Close central unrounded vowel

The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɨ⟩, namely the lower-case letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as barred i.

Close central unrounded vowel
ɨ
IPA number	317
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɨ
Unicode (hex)	U+0268
X-SAMPA	1
Braille
Image

Near-close central unrounded vowel
ɨ̞
ɪ̈
ɪ̠
ɘ̝
Audio sample
source · help

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 [ɨ]

Occasionally, this vowel is transcribed ⟨ï⟩ (centralized ⟨i⟩) or ⟨ɯ̈⟩ (centralized ⟨ɯ⟩).^[2]

The close central unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare post-palatal approximant [j̈].^[3]

Some languages feature the near-close central unrounded vowel^ⓘ, which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ̞⟩ and ⟨ɪ̈⟩, but other transcriptions such as ⟨ɪ̠⟩ and ⟨ɘ̝⟩ are also possible. In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed ⟨ɪ⟩, which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often ⟨ɨ⟩, which captures its centrality, or ⟨ᵻ⟩,^[4] which captures both. ⟨ᵻ⟩ is also used in a number of other publications, such as Accents of English by John C. Wells. In the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, ⟨ᵻ⟩ represents variation between /ɪ/ and /ə/.^[5]

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

Occurrence

/ɨ/ is uncommon as a phoneme in Indo-European languages, occurring most commonly in some Slavic languages, such as Belarusian and Russian (see ы). However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as /i/ and /u/ both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (such as Proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman, and Smith-Stark identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although that is not a defining feature of the entire area).^[6]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese		tupeue	[tupɨə]	'to know'	Asyik[7] and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi[8] describe this sound as such while Durie[9] describes it as closer to [ɯ]
Aikanã[10]		tɨi	[ˈtɨi]	'aunt'	It also happens as allophone of /a/ before [i].[10]
Amharic[11]		ሥር/sûr	[sɨ̞r]	'root'	Near-close.[11]
Angami	Khonoma[12]	prü	[pɻɨ˨]	'hail stone'	The height varies between close [ɨ] and mid [ə].[12] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.
Arhuaco		ikʉ	[ɪk'ɨ]	'Arhuaco language'
Bantawa	Ilam, Nepal	küma	[kɨma]	'afraid'
Berber	Central Atlas Tamazight[13]	ⵅⴷⵉⵎ/khdim	[χdɨ̞m]	'to work'	Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants.
Chinese	Hokkien	豬/tir	[tɨ˥]	'pig'
	Mandarin	十/shí	[ʂɨ˧˥]	'ten'
English	Inland Southern American[14]	good	[ɡɨ̞d]	'good'	Corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	Southeastern English[15]		[ɡɪ̈d]		May be rounded [ʊ̈] instead;[15] it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	London[16][17]	lip	[lɪ̈ʔp]	'lip'	Possible realization of /ɪ/.[16][17]
	South African[18]		[lɨ̞p]		For some speakers it can be equal to [ə]. General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with [ɪ] ([i] in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and [ɨ̞~ə] elsewhere. See South African English phonology
	Southern American[19]		[lɪ̈p]		Allophone of /ɪ/ before labial consonants, sometimes also in other environments.[19]
	Southeastern English[20]	rude	[ɹɨːd]	'rude'	May be rounded [ʉː], or a diphthong [ʊʉ̯~əʉ̯] instead.
Guaraní[21]		yvy	[ɨʋɨ]	'earth'
Hausa[22]		cin abinci	[t̠ʃin abɨnt̠ʃi]	'to eat'	Allophone of /i/.[22]
Irish		goirt	[ɡɨ̞ɾˠtʲ]	'salty'	Allophone of /i/ between broad consonants. See Irish phonology
	Munster[23]	caora	[kɨːɾˠə]	'sheep'	Allophone of /i/ between broad consonants.[23] See Irish phonology
	Ulster[24]	saol	[sɨl]	'life'	Allophone of /ɪ/. Near-close.[24]
