Close-mid central unrounded vowel

The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɘ⟩. This is a mirrored letter e and should not be confused with the schwa ⟨ə⟩, which is a turned e. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨ë⟩. Certain older sources^[2] transcribe this vowel ⟨ɤ̈⟩.

Close-mid central unrounded vowel
ɘ
IPA number	397
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɘ
Unicode (hex)	U+0258
X-SAMPA	@\
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 [ɘ]

The letter ⟨ɘ⟩ may be used with a lowering diacritic ⟨ɘ̞⟩, to denote the mid central unrounded vowel.

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.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Chuvash		пӗррехинче	[pɘrrɛχint͡ɕɛ]	'once'
Cotabato Manobo[3]		[example needed]			May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.
Dinka	Luanyjang[4]	ŋeŋ	[ŋɘ́ŋ]	'jawbone'	Short allophone of /e/.[4]
English	Australian[5][6]	bird	[bɘːd]	'bird'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. Optionally rounded. See Australian English phonology
	Cardiff[7]	foot	[fɘt]	'foot'	Less often rounded [ɵ];[8] corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	New Zealand[9]	bit	[bɘt]	'bit'	Merger of /ə/ and /ɪ/ found in other dialects. See New Zealand English phonology
	Southern American[10]	nut	[nɘt]	'nut'	Some dialects.[10] Corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
Estonian[11]		kõrv	[kɘrv]	'ear'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be close-mid back [ɤ] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[11] See Estonian phonology
Irish	Munster[12]	sáile	[ˈsˠɰaːlʲə̝]	'salt water'	Usually transcribed in IPA with [ɪ̽]. It is an allophone of /ə/ next to non-palatal slender consonants.[12] See Irish phonology
Jebero[13]		ɨx[e/ï][k/c/q]	[ˈiʃɘk]	'bat'
Kaingang[14]		me	[ˈᵐbɘ]	'tail'	Varies between central [ɘ] and back [ɤ].[15]
Kalagan Kaagan[16]		[miˈwə̝ːʔ]		'lost'	Allophone of /ɨ/ in word-final stressed syllables before /ʔ/; can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.[16]
Katë[17]		Katë	[kaˈt̪ɘ]	'Katë'	Can also be realized as /ɨ/.
Kensiu[18]		[ɟɚ̝h]		'to trim'	Rhotacized; may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɚ⟩.[18]
Kera[19]		[t͡ʃə̝̄wā̠a̠]		'fire'	Allophone of /a/; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.[19]
Korean[20]		어른/ŏŏleun	[ə̝ːɾɯ̽n]	'adult'	May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨əː⟩. See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji	dil/دل	[dɘl]	'heart'	Allophone of /ɪ/. Sorani alphabet does not transcribe this vowel phoneme in text.
	Sorani
Lizu[21]		[Fkə̝][clarification needed]		'eagle'	Allophone of /ə/ after velar stops.[21]
Mapudungun[22]		elün	[ë̝ˈlɘn]	'to give (something)'
Mongolian[23]		үсэр	[usɘɾɘ̆]	'jump'
Mono[24]		dœ	[də̝]	'be (equative)'	May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.[24]
Polish[25]		mysz	[mɘ̟ʂ]ⓘ	'mouse'	Somewhat fronted;[25] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Polish phonology
Romanian	Moldavian dialect[26]	casă	[ˈkäsɘ]	'house'	Corresponds to [ə] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Shiwiar[27]		[example needed]
Temne[28]		pər	[pə̝́r]	'incite'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.[28]
Vietnamese[29]		vợ	[vɘ˨˩ˀ]	'wife'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩. See Vietnamese phonology
Xumi	Upper[30]	[LPmɘ̃dɐ]		'upstairs'	Nasalized; occurs only in this word.[30] It is realized as mid [ə̃] in Lower Xumi.[31]
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[32]	ne	[nɘ]	'and'	Most common realization of /e/.[32]