Close-mid central rounded vowel

Not to be confused with Voiceless dental fricative, represented by ⟨θ⟩ in the IPA.

The close-mid central rounded vowel, or high-mid central rounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɵ⟩, a lowercase barred letter o. The value was specified only in 1993; until then, ⟨ɵ⟩ represented the mid central rounded vowel [ə̹].

Close-mid central rounded vowel
ɵ
IPA number	323
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɵ
Unicode (hex)	U+0275
X-SAMPA	8
Braille
Image

IPA: Vowels
Front Central Back Close i y ɨ ʉ ɯ u Near-close ɪ ʏ ʊ Close-mid e ø ɘ ɵ ɤ o Mid e̞ ø̞ ə ɤ̞ o̞ Open-mid ɛ œ ɜ ɞ ʌ ɔ Near-open æ ɐ Open a ɶ ä ɑ ɒ
IPA help  audio full chart template Legend: unrounded • rounded

Spectrogram of [ɵ]

The character ɵ has been used in several Latin-derived alphabets such as the one for Yañalif but then denotes a sound that is different from that of the IPA. The character is homographic with Cyrillic Ө. The Unicode code point is U+019F Ɵ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH MIDDLE TILDE.

This vowel occurs in Cantonese, Dutch, French, Russian and Swedish as well as in a number of English dialects as a realization of /ʊ/ (as in foot), /ɜː/ (as in nurse) or /oʊ/ (as in goat).

This sound rarely contrasts with the near-close front rounded vowel and so is sometimes transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʏ⟩ (the symbol for the near-close front rounded vowel).

Close-mid central protruded vowel

The close-mid central protruded vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨ɵ⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, symbol for the close central rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨  ̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨ɵ̫⟩ for the close central protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨ɵʷ⟩ or ⟨ɘʷ⟩ (a close central vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.

Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Because central rounded vowels are assumed to have protrusion, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have compression.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian	Some Western dialects[2]	fuöra	[ˈfwɵɾɐ]	'outside'	Realization of ⟨o⟩ in the diphthong ⟨uo⟩. May also be realized as [ø] or [œ].
Azeri	Tabriz[3]	göz گؤز	[gɵz]	'eye'	Typically transcribed as /œ/.
Chinese	Cantonese	出/ceot7	[tsʰɵt˥]	'to go out'	See Cantonese phonology
Dutch	Standard[4][5]	hut	[ɦɵt]	'hut'	See Dutch phonology
English	Cardiff[6]	foot	[fɵt]	'foot'	More often unrounded [ɘ];[7] corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	General South African[8]				Younger, especially female speakers.[8] Other speakers have a less front vowel [ʊ]. May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʊ̟⟩ or ⟨ʉ̞⟩. See South African English phonology
	Modern Received Pronunciation[9]		[fɵʔt]		[ʊ] in more conservative varieties. See English phonology
	Hull[10]	goat	[ɡɵːt]	'goat'	Corresponds to /oʊ/ in other dialects.
	New Zealand[11]	bird	[bɵːd]	'bird'	Corresponds to /ɜː(r)/ in other dialects. See New Zealand English phonology
French[12]		je	[ʒɵ]	'I'	May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩ or ⟨ɵ⟩. Also described as mid [ɵ̞].[13][14] May be more front for a number of speakers. See French phonology
German	Swabian[15]	wird	[ʋɵʕ̞d̥]	'becomes'	Allophone of /i/ before /ʁ/.[15]
	Upper Saxon[16]	Wunder	[ˈv̞ɵn(d̥)oˤ]	'wonder'	The example word is from the Chemnitz dialect.
Hiw[17]		yöykön̄	[jɵjkɵŋ]	'forget'
Irish	Munster[18]	dúnadh	[ˈd̪ˠuːn̪ˠө]	'closing'	Allophone of /ə/ adjacent to broad consonants, when the vowel in the preceding syllable is either /uː/ or /ʊ/.[18] See Irish phonology
Kazakh		көз	[kɵz]	'eye'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨œ⟩.
Limburgish	Most dialects[19][20][21]	bluts	[blɵts]	'bump'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʏ⟩. The example word is from the Weert dialect.[19][20][21]
	Maastrichtian[20]	beuk	[bɵːk]	'books'	Sometimes realized as a narrow diphthong [ɵʉ̞];[20] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨øː⟩. Front [øː] in other dialects.[19][22]
Mongolian[23]		өгөх/ögökh	[ɵɡɵx]	'to give'
Norwegian	Stavangersk[24]	gull	[ɡɵl]	'gold'	Near-close [ʉ̞] in other dialects that have this vowel.[24] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉ⟩. See Norwegian phonology
	Urban East[25]	søt	[sɵːt]	'sweet'	Also described as front [ø̫ː];[26] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨øː⟩. See Norwegian phonology
Ripuarian	Kerkrade dialect[27]	sjuts	[ʃɵts]	'marksman'	See Kerkrade dialect phonology
Russian[28]		тётя/tyotya	[ˈtʲɵtʲə]ⓘ	'aunt'	Allophone of /o/ following a palatalized consonant. See Russian phonology
Tajik	Northern dialects[29]	кӯҳ/kūh	[kɵh]	'mountain'	May be realized as mid [ɵ̞], merged with /u/ in the central and southern dialects. See Tajik phonology
Toda		பர்/pȫr	[pɵːr̘]	'name'
Uzbek		koʻz/кўз	[kɵz]	'eye'	Allophone of /o/, especially near velar consonants /k/ and /g/. May be realized as mid [ɵ̞]. See Uzbek phonology
West Frisian	Standard[30][31]	put	[pɵt]	'well'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ø⟩. See West Frisian phonology
	Southwestern dialects[32]	fuotten	[ˈfɵtn̩]	'feet'	Corresponds to [wo] in other dialects.[32] See West Frisian phonology
Xumi	Lower[33]	ľatsö	[ʎ̟ɐtsɵ˦]	'to filter tea'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉ⟩.[33]
	Upper[34]	htö	[htɵ]	'way to do things'	Allophone of /o/ after alveolar consonants; may be realized as [o] or [ɤ] instead.[34]

Close-mid central compressed vowel

Close-mid central compressed vowel
ø̈
ɘ͡β̞
ɘᵝ
ɵ͍

As there is no official diacritic for compression in the IPA, the centering diacritic is used with the front rounded vowel [ø], which is normally compressed. Other possible transcriptions are ⟨ɘ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɘ] and labial compression) and ⟨ɘᵝ⟩ ([ɘ] modified with labial compression).

Features

• Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid vowel.
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips are tense and drawn together in such a way that the inner surfaces are not exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Swedish	Central Standard[35]	full	[fø̈lː]	'full'	More often described as mid [ɵ̞ᵝ].[36][37] See Swedish phonology
Siberian Tatar	Baraba	[example needed]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles