Close-mid back rounded vowel
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| 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 |
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Legend: unrounded•rounded
The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-mid back 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 ⟨o⟩.
Close-mid back protruded vowel
The close-mid back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close-mid back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨o⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, the symbol for the close-mid back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨o̫⟩ for the close-mid back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨oʷ⟩ or ⟨ɤʷ⟩ (a close-mid back vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.
In English, the symbol ⟨o⟩ is typically associated with the vowel in the "goat", but in Received Pronunciation and General American, that vowel is a diphthong whose starting point may be unrounded and more centered than [o]. In Received Pronunciation, the closest vowel to cardinal [o] is the THOUGHT vowel found in words such as caught, horse and hoarse. This is transcribed with ⟨ɔː⟩ by most sources, though the actual realization is closer to [o].
For the close-mid near-back protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol ⟨ʊ⟩, see near-close back protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is ⟨o⟩, the vowel is listed here.
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid 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.
* Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
- Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.
Occurrence
Because back 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Standard | bok | [bok] | 'goat' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. The height varies between close-mid [o] and mid [ɔ̝]. See Afrikaans phonology |
| Bavarian | Amstetten dialect | [example needed] | Contrasts close [u], near-close [o̝], close-mid [o] and open-mid [ɔ] back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded [ä]. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔ⟩. | ||
| Bengali | তোমার | [t̪omɐɾ] | 'your' | See Bengali phonology | |
| Bulgarian | уста / usta | [os̪ˈt̪a] | 'mouth' | Unstressed allophone of /u/ and /ɔ/. See Bulgarian phonology | |
| Catalan | sóc | [sok] | 'I am' | See Catalan phonology | |
| Czech | Bohemian | oko | ⓘ | 'eye' | Backness varies between back and near-back; may be realized as mid [o̞] instead. See Czech phonology |
| Danish | Standard | kone | [ˈkʰoːnə] | 'wife' | Also described as near-close [o̝ː]. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | Standard Belgian | kool | ⓘ | 'cabbage' | In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [oʊ]. See Dutch phonology |
| English | Estuary | yawn | [joːn] | 'yawn' | May be [oʊ] or [o̞ː] instead. |
| Cockney | |||||
| Received Pronunciation | Typically transcribed with ⟨ɔː⟩. See English phonology | ||||
| South African | General and Broad varieties. Cultivated SAE has a more open vowel. See South African English phonology | ||||
| General Indian | go | [ɡoː] | 'go' | ||
| General Pakistani | Varies between [oː~əʊ~ʊ]. | ||||
| Singaporean | |||||
| Birmingham and the Black Country | cut | [koʔ] 'cut' | Corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. | ||
| Estonian | tool | [toːlʲ] | 'chair' | See Estonian phonology | |
| Faroese | tola | [ˈtʰoːla] | 'to endure' | May be a diphthong [oɔː~oəː] instead. See Faroese phonology | |
| French | réseau | ⓘ | 'network' | See French phonology | |
| German | Standard | oder | ⓘ | 'or' | See Standard German phonology |
| Upper Saxon | sondern | [ˈsɞ̝nd̥oˤn] | 'except' | Pharyngealized; corresponds to [ɐ] in Northern Standard German. The example word is from the Chemnitz dialect. | |
| Greek | Sfakian | μεταφράζω / metafrázō | [metafrázo] | 'translate' | Corresponds to mid [o̞] in Modern Standard Greek. See Modern Greek phonology |
| Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) | ज़ोर/زور / zor | [zoːɾ] | 'strength, power' | See Hindustani phonology | |
| Hungarian | kór | [koːr] | 'disease' | See Hungarian phonology | |
| Italian | ombra | [ˈombrä] | 'shade' | See Italian phonology | |
| Kaingang | pipo | [pɪˈpo] | 'toad' | ||
| Khmer | ម៉ូលេគុល / molékŭl | [moːleːkul] | 'molecule' | See Khmer phonology | |
