Close back unrounded vowel
Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɯ⟩ in IPA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The close back unrounded vowel, or high back 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 ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically, it is a turned letter ⟨m⟩; given its relation to the sound represented by the letter ⟨u⟩, it can be considered a ligature of 2 ⟨u⟩s.
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| Close back unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɯ | |||
| IPA number | 316 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɯ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+026F | ||
| X-SAMPA | M | ||
| Braille | |||
| |||
The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].
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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. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acehnese[2] | eu | [ɯ] | 'see' | Also described as closer to [ɨ].[3][4] | |
| Arara[5] | îput | [ɯput̚] | 'my skin' | Frequent realisation of /ɨ/.[5] | |
| Arbëreshë | Arbëreshë | [ɑɾbɯɾeʃ] | 'Arbëreshë' | /ə/ in standard Albanian. | |
| Azerbaijani | bahalı / باهالیٛ | [bɑhɑˈɫɯ] | 'expensive' | Closer to an [ɘ][6] | |
| Bashkir | ҡыҙ / قىُث / qıđ | [qɯð] | 'girl' | ||
| Chinese | Mandarin | 刺 / cì | [t͡sʰɯ˥˩] | 'thorn' | |
| Wuhan dialect, Southwestern Mandarin | 去 / keu | [kʰɯ] | 'to go' | ||
| Some Wu dialects | 父 / vu | [vɯ] | 'father' | ||
| Xiang | 火 / xu | [xɯ] | 'fire' | ||
| Chuvash | ыхра/ıxra | [ɯɣra] | 'garlic' | ||
| Crimean Tatar | джаным/canım | [dʒanɯm] | 'my dear' | ||
| English | African-American[7] | hook | [hɯ̞k] | 'hook' | Near-close; possible realization of /ʊ/.[7] |
| Tidewater[8] | Near-close; may be rounded [ʊ] instead.[8] | ||||
| Some California speakers[9] | goose | [ɡɯˑs] | 'goose' | Corresponds to [uː] in other dialects. | |
| New Zealand[10][11] | treacle | [ˈtɹ̝̊iːkɯ] | '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.[10][11] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology | |
| Some Philadelphia speakers[12] | plus | [pɫ̥ɯs] | 'plus' | Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable.[12] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other accents. See English phonology | |
| South African[13] | pill | [pʰɯ̞ɫ] | 'pill' | Near-close; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.[13] See South African English phonology | |
| Estonian[14] | kõrv | [kɯrv] | 'ear' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close-mid back [ɤ] instead, depending on the speaker.[14] See Estonian phonology | |
| Irish | Ulster | caol | [kʰɯːl̪ˠ] | 'narrow' | See Irish phonology |
| Japanese[15] | 空気 / kūki | ⓘ | 'air' | May be compressed [ɯᵝ].[16] See Japanese phonology | |
| Katukina[17] | [babɯˈdʒɯ] | 'oscar (fish)' | |||
| Kazakh | қыс/qys/قىس | [qɯs] | 'winter' | May be pronounced as [qəs] | |
| Korean[18] | 음식 飮食 / eumsik | [ɯːmɕ͈ik̚] | 'food' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kurdish | Kurmanji (Northern) | tirş | [tˤɯɾʃ] | '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) | ترش / tirş | ||||
| Kyrgyz | кыз / qyz / قىز | [qɯz] | 'girl' | See Kyrgyz phonology | |
| Panará[19] | [tɯˈsəʰ] | 'to breathe' | |||
| Portuguese | European[20] | pegar | ⓘ | 'to grab' | Reduced vowel. Near-close.[20] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Portuguese phonology |
| Romanian | Some speakers | când | [kɯnd] | 'when' | Typically described as /ɨ/. See Romanian phonology |
| Scottish Gaelic | caol | [kʰɯːl̪ˠ] | 'thin' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
| Sop | düm | [dɯm] | 'tree' | See Sop language | |
| Tamil | அழகு / aḻagu | [əɻəɣɯ] | 'beauty' | Known by the Tamil grammar phenomenon குற்றியலுகரம் | |
| Thai | Standard[21] | ขึ้น / khuen/khîn | [kʰɯn˥˩] | 'to go up' | |
| Turkish[22] | sığ | [sɯː] | 'shallow' | Described variously as close back [ɯ],[22] near-close near-back [ɯ̞][23] and close central [ɨ].[24] See Turkish phonology | |
| Turkmen | ýaşyl/یاشیٛل | [jɑːˈʃɯl] | 'green' | ||
| Uyghur | تىلىم/tılım / tilim | [tɯlɯm] | 'my language' | In complementary distribution with /ɪ/. See Uyghur phonology | |
| Vietnamese | tư | [tɯ] | 'fourth' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
See also
Notes
References
External links
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