closefront

Closefront is a term used in articulatory phonetics to describe a class of vowels defined by a high tongue position and a front articulation within the oral cavity. In the common feature notation of vowel height and frontness, close-front vowels are described as high and front, with lip rounding varying by language. The term is often written as "close front" or "close-front vowel" and is part of the broader set of high vowels that contrast with mid and low vowels.

The articulatory profile of close-front vowels involves the tongue raised toward the palate and positioned toward the front of the mouth, with the jaw relatively closed. Lip rounding is not fixed and can be unrounded (as in [i] in many languages) or rounded (as in [y] in languages with rounded front vowels). In IPA, the most common symbols representing true close-front vowels are [i] and [y], with slightly lower but still front high vowels such as [ɪ] and [ʏ] sometimes categorized as near-close front.

Close-front vowels contrast with other front vowels such as open-front and close-mid front vowels, and with back vowels that differ in tongue position. They are a central part of many language inventories and play a role in phonotactics, syllable structure, and vowel harmony in some languages.

Languages commonly featuring close-front vowels include Spanish, French, German, Hungarian, and many other languages, where the high front vowels contribute to phonemic contrast and word meaning. See also vowel height, frontness, near-close vowels, and roundedness.