Close back unrounded vowel

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 ⟨u⟩ with an extra "bowl".

Not to be confused with the Armenian letter ա, the old Zhuang letter ɯ, or the Cyrillic letter ш.
Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA Number316
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɯ
Unicode (hex)U+026F
X-SAMPAM
Braille⠲ (braille pattern dots-256) ⠥ (braille pattern dots-136)

The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].

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
LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Acehnese[2]eu[ɯ]'see'Also described as closer to [ɨ].[3][4]
Arara[5] îput [ɯput̚] 'my skin' Frequent realisation of /ɨ/.[5]
Azerbaijanibahalı[bɑhɑˈɫɯ]'expensive'Closer to an [ɘ][6]
Bashkirҡыҙ / qıď[qɯð]'girl'
ChineseMandarin刺 / cì[t͡sʰɯ˥˩]'thorn'
Some Wu dialects父 / vu[vɯ]'father'
Xiang火 / xu[xɯ]'fire'
Chuvash ыхра/ıxra [ɯɣra] 'garlic'
Crimean Tatarджаным/canım[dʒanɯm]'please'
EnglishAfrican-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
IrishUlstercaol[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]'narrow'See Irish phonology
Japanese[15]空気 / kūki[kɯːki]ⓘ'air'May be compressed [ɯᵝ].[16] See Japanese phonology
Katukina[17] [babɯˈdʒɯ] 'oscar (fish)'
Kazakh қыс/qys [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
Kyrgyzкыз / qyz[qɯz]'girl'See Kyrgyz phonology
Panará[19] [tɯˈsəʰ] 'to breathe'
PortugueseEuropean[20]pegar[pɯ̞ˈɣäɾ]ⓘ'to grab'Reduced vowel. Near-close.[20] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Portuguese phonology
RomanianSome speakerscând[kɯnd]'when'Typically described as /ɨ/. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaeliccaol[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]'thin'See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sopdüm[dɯm]'tree'See Sop language
Tamil அழகு / aḻagu [əɻəɣɯ] 'beauty'
ThaiStandard[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
Turkmenýaşyl[jɑːˈʃɯl]'green'
Uyghurتىلىم/tılım / tilim[tɯlɯm]'my language'In complementary distribution with /ɪ/. See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamesetư[tɯ]'fourth'See Vietnamese phonology

See also

Notes
  1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. Mid-vowels in Acehnese Archived 2010-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Agreement System in Acehnese" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-30. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  4. Acehnese Coda Condition
  5. Alves (2013), p. 269.
  6. Ghaffarvand-Mokari & Werner 2016, p. 514.
  7. Wells (1982), p. 557.
  8. Wells (1982), p. 536.
  9. Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
  10. "NZE Phonology" (PDF). Victoria University of Wellington. p. 3.
  11. Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 585.
  12. Gordon (2004), p. 290.
  13. Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
  14. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
  15. Labrune (2012), p. 25.
  16. Okada (1999), p. 118.
  17. dos Anjos (2012), p. 129.
  18. Lee (1999), p. 122.
  19. Vasconcelos (2013), p. 182.
  20. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  21. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
  22. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
  23. Kılıç & Öğüt (2004)
  24. Zimmer & Orgun (1999:155)

References
  • Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009). "Estonian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 367–372. doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x.
  • Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2004), "New Zealand English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 580–602, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44
  • Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
  • Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
  • Gordon, Matthew J. (2004), "New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 282–299, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • International Phonetic Association (1999), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
  • Kılıç, Mehmet Akif; Öğüt, Fatih (2004). "A high unrounded vowel in Turkish: is it a central or back vowel?" (PDF). Speech Communication. 43 (1–2): 143–154. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2004.03.001 – via Elsevier ScienceDirect.
  • Labrune, Laurence (2012), The Phonology of Japanese, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954583-4
  • Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–123, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
  • Ghaffarvand-Mokari, Payam; Werner, Stefan (2016), "An acoustic description of spectral and temporal characteristics of Azerbaijani vowels", Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 52 (3), doi:10.1515/psicl-2016-0019, S2CID 151826061
  • Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
  • Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–26. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746. S2CID 242001518.
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52128541-0.
  • Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7, archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-25, retrieved 2015-11-20
  • Vasconcelos, Eduardo A. (2013). Investigando a hipótese Cayapó do Sul-Panará (PhD). Campinas: University of Campinas. doi:10.47749/T/UNICAMP.2013.929939. hdl:20.500.12733/1622968.
  • Alves, Ana Carolina Ferreira (2013). "Aspectos do sistema fonológico de Arara (Karib)". Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas. 8 (2): 265–277. doi:10.1590/S1981-81222013000200003.
  • dos Anjos, Zoraide (2012). "Fonologia Katukina-Kanamari". LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas. 12 (1): 123–156. doi:10.20396/liames.v0i12.1486.
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