Mid back unrounded vowel

The mid back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Although there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid back unrounded vowel between close-mid [ɤ] and open-mid [ʌ]. Because no language is known to distinguish all three, ⟨ɤ⟩ is normally used. If more precision is desired, diacritics can be used, such as ⟨ɤ̞⟩ or ⟨ʌ̝⟩.

Mid back unrounded vowel
ɤ̞
ʌ̝
IPA number	315 430
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɤ​̞
Unicode (hex)	U+0264 U+031E

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

Features

• Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
• 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
Bulgarian[1]		път	[pɤ̞t̪]	'path'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩ in broad transcriptions. See Bulgarian phonology
Chinese	Shanghainese[2]	渠	[kɤ̞¹]	'ditch'	Tends to be diphthongized to [ɤ̞ɯ̞] by younger speakers.[2]
English	Cardiff[3]	plus	[pl̥ʌ̝s]	'plus'	May be [ə], [ɜ], [ɜ̟] or [ë̞] instead.[3] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩.
	Norfolk[4]				Corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩. See English phonology
	Philadelphia[5]		[pɫ̥ʌ̝s]		May be either open-mid [ʌ] or a lowered and unrounded /uː/ ([ɯ̽]) instead.[5] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩. See English phonology
Gayo[6]		kule	[kuˈlɤ̞ː]	'tiger'	One of the possible allophones of /ə/.[6]
German	Chemnitz dialect[7]	Schirm	[ʃʌ̝ˤːm]	'umbrella'	Pharyngealized; may be an opening diphthong [ɪːɒ̯] instead.[7]
Ibibio[8]		[dʌ̝k˦]		'enter'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩.[8]
Vietnamese	Hanoi[9]	tờ	[t̻ɤ̞˧˨]	'sheet'	Realization of /ɤ/ (also transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩) according to Kirby (2011). See Vietnamese phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles