3 ms·

e sounds more like `eh` though (at least in latin-derived languages and japanese). Pronouncing it `ay` is generally seen as a strong english accent.

• hannele 9y ago
  \e\ is a sound that is basically impossible to represent unambiguously to English speakers, without falling back to how it's used in words ('e' as in 'ten', for example). `eh` and `ay` can both easily be read as a dipthong that would be represented as `ei` in any reasonably spelled language (like Finnish).
  • abritinthebay 9y ago
    "ei" is more "ey" tho. I think t-eh-n is pretty illustrative of why eh works better than "ay" either way - ay is much much closer to ey and so ei.
  • xvedejas 9y ago
    To keep things clear: the notation you'd typically want to use with IPA when taking about sounds (phones) is [e], as in this case, and use /e/ (with forward slashes) when taking about phonemes. Not to nitpick on you specifically, I see a lot of ad-hoc notations in these comments.
• amyjess 9y ago
  Depends on the language. In some languages it's /ɛ/ (English "eh"), in others it's /e/ (Scottish English "ay"), and in yet others it's /e̞/ (halfway between the two). It's rarely /ɛɪ/ ("ay" in most dialects of English), though it appears in many other languages written as something other than "e". Dutch is an interesting case: /ɛ/, /e/, and /ɛɪ/ are all different phonemes (short "e", long "e"/"ee", and "ei"/"ij" respectively). Many only have one. Greek just has /ɛ/. Japanese just has /e̞/.