Near-close near-front unrounded vowel

The near-close near-front unrounded vowel, or near-high near-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 $\langle\rangle$, i.e. a small capital letter i.

The IPA prefers the terms "close" and "open" for classifying vowels. Some linguists use the terms "high" and "low," respectively, instead of "close" and "open."