# Near-open front unrounded vowel

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The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨æ⟩, a lowercase of the ⟨Æ⟩ ligature. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "ash".
The rounded counterpart of [æ], the near-open front rounded vowel (for which the IPA provides no separate symbol) has been reported to occur allophonically in Danish; see open front rounded vowel for more information.
In practice, ⟨æ⟩ is sometimes used to represent the open front unrounded vowel; see the introduction to that page for more information.
In IPA transcriptions of Hungarian and Valencian, this vowel is typically written with ⟨ɛ⟩.

## Features

* Its vowel height is near-open, also known as near-low, which means the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but is slightly more constricted – that is, the tongue is positioned similarly to a low vowel, but slightly higher.
* 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 | 'perd' | [pæːrt] | 'horse' | Allophone of /ɛ/, in some dialects, before /k χ l r/. See Afrikaans phonology |
| Äiwoo | Äiwoo | ikuwä | [ikuwæ] | 'I go' | Distinguished from both [a] and [ɑ~ɒ]. |
| Arabic | Standard | كتاب / 'kitāb' | [kiˈtæːb] | 'book' | Allophone of /a/ in the environment of plain labial and coronal consonants as well as /j/ (depending on the speaker's accent). See Arabic phonology |
| Azerbaijani | Azerbaijani | 'Azərbaycan' | [ɑːzæɾbɑjˈd͡ʒɑn] | 'Azerbaijan' | |
| Bambam | Bambam | 'bätä' | [ˈbætæ] | 'stem' | |
| Bashkir | Bashkir | йәй / yäy | | 'summer' | |
| Bengali | Bengali | এক/ek | [æk] | 'one' | See Bengali phonology |
| Bulgarian | Moesian dialects | млечен/mlečen | [mlæt͡ʃɛn] | 'made from milk' | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in places where Standard Bulgarian would have /ɛ/. See Yat. |
| Bulgarian | Rup dialects | млечен/mlečen | [mlæt͡ʃɛn] | 'made from milk' | Descendant of Proto-Slavic *ě in all positions. See Yat. |
| Bulgarian | Teteven dialect | мъж/măž | [mæʃ] | 'man' | In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤ̞] (written as ъ). |
| Bulgarian | Erkech dialect | мъж/măž | [mæʃ] | 'man' | In place of Standard Bulgarian [ɤ̞] (written as ъ). |
| Catalan | Majorcan | tesi | [ˈt̪ɛ̞zi] | 'thesis' | Main realization of /ɛ/. More open and centralized before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology |
| Catalan | Valencian | tesi | [ˈt̪ɛ̞zi] | 'thesis' | Main realization of /ɛ/. More open and centralized before liquids and in monosyllabics. See Catalan phonology |
| Chechen | Chechen | аьрзу / ärzu | [ærzu] | 'eagle' | |
| Danish | Standard | dansk | [ˈtænˀsk] | 'Danish' | Most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨a⟩ – the way it is realized by certain older or upper-class speakers. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Dutch | pen | [pæn] | 'pen' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /n/ and coda /l/. In non-standard accents this allophone is generalized to other positions, where [ɛ] is used in Standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Cultivated New Zealand | cat | | 'cat' | Higher in other New Zealand varieties. See New Zealand English phonology |
| English | General American | cat | | 'cat' | See English phonology |
| English | Conservative Received Pronunciation | cat | | 'cat' | Fully open [a] in contemporary RP. See English phonology |
| Estonian | Estonian | väle | [ˈvæ̠le̞ˑ] | 'agile' | Near-front. See Estonian phonology |
| Finnish | Finnish | mäki | [ˈmæki] | 'hill' | See Finnish phonology |
