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Close front unrounded vowel

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The close 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, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is i.

The vowel [i] is very common, occurring phonemically in almost all languages with three or more vowels and phonetically in many more languages.

Features

  • Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
  • Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
  • Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abkhaz ажьырныҳәа [aʑirnuħʷo] 'January' See Abkhaz phonology
Afrikaans dankie 'thank you'
Albanian mali [mali] 'the mountain'
Arabic دين [diːn] 'religion' See Arabic phonology
Armenian իմ [im] 'my'
Azerbaijani dili 'tree'
Basque bizar [bis̻ar] 'beard'
Bengali আমি [ami] 'I'
Burmese ? 'I am eating now'
Cantonese 詩/si1 'poem' See Standard Cantonese
Catalan sis [sis] 'six' See Catalan phonology
Chickasaw lhinko [ɬinko] 'to be fat'
Croatian vino 'wine'
Czech bílý 'white' See Czech phonology
Dahalo [ʡáɬi] 'fat'
Danish bilist [b̥iˈlisd] 'car driver' See Danish phonology
Dutch biet 'beet' See Dutch phonology
English beet 'beet' See English phonology
Estonian tiik 'pond'
Faroese il 'sole'
Finnish viisi 'five' See Finnish phonology
French fini 'finished' See French phonology
Georgian სამი [ˈsɑmi] 'three'
German Ziel 'goal' See German phonology
Greek υγιεινή 'hygiene' Also represented by <οι> and <υι>. See Modern Greek phonology
Guaraní ha’ukuri 'Guaraní'
Haida gii [?] '?'
Hawaiian makani [makani] 'breeze' See Hawaiian phonology
Hindi तीन [t̪in] 'three' See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian ív 'arch' See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic líka 'also' See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian ini [ini] 'this'
Irish sí [ʃiː] 'she' See Irish phonology
Italian bile [ˈbile] 'rage' See Italian phonology
Japanese 銀/gin 'silver' See Japanese phonology
Korean 시장/sijang 'hunger' See Korean phonology
Kurdish zîndu 'alive'
Macedonian јазик [jazik] 'tongue'
Maltese bieb [biːb] 'door'
Mandarin 北京/Běijīng 'Beijing' See Standard Mandarin
Navajo biwosh [biɣʷoʃ] 'his cactus'
Norwegian is 'ice' See Norwegian phonology
Occitan Northern and Southern miralhar [miraˈʎa] 'to reflect'
Gascon polida 'pretty'
Pashto ﭙﺎﻧﻴﺮ [pɑˈnir] 'cheese'
Persian کی 'who' See Persian phonology
Pirahã baíxi [màíʔì] 'parent'
Polish miś 'teddy bear' See Polish phonology
Portuguese li 'I read' See Portuguese phonology
Quechua allin 'good'
Romanian insulă [ˈinsulə] 'island' See Romanian phonology
Russian лист 'list' Only occurs word-initially or after palatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic chì 'shall see'
Serbian милина/milina 'enjoyment'
Seri cmiique 'person'
Sindhi سنڌي [sɪndʱiː] 'Sindhi'
Sioux Lakota ǧí [ʀí] 'it's brown'
Slovak chlapi 'men'
Spanish tipo [ˈt̪ipo̞] 'type' May also be represented by . See Spanish phonology
Swahili miti [miti] 'trees'
Swedish is 'ice' See Swedish phonology
Tagalog silya [ˈsiljɐ] 'chair'
Tajik бинӣ [biˈniː] 'nose'
Turkish ip [ip] 'rope' See Turkish phonology
Ubykh [gʲi] 'heart' Allophone of /ə/ after palatalized consonants. See Ubykh phonology
Vietnamese ty 'bureau' See Vietnamese phonology
Võro kirotas [kʲirotas] 'he writes'
Welsh hir [hiːr] 'December'
Zulu umuzi [uˈmuːzi] 'village'

Close front compressed vowel

See also

References

Bibliography



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Last updated on Thursday February 21, 2008 at 22:13:34 PST (GMT -0800)
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