Open-mid front unrounded vowel

The open-mid front 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 ɛ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is E.

Features of this vowel:

• Its vowel height is open-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel.
• 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 not rounded.

Occurs in:

• English (RP and GA) bet [bɛt]
• French bête [bɛt] 'animal'
• German Bett [bɛt] 'bed'
• Portuguese café [kɐfɛ] 'coffee'