A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also called bright vowels because they are perceived as sounding brighter than the back vowels. The front vowels identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
- close front unrounded vowel
- close front rounded vowel
- close-mid front unrounded vowel
- close-mid front rounded vowel
- open-mid front unrounded vowel
- open-mid front rounded vowel
- near-open front unrounded vowel
- open front unrounded vowel
- open front rounded vowel
Read more about Front Vowel: Effect On Preceding Consonant
Famous quotes containing the words front and/or vowel:
“Come up from the fields father, here’s a letter from our Pete,
And come to the front door mother, here’s a letter from thy dear
son.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)