Close central rounded vowel

Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ʊ e · ø ɘ · ɵ ɤ · o ə ɛ · œ ɜ · ɞ ʌ · ɔ æ ɐ a · ɶ ɑ · ɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

IPA – number	318
IPA – text	ʉ
IPA – image
Entity	ʉ
X-SAMPA	}
Kirshenbaum	u"
Sound sample (help·info)

The close central rounded vowel 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 IPA symbol is the letter u with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "barred-u".

In most languages this vowel is exolabial (with pursed lips). However, in a few cases it is endolabial (compressed).

There is also a near-close central rounded vowel in some languages.

[edit] Exolabial (pursed)

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible 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 vowel roundedness is exolabial, which means that the lips are rounded and protrude and the inner surfaces are exposed.

[edit] Occurrence

[edit] Endolabial (compressed)

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish endo- and exo-labial rounding, the spread-lip diacritic [  ͍ ] will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for endolabial.

[edit] Features

• Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible 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 midway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is compressed, which means the corners of the mouth are drawn slightly together and the lips may be compressed horizontally, but do not protrude.

[edit] Occurs in

^{[dubious – discuss][Do the other languages really have exolabial central vowels?]}

This vowel is typically transcribed as <ʉ>. It also 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.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Matthews, William (1938), written at Detroit, Cockney, Past and Present: a Short History of the Dialect of London, Gale Research Company
• Przedlacka, Joanna (2001), "Estuary English and RP: Some Recent Findings", Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 36: 35-50
• Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (3): 351-360