Close-mid central unrounded vowel

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Legend: unrounded • rounded

The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨⟩. This is a mirrored letter e and should not be confused with the schwa ⟨⟩, which is a turned e. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨⟩. Certain older sources transcribe this vowel ⟨⟩.

The letter ⟨⟩ may be used with a lowering diacritic ⟨⟩, to denote the mid central unrounded vowel.

Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.