Kalagan[25]		[pɨˈnɨt̪]		'beard'
Kashmiri[26]		ژٕنُن/cûnun	[t͡sɨnʊn]	'peach'
Kera[27]		[ɡɨ̀ɡɨ̀r]		'knee'
Khmer		គិត/kīt	[kɨt]	'to think'	See Khmer phonology
Kurdish[28][29]	Palewani (Southern)	کرماشان/kirmaşan	[cʰɨɾmäːʃäːn]	'kermanshah'	Equal to Kurmanji and Sorani [ɪ]. See Kurdish phonology
Latgalian[30]		dyžan	[ˈd̪ɨʒän̪]	'very much'	See Latgalian phonology
Mah Meri[31]		[d͡ʑäbɨ̞ʔ͡k̚]		'to be drunk'
Malay	Kelantan-Pattani	ngecat	[ŋɨ.caʔ]	'to paint'	See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
Mapudungun[32]		müṉa	[mɘ̝ˈn̪ɐ̝]	'male cousin on father's side'	Unstressed allophone of /ɘ/.[32]
Mongolian[33]		хүчир/hučir	[xutʃʰɨɾɘ̆]	'difficult'
Matis[34]		[kɨˈnɨ]		'wall'
Mono[35]		dɨ	[dɨ]	'count'
Mpade[36]		sɨm	[sɨm]	'to eat'
Paicî[37]		[example needed]			May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɯ⟩.
Romanian[38]		înot	[ɨˈn̪o̞t̪]	'I swim'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[39]		ты/ty	[t̪ɨ]ⓘ	'you' (singular/informal)	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. Near-close when unstressed.[39] See Russian phonology
Sahaptin[40]		kʼsit	[kʼsɨt]	'cold'	Epenthetic. No lengthened equivalent
Sanumá[41]		[taˈaɨ]		'to see'	The nasal version [ɨ̃] also occurs.[42]
Scottish Gaelic	Lewis[43]	tuilleadh	[ˈt̪ʰɨʎəɣ]	'more'	Allophone of /ɯ/ when short and in proximity to slender consonants.
Shipibo[44]		tenaitianronki	[ˈt̪ɨnɐi̞ti̞ɐ̃ɽõ̞ɣi̞]	[translation needed]	Possible realization of /ɯ/ after coronal consonants.[44]
Sirionó[45]		[eˈsɨ]		'dry wood'
Sundanese		anjeun	[and͡ʒɨn]	'you'	Occasionally, sometimes as [ɯ], [ɤ] or [ɘ] by younger speakers.
Sümi[46]		sü	[ʃɨ̀]	'to hurt'	Described variously as close [ɨ][46] and near-close [ɨ̞].[47]
Swedish	Bohuslän[48]	bli	[blɨᶻː]	'to become'	A fricated vowel that corresponds to [iː] in Central Standard Swedish.[48] See Swedish phonology
	Närke[48]
Tajik	Bukharan[49]	cižciž ғижғиж	[ʁɨʑʁɨʑ]	'the sound of wood sawing'	Allophone of /i/ in the environment of uvular consonants.[49]
Tamil[50]		vály (வால்)	[väːlɨ]	'tail'	Epenthetic vowel inserted in colloquial speech after word-final liquids; can be rounded [ʉ] instead.[50] See Tamil phonology
Tera[51]		zu̱	[zɨ]	'said'
		vu̱r	[vɨ̞r]	'to give'	Allophone of /ɨ/ in closed syllables.[52]
Tsou[53]		hahocngx, hahocngʉ	[ha.ˈho.t͡sŋɨ]	'man'	/ɨ/, with free variant [ʉ]. Used to be written as ⟨ʉ⟩, but changed to ⟨x⟩ for more convenient typing.[53]
Tupi		ybytyra	[ɨβɨ'tɨɾa]	'mountain'	See Tupian Phonology
Turkish	Standard[54]	sığ	[sɨː]	'shallow'	Also described as close back [ɯ][55] and near-close near-back [ɯ̽][56] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɯ⟩. See Turkish phonology
	Balkans[57]	[example needed]			Word-final merger of standard Turkish sounds /i/ and /ɯ/, shift of /y/ and /u/ into single phoneme due to interactions caused by Balkan sprachbund. Dombrowski[57] transcribes this phoneme as /i/.
Udmurt[58]		yrgete/ыргетэ[59]	[ɨrɡete]	'it growls'
Vietnamese[60]		bưng	[ʔɓɨŋ˧˧]	'to carry'
Wayuu		paanüküin	[pa:nɨkɨinː]	'your mouth'
Welsh	Northern dialects[61]	llun	[ɬɨːn]	'picture'	Close when long, near-close when short.[61] Merges with /ɪ/ in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology
		pump	[pɨ̞mp]	'five'
Yaeyama		pïtu	[pɨtu]	'person'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[62]	nɨ	[nɨ]	'be sour'

The sound of Polish ⟨y⟩ is often represented as /ɨ/, but actually it is a close-mid advanced central unrounded vowel, more narrowly transcribed [ɘ̟].^[63] Similarly, European Portuguese unstressed ⟨e⟩, often represented as /ɨ/, is actually a near-close near-back unrounded vowel,^[64] more narrowly transcribed using ad hoc symbols such as [ɯ̽] (mid-centralized), [ɯ̟] (fronted) and [ʊ̜] (less rounded, i.e. unrounded).

See also

• Index of phonetics articles