Front tongue vowel
Front tongue vowels are vowels in which the tongue is as far forward as possible without creating a narrowing that resulted in a consonant. The front tongue vowels are:
- Unrounded closed front tongue vowel [i]
- Rounded closed front tongue vowel [y]
- Unrounded centralized almost closed front tongue vowel [ɪ]
- Rounded centralized almost closed front tongue vowel [ʏ]
- Unrounded, semi-closed front tongue vowel [e]
- Rounded semi-closed front tongue vowel [ø]
- Unrounded half-open front tongue vowel [ɛ]
- Rounded half-open front tongue vowel [œ]
- Unrounded, almost open front tongue vowel [æ]
- Unrounded open front tongue vowel [a]
- Rounded open front tongue vowel [ɶ]
Effect on the preceding consonants
In the history of many Indo-European languages , front tongue vowels changed preceding velar consonants to palatal , postalveolar, or alveolar consonants. There were similar changes in many other languages, for example Japanese . Historical palatalization is reflected in the spelling of some European languages, including c and g in Italian , Spanish, and French , k in Norwegian and Swedish, and γ in Greek .
| Before the back vowel | Before front tongue vowel | |
|---|---|---|
| English "C" | call [kɒl] | cell [sɛl] |
| English "G" | gall [gɒl] | gel [dʒɛl] |
| French "C" | calque [lime] | celà [sɞla] |
| French "G" | gare [gɑʁ] | gel [ʒɛl] |
| Italian "C" | cara [kaɾa] | ciao [tʃao̯] |
| Italian "G" | gallo [gallo] | genere [ˈdʒɛnɛɾɛ] |
| Swedish "K" | karta [kɑ: rta] | kär [ɕær] |
| Swedish "G" | gå [go:] | gick [jik] |