Front vowel

A front vowel is a type of vowel. It is used some spoken languages. Front vowels are in the highest point in the tongue. It is as forwards in the mouth as far as possible. If it were any closer to the mouth, it would be consonant. Front vowels are also sometimes called bright vowels. This is because they are sound brighter than the back vowels.

Near-front vowels are basically a type of front vowel. There is no language where this a different between front and near-front vowels from backness alone.

Rounded front vowels are usually centralized. This means that they are usually near-front in their articulation. This is one of the reasons why they are written to the right of unrounded front vowels in the IPA vowel chart.

 Partial list 
The front vowels that have symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

 close front unrounded vowel 
 close front compressed vowel 
 near-close front unrounded vowel 
 near-close front compressed vowel 
 close-mid front unrounded vowel 
 close-mid front compressed vowel 
 open-mid front unrounded vowel 
 open-mid front compressed vowel 
 near-open front unrounded vowel 
 open front unrounded vowel 
 open front rounded vowel 

There also are front vowels without symbols in the IPA:

 close front protruded vowel 
 near-close front protruded vowel 
 close-mid front protruded vowel 
 mid front unrounded vowel  or 
 mid front compressed vowel  or 
 mid front protruded vowel  or 
 open-mid front protruded vowel 

Other front vowels can be written with symbols with relative articulation added to letters for vowels. These can be letters such as ,  or  for a near-close front unrounded vowel.

 References 

Category:Vowels