–eː/ merger found universally in Northern Germany, Eastern Germany and Eastern Austria (often even in formal speech) and in some other regions. See Standard German phonology |
| German | Southern accents | Bett | [b̥et] | 'bed' | Common realization of /ɛ/ in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria. See Standard German phonology |
| German | Swabian accent | Bett | [b̥et] | 'bed' | Contrasts with the open-mid [ɛ]. See Standard German phonology |
| Greek | Sfakian | | | | Corresponds to mid [e̞] in Modern Standard Greek. See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hebrew | Hebrew | כן/ken | [ke̞n] | 'yes' | Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hindustani | Hindi | के/ke | [keː] | 'of' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Hindustani | Urdu | کے/ke | [keː] | 'of' | See Hindustani phonology |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | hét | [heːt̪] | 'seven' | Also described as mid [e̞ː]. See Hungarian phonology |
| Italian | Standard | stelle | [ˈs̪t̪elle] | 'stars' | See Italian phonology |
| Khmer | Khmer | ទុរេន / turen | [tureːn] | 'durian' | See Khmer phonology |
| Korean | Korean | 메아리 / meari | [meɐɾi] | 'echo' | See Korean phonology |
| Limburgish | Most dialects | leef | [leːf] | 'dear' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. |
| Lithuanian | Lithuanian | tėtė | [t̪eːt̪eː] | 'father' | 'Tete' and 'tėtis' are more commonly used than 'tėtė.' |
| Malay | Malay | kecil | [kə.t͡ʃel] | 'small' | Allophone of /i/ in closed-final syllables. May be [ɪ] or [e̞] depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology |
| Malayalam | Malayalam | ചെവി/čevi | [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] | 'ear' | See Malayalam phonology |
| Marathi | Marathi | एक/ek | [e:k] | 'one' | See Marathi phonology |
| Norwegian | Norwegian | le | [leː] | 'laugh' | The example word is from Urban East Norwegian. See Norwegian phonology |
| Mpade | Mpade | faɗe | [faɗe] | 'night' | |
| Persian | Persian | سه/se | [se] | 'three' | |
| Polish | Polish | dzień | | 'day' | Allophone of /ɛ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology |
| Portuguese | Portuguese | mesa | [ˈmezɐ] | 'table' | See Portuguese phonology |
| Romanian | Romanian | umple | [ˈumple] | 'to fill' | See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Russian | шея/šeja | | 'neck' | Close-mid [e] before and between soft consonants, mid [e̞] after soft consonants. See Russian phonology |
| Saterland Frisian | Saterland Frisian | tään | [te̠ːn] | 'thin' | Near-front; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛː⟩. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ɪ/ ([ɪ̞]). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨eː⟩ is actually near-close [e̝ː]. |
| Slovene | Slovene | sedem | [ˈsèːdəm] | 'seven' | See Slovene phonology |
| Sotho | Sotho | ho jwetsa | [hʊ̠ʒʷet͡sʼɑ̈] | 'to tell' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid front unrounded vowels. See Sotho phonology |
| Swedish | Central Standard | se | [s̪eː] | 'see' | Often diphthongized to [eə̯] (hear the word:). See Swedish phonology |
| Tahitian | Tahitian | vahine | [vahine] | 'woman' | |
| Tamil | Tamil | செவி/čevi | [ȶ͡ɕeʋi] | 'ear' | See Tamil phonology |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | ефі́рний efirný | [eˈfirnɪj] | 'ethereal' | See Ukrainian phonology |
| Welsh | Welsh | chwech | [χweːχ] | 'six' | See Welsh phonology |
| Yoruba | Yoruba | | | | |