Central vowel

A central vowel, formerly also known as a mixed vowel, is any in a class of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. (In practice, unrounded central vowels tend to be further forward and rounded central vowels further back.)

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Quick facts ◌̈, IPA number ...

Central vowel
◌̈
IPA number	415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	`̈`
Unicode (hex)	U+0308

More information IPA: Vowels, Front ...

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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Perspective

The central vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

close central unrounded vowel [ɨ]
close central protruded vowel [ʉ]
close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ] (older publications may use ⟨ë⟩)
close-mid central rounded vowel [ɵ] (older publications may use ⟨ö⟩)
mid central vowel with ambiguous rounding [ə]
open-mid central unrounded vowel [ɜ] (older publications may use ⟨ɛ̈⟩)
open-mid central rounded vowel [ɞ] (older publications may use ⟨ɔ̈⟩)
near-open central vowel with ambiguous rounding [ɐ] (typically used for an unrounded vowel; if precision is desired, ⟨ɜ̞⟩ may be used for an unrounded vowel and ⟨ɞ̞⟩ for a rounded vowel)

There also are central vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA:

close central compressed vowel [ÿ]
near-close central unrounded vowel [ɨ̞], [ɪ̈], [ɪ̠] or [ɘ̝] (unofficial symbol: ⟨ᵻ⟩)
near-close central protruded vowel [ʉ̞], [ʊ̈], [ʊ̟] or [ɵ̝] (unofficial symbol: ⟨ᵿ⟩)
near-close central compressed vowel [ʏ̈]
mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̞] or [ɜ̝] (commonly written ⟨ə⟩)
mid central protruded vowel [ɵ̞] or [ɞ̝] (commonly written ⟨ɵ⟩ as if it were close-mid)
mid central compressed vowel [əᵝ]
open central unrounded vowel [ä] (commonly written ⟨a⟩ as if it were front)
open central rounded vowel [ɒ̈]

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