The close back unrounded vowel, or high back 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 . Typographically, it is a turned letter .
The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Acehnese 'see' Also described as closer to . Arara 'my skin' Frequent realisation of . Arbëresh 'Arbëreshë' in standard Albanian. Azerbaijani / 'expensive' Closer to an . Bashkir / / 'girl' Chinese Mandarin / 'thorn' Wuhan dialect, Southwestern Mandarin / 'to go' Some Wu dialects / 'father' Xiang / 'fire' Chuvash / 'garlic' Crimean Tatar / 'my dear' English Some California speakers goose 'goose' Corresponds to in other dialects. New Zealand treacle 'treacle' Possible realization of the unstressed vowel , which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid. Corresponds to in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology Some Philadelphia speakers plus 'plus' Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable. It corresponds to in other accents. See English phonology South African pill 'pill' Near-close; possible allophone of before the velarised allophone of . See South African English phonology Eastern Khanty Vakh-Vasyugan 'hazel grouse' See Eastern Khanty phonology Estonian 'ear' Typically transcribed in IPA with ; can be close-mid central or close-mid back instead, depending on the speaker. See Estonian phonology Irish Ulster 'narrow' See Irish phonology Japanese / 'air' May be compressed . See Japanese phonology Katukina 'oscar (fish)' Kazakh / / 'winter' May be pronounced as Korean / 'food' See Korean phonology Kurdish Kurmanji (Northern) 'sour' See Kurdish phonology. The "i" after "t" always uses this sound if the "t" is "tˤ". However, it can also appear at other places. Sorani (Central) / Kyrgyz / / 'girl' See Kyrgyz phonologyLivonianCourland (Eastern)kȭr[kɯːr]'wheel' Minangkabau Some speakers 'to push ahead' Normally in standard Minangkabau language. Panará 'to breathe' Romanian Some speakers 'when' Typically described as . See Romanian phonology Scottish Gaelic 'thin' See Scottish Gaelic phonology Sop 'tree' See Sop language Tamil / 'beauty' Normally elsewhere. Thai Standard / 'to go up' Turkish 'shallow' Described variously as close back , near-close near-back and close central . See Turkish phonology Turkmen / 'green' Uyghur / 'my language' In complementary distribution with . See Uyghur phonology Vietnamese 'fourth' See Vietnamese phonology
Near-close near-back unrounded vowel
Some languages have a near-close near-back unrounded vowel, or near-high near-back unrounded vowel, which is more centralized than a typical .
The International Phonetic Alphabet has no dedicated symbol for this sound, but it may be represented as (mid-centralized ) or (lowered and centralized ). It may also be transcribed as (less rounded ), but because is defined by the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association as rounded (whereas and do not specify rounding), the symbol can also signify a weakly rounded , rather than the fully unrounded vowel that is described in this article. John C. Wells transcribes this vowel with the para-IPA symbol in his Accents of English, though Sinological phonetic notation uses this symbol instead for a near-open back rounded vowel . John Esling uses to represent this sound in his iPA Phonetics mobile application, though this is more typically used to represent a near-close central unrounded vowel .
For precision, a near-close back unrounded vowel, or near-high back unrounded vowel, may also be described, and is attested in a few spoken languages. This sound can be represented in the IPA as (lowered ) or (raised ). However, some phoneticians argue that all lip position inverses of the primary cardinal vowels are centralized (with the exception of ) based on formant acoustics,Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk so that there may be no substantial difference between a near-close near-back unrounded vowel and its fully back counterpart .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes English African-American hook 'hook' Possible realization of . California Often pronounced with spread lips. Corresponds to in other accents. See English phonology Tidewater May be rounded instead. Cardiff Also described as close-mid central . New Zealand treacle 'treacle' Possible realization of the unstressed vowel , which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid. It corresponds to in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology Some Philadelphia speakers plus 'plus' Used particularly by male speakers; can be lower instead. It corresponds to in other accents. See English phonology South African pill 'pill' Possible allophone of before the velarised allophone of . Also described as close-mid . See South African English phonology Irish Ulster 'boiling' Allophone of . See Irish phonology Korean / 'seniors' Typically transcribed in IPA with . See Korean phonology Portuguese European 'to grab' Typically transcribed in IPA with or . Appears only in unstressed syllables. See Portuguese phonology Scottish Gaelic Lewis 'love' Allophone of when adjacent to velarized sonorants. Turkish Standard 'shallow' Also described as close back and close central . See Turkish phonology Vietnamese Hanoi 'word' Common allophone of . See Vietnamese phonology Yine 'salt' Typically transcribed in IPA with .
See also Index of phonetics articles Ɯ
Notes
References
External links