Close back rounded vowel

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The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨u⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.

Close back rounded vowel
u
IPA number	308
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	u
Unicode (hex)	U+0075
X-SAMPA	u
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

In most languages, this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').

[u] alternates with labio-velar approximant [w] in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [u̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [w] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

Close back protruded vowel

The close back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨u⟩ (the convention used in this article). As there is no dedicated IPA diacritic for protrusion, the symbol for the close back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨  ̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨u̫⟩. Another possible transcription is ⟨uʷ⟩ or ⟨ɯʷ⟩ (a close back vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong.

Features

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Sagittal section of a vocal tract pronouncing ⟨u⟩. Note that a wavy glottis in this diagram indicates a voiced sound.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard[2]	boek	[bu̜k]	'book'	Only weakly rounded.[3] See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Standard[4]	جنوب/ǧanuub	[d͡ʒaˈnuːb]	'south'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[5]	դուռ/dur	[dur]	'door'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[6]	und	[und̥]	'and'	Contrasts close [u], near-close [o̝], close-mid [o] and open-mid [ɔ] back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded [ä].[6]
Bulgarian[7]		луд/lud	[ɫut̪]	'crazy'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan[8]		suc	[s̺uk]	'juice'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Mandarin[9][10]	土 / tǔ	[tʰu˨˩˦]	'earth'	See Standard Chinese phonology
	Cantonese[11]	夫 / fū	[fuː˥]ⓘ	'man'	See Cantonese phonology
	Shanghainese[12]	瓜/ku	[ku˩]	'melon'	Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.[12]
Chuvash		урам	[uˈram]	'street'
Danish	Standard[13][14]	du	[tu]	'you'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard[15][16]	voet	[vut]ⓘ	'foot'	Somewhat fronted in Belgian Standard Dutch.[16]
English	Australian[17][18]	book	[buk]	'book'	Corresponds to [ʊ] in other accents. See Australian English phonology
	Cape Flats[19]				May be advanced to [ʉ], or lowered and unrounded to [ɤ].[19] See South African English phonology
	Cultivated South African[20]	boot	[bu̟ut]	'boot'	Typically more front than cardinal [uw]. See White South African English phonology and American English phonology.
	General American[21]
	Geordie[22]				May be central [ʉː] instead.
	Irish[23]				Realized as central [ʉː] in Ulster.
	Some Multicultural London speakers[24]				More commonly front [yː].
	Conservative Received Pronunciation[25]				Realized as central [ʉ] in modern RP.
	Welsh[26][27][28]
	Pakistani[29]		[buːʈ]
	Greater New York City[30]		[buːt][31]
	New Zealand[32][33]	treacle	[ˈtɹ̝̊iːku]	'treacle'	Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /ɯ/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.[32][33] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. See New Zealand English phonology
Estonian[34]		sule	[ˈsule̞]	'feather' (gen. sg.)	See Estonian phonology
Finnish[35][36]		kukka	[ˈkukːɑ]	'flower'	See Finnish phonology
Faroese[37]		gulur	[ˈkuːlʊɹ]	'yellow'	See Faroese phonology
French[38][39]		où	[u]ⓘ	'where'	See French phonology
Georgian[40]		გუდა/guda	[ɡudɑ]	'leather bag'
German	Standard[41][42]	Fuß	[fuːs]ⓘ	'foot'	See Standard German phonology
	Many speakers[43]	Stunde	[ˈʃtundə]	'hour'	The usual realization of /ʊ/ in Switzerland, Austria and partially also in Western and Southwestern Germany (Palatinate, Swabia).[43] See Standard German phonology
Greek	Modern Standard[44][45]	που / pou	[pu]	'where'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hungarian[46]		út	[uːt̪]	'way'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic[47][48]		þú	[θ̠u]	'you'	See Icelandic phonology