| French | Parisian | bain | [bæ̃] | 'bath' | Nasalized; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ̃⟩. See French phonology |
| French | Quebec | ver | [væːʁ] | 'worm' | Allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʁ/ or in open syllables, and of /a/ in closed syllables. See Quebec French phonology |
| German | Standard Austrian | erlauben | [æˈlɑɔ̯bn̩] | 'allow' | Variant of pretonic [ɛɐ̯]. See Standard German phonology |
| German | West Central German accents | oder | [ˈoːdæ] | 'or' | Used instead of [ɐ]. See Standard German phonology |
| German | Northern accents | alles | [ˈa̝ləs] | 'everything' | Lower and often also more back in other accents. See Standard German phonology |
| German | Western Swiss accents | spät | [ʃpæːt] | 'late' | Open-mid [ɛː] or close-mid [eː] in other accents; contrasts with the open-mid /ɛː/. See Standard German phonology |
| Greek | Macedonia | γάτα/gáta | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Greek | Thessaly | γάτα/gáta | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Greek | Thrace | γάτα/gáta | [ˈɣætæ] | 'cat' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Greek | Pontic | καλάθια/kaláthia | [kaˈlaθæ] | 'baskets' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | nem | [næm] | 'no' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɛ⟩. See Hungarian phonology |
| Kanoê | Kanoê | [æː] | [æː] | 'tobacco' | |
| Kazakh | Kazakh | әйел/äiel | [æ̝ˈje̘l̪ʲ] | 'woman' | Varies between near-open and open-mid. |
| Kurdish | Sorani (Central) | گاڵته/ galte | [gäːɫtʲæ] | 'joke' | Equal to Palewani (Southern) front [a]. See Kurdish phonology |
| Lakon | Lakon | rävräv | [ræβræβ] | 'evening' | |
| Limburgish | Limburgish | twelf | [ˈtβ̞æ̠ləf] | 'twelve' | Front or near-front, depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is near-front. |
| Lithuanian | Lithuanian | jachtą | [ˈjæːxt̪aː] | 'yacht' (accusative) | See Lithuanian phonology |
| Low Saxon | Including Sallandic | gläzen | [xɫæːzn̩] | 'glasses' | |
| Luxembourgish | Luxembourgish | Käpp | [kʰæpʰ] | 'heads' | See Luxembourgish phonology |
| Norwegian | Urban East | lær | [læːɾ] | 'leather' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian | Persian | هشت/hašt | [hæʃt] | 'eight' | |
| Portuguese | Some dialects | pedra | [ˈpædɾɐ] | 'stone' | Stressed vowel. In other dialects closer /ɛ/. See Portuguese phonology |
| Portuguese | Some European speakers | também | [tɐˈmæ̃] | 'also' | Stressed vowel, allophone of nasal vowel /ẽ̞/. |
| Romanian | Bukovinian dialect | piele | [ˈpæle] | 'skin' | Corresponds to [je] in standard Romanian. Also identified in some Central Transylvanian sub-dialects. See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Russian | пять / pjatʹ | | 'five' | Allophone of /a/ between palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Zeta-Raška dialect | дан/dan | [d̪æn̪] | 'day' | Regional reflex of Proto-Slavic *ь and *ъ. Sometimes nasalised. |
| Sinhala | Sinhala | ඇය/æya | [æjə] | 'she' | |
| Slovak | Slovak | mäso | [mæso] | 'meat, flesh' | In conversation sometimes pronounced as [e] or [a]. See Slovak phonology |
| Swedish | Central Standard | ära | | 'hono(u)r' | Allophone of /ɛː, ɛ/ before /r/. See Swedish phonology |
| Swedish | Stockholm | läsa | [²læːsä] | 'to read' | Realization of /ɛː, ɛ/ for younger speakers. Higher [ɛː, ɛ̝ ~ ɛ] for other speakers |
| Turkish | Turkish | sen | [s̪æn̪] | 'you' | Allophone of /e/ before syllable-final /m, n, l, r/. In a limited number of words (but not before /r/), it is in free variation with [e̞]. See Turkish phonology |