Close central rounded vowel

The close central rounded vowel, or high central rounded 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 ⟨ʉ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is }. The sound is also commonly referred to by the name of its symbol, "barred u".

Close central rounded vowel
ʉ
IPA number	318
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʉ
Unicode (hex)	U+0289
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

A spectrogram of [ʉ]

The close central rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare labialized post-palatal approximant [ẅ].^[2]

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

Some languages feature the near-close central rounded vowel (listen^ⓘ), which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉ̞⟩, ⟨ʊ̈⟩ and ⟨ʊ̟⟩, but ⟨ɵ̝⟩ is also a possible transcription. The symbol ⟨ᵿ⟩, a conflation of ⟨ʊ⟩ and ⟨ʉ⟩, is used as an unofficial extension of the IPA to represent this sound by a number of publications, such as Accents of English by John C. Wells. In the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, ⟨ᵿ⟩ represents free variation between /ʊ/ and /ə/.

Close central protruded vowel

The close central protruded vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨ʉ⟩, 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 ⟨ʉ̫⟩ for the close central protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨ʉʷ⟩ or ⟨ɨʷ⟩ (a close central vowel modified by endolabialization), but this 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 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
Angami	Khonoma[3]	su	[sʉ˦]	'deep'	Allophone of /u/ after /s/.[3]
Armenian	Some Eastern dialects[4]	յուղ/yowġ	[jʉʁ]	'oil'	Allophone of /u/ after /j/.
Berber	Ayt Seghrouchen[5]	ⵍⵍⴰⵢⴳⴳⵓⵔ/llayggur	[lːæjˈɡːʉɾ]	'he goes'	Allophone of /u/ after velar consonants.
Dutch	Standard Northern[6]	nu	[nʉ]	'now'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨y⟩; also described as close front [y][7] and near-close front [y˕].[8] See Dutch phonology
	Randstad[9]	hut	[ɦɵ̝t]	'hut'	Found in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Lower [ɵ] in Standard Dutch.[9] See Dutch phonology
English	Australian[10]	goose	[ɡʉːs]	'goose'	See Australian English phonology
	New Zealand[11]				See New Zealand English phonology
	Modern Received Pronunciation[12]				Realized as back [uː] in the conservative variety.[12]
	Scouse[13]				May (less commonly) be fully front [yː] instead.[13]
	South African[14]				Realized as back [uː] in the conservative variety and in many Black and Indian varieties.[14] See South African English phonology
	General American[15]		[ɡʉs]		Can be back [u] instead.[15]
	Estuary[16]	foot	[fʉ̞ʔt]	'foot'	The exact height, backness and roundedness is variable.[16]
	Cockney[17]	good	[ɡʊ̈d]	'good'	Only in some words, particularly good, otherwise realized as near-back [ʊ].[17]
	Rural white Southern American[18]				Can be front [ʏ] instead.[18]
	Southeastern English[19]				May be unrounded [ɪ̈] instead;[19] it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	Ulster[20]				Short allophone of /u/.[20]
	Shetland[21]	strut	[stɹʊ̈t]	'strut'	Can be [ɔ̟] or [ʌ] instead.[21]
German	Upper Saxon[22]	Buden	[ˈb̥ʉːd̥n̩]	'booths'	The example word is from the Chemnitz dialect.
Hausa[23]		[example needed]			Allophone of /u/.[23]
Ibibio	Dialect of the Uruan area and Uyo[24]	fuuk	[fʉ́ʉk]	'cover many things/times'	Allophone of /u/ between consonants.[24]
	Some dialects[24]	[example needed]			Phonemic; contrasts with /u/.[24]
Irish	Munster[25]	ciúin	[cʉːnʲ]	'quiet'	Allophone of /u/ between slender consonants.[25] See Irish phonology
	Ulster[26]	úllaí	[ˈʉ̜l̪ˠi]	'apples'	Often only weakly rounded;[26] may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨u⟩.
Irula[27]			[mʉːj]	"to surround"	Has other centralized vowels.
Kurdish	Southern[28]	müçig	[mʉːˈt͡ʃɯɡ]	'dust'	See Kurdish phonology
Limburgish	Some dialects[29][30]	bruudsje	[ˈbʀ̝ʉtʃə]	'breadroll'	Close [ʉ][29] or near-close [ʉ̞],[30] depending on the dialect. Close front [y] in other dialects.[31] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨y⟩. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect, in which the vowel is close.
Lüsu[32]		[lʉ˥zʉ˥˧]		'Lüsu'
Russian[33]		кюрий/kyuriy/kjurij	[ˈkʲʉrʲɪj]	'curium'	Allophone of /u/ between palatalized consonants. Near-close when unstressed.[33] See Russian phonology
Scots[34]		buit	[bʉt]	'boot'	May be more front [ʏ] instead.[34]
Scottish Gaelic	older Lewis speakers[35]	co-dhiù	[kʰɔˈjʉː]	'anyway'	Normal allophone of [uː]. Fronted as [yː] among younger speakers.
	Wester Ross and Lochalsh[36]			Normal allophone of [uː].
Swedish	Bohuslän[37]	yla	[²ʉᶻːlä]	'howl'	A fricated vowel that corresponds to [y̫ː] in Central Standard Swedish.[37] See Swedish phonology
	Närke[37]
Tamil[38]		வால்	[väːlʉ]	'tail'	Epenthetic vowel inserted in colloquial speech after word-final liquids; can be unrounded [ɨ] instead.[38] See Tamil phonology

Close central compressed vowel

Close central compressed vowel
ÿ
ɨ͡β̞
ɨᵝ

As there is no official diacritic for compression in the IPA, the centering diacritic is used with the front rounded vowel [y], which is normally compressed. Other possible transcriptions are ⟨ɨ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɨ] and labial compression) and ⟨ɨᵝ⟩ ([ɨ] modified with labial compression^[39]).

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 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

This vowel is typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉ⟩. It occurs in some dialects of Swedish, but see also close front compressed vowel. The close back vowels of Norwegian and Swedish are also compressed. See close back compressed vowel. It also occurs in Japanese as an allophone. Medumba has a compressed central vowel [ɨᵝ] where the corners of the mouth are not drawn together.^[40]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	Some younger speakers[41]	空気 / kūki	[kÿːki]	'air'	Near-back [u̟] for other speakers.[41]
	Standard Tokyo pronunciation	寿司 / sushi	[sÿɕi]	'sushi'	Allophone of /u/ after /s, z, t/ and palatalized consonants.[42] See Japanese phonology
Norwegian	Urban East[43][44]	hus	[hÿːs]	'house'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʉː⟩. Also described as front [yː].[45] See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Some dialects	ful	[fÿːl]	'ugly'	More front [yː ~ ʏː] in Central Standard Swedish; typically transcribed in IPA as ⟨ʉː⟩. See Swedish phonology

See also

• Close back compressed vowel
• Close front protruded vowel