Indonesian[49]	Standard Indonesian	unta	[unta]	'camel'	See Indonesian phonology
Italian[50]		tutto	[ˈt̪ut̪t̪o]	'all', 'everything'	See Italian phonology
Kaingang[51]			[ˈndukːi]	'in the belly'
Kazakh		туған/tuğan	[t̪ʰuˈʁɑ̝̃n̪]	'native'	Transcribed phonemically as ⟨ʊw⟩
Khmer		ភូមិ / phumĭ	[pʰuːm]	'village'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		눈 / nun	[nuːn]	'snow'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish[52][53][54]	Kurmanji (Northern)	çû	[tʃʰuː]	'wood'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	چوو/çû
	Palewani (Southern)
Latin	Classical[55]	sus	[suːs]	'pig'
Limburgish[56][57]		sjoen	[ʃu̟n]	'beautiful'	Back[57] or near-back,[56] depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lower Sorbian[58]		zub	[z̪up]	'tooth'
Luxembourgish[59]		Luucht	[luːχt]	'air'	See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay		ubat	[u.bät]	'medicine'	See Malay phonology
Malayalam		ഉപ്പ്	upːɨ̆	'Salt'	See Malayalam phonology
Mongolian[60]		үүр/üür	[uːɾɘ̆]	'nest'
Mpade[61]		kusumu	[kusumu]	'mouse'
Nogai		сув	[suː]	'water'
Persian		دور/dur	[duɾ]	'far'	See Persian phonology
Polish[62]		buk	[buk]ⓘ	'beech tree'	Also represented orthographically by ⟨ó⟩. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[63]		tu	[ˈtu]	'you'	See Portuguese phonology
Romanian[64]		unu	[ˈun̪u]	'one'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[65]		узкий/uzkiy/uzkij	[ˈus̪kʲɪj]ⓘ	'narrow'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		ùbhlan	[ˈuːl̪ˠən]	'apples'	Normal realisation of /uː/ in most dialects. In Lewis and Wester Ross as an allophone in proximity to broad sonorants; /uː/ elsewhere fronted to [ʉː] or [yː].[66][67]
Serbo-Croatian[68]		дуга / duga	[d̪ǔːɡä]	'rainbow'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Shiwiar[69]		[example needed]
Spanish[70]		curable	[kuˈɾäβ̞le̞]	'curable'	See Spanish phonology
Sotho[71]		tumo	[tʼumɔ]	'fame'	Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels.[71] See Sotho phonology
Swahili		ubongo	[ubongo]	'brain'
Tagalog		utang	[ˈʔutɐŋ]	'debt'
Thai	Standard[72]	ชลบุรี/chonburi	[tɕ͡ʰōn.bū.rīː]ⓘ	'Chonburi'
Turkish[73][74]		uzak	[uˈz̪äk]	'far'	See Turkish phonology
Udmurt[75]		урэтэ/urėtė	[urete]	'to divide'
Ukrainian[76]		рух/rukh	[rux]	'motion'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper Sorbian[58][77]		žuk	[ʒuk]	'beetle'
Urdu		دُور/dur	[duɾ]	'far'	See Urdu phonology
Welsh		mwg	[muːɡ]	'smoke'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		jûn	[juːn]	'evening, tonight'	See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba[78]		itọju	[itɔju]
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[79]	gdu	[ɡdu]	'all'

Close back compressed vowel

Close back compressed vowel
u͍
ɯᵝ
u̜
ɯ̹
Audio sample
source · help

Some languages, such as Japanese and Swedish, have a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial.^[80] Only Shanghainese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.^[12]

There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɯ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɯ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ ([ɯ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨u͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.

Features

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• 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
Chinese	Shanghainese[12]	都/tub	[tɯᵝ˩]	'capital'	Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.[12]
Japanese[81]		空気 / kūki	[kɯ̟ᵝːki]ⓘ	'air'	Near-back; may be realized as central [ɨᵝ] by younger speakers.[81] See Japanese phonology
Lizu[82]		[Fmɯ̟ᵝ][clarification needed]		'feather'	Near-back.[82]
Norwegian[83][84]		mot	[mɯᵝːt]	'courage'	The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel can be diphthongized to [ɯᵝə̯].[85] See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Central Standard[86][87]	oro	[²ɯᵝːrɯᵝː]	'unease'	Often realized as a sequence [ɯᵝβ̞] or [ɯᵝβ][86] (hear the word: [²ɯᵝβrɯᵝβ]ⓘ). See Swedish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Close central compressed vowel
• Close front protruded vowel