The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨i⟩.
The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.
Languages that use the Latin script commonly use ⟨i⟩ to represent this sound, though there are some notable exceptions: in English orthography this letter is more commonly associated with /aɪ/ (as in bite) or /ɪ/ (as in bit) and /iː/ is represented with ⟨e⟩, ⟨ea⟩, ⟨ee⟩, and even ⟨ei⟩. Irish orthography is similar in that its spelling system is both etymological and used to indicate whether preceding consonants are broad or slender so that such combinations as ⟨aí⟩, ⟨ei⟩, and ⟨aío⟩ all represent /iː/.
Read more about Close Front Unrounded Vowel: Features, Occurrence
Famous quotes containing the words close, front and/or vowel:
“The great fact in life, the always possible escape from dullness, was the lake. The sun rose out of it, the day began there; it was like an open door that nobody could shut. The land and all its dreariness could never close in on you. You had only to look at the lake, and you knew you would soon be free.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“You did not expect to find such spruce trees in the wild woods, but they evidently attend to their toilets each morning even there. Through such a front yard did we enter that wilderness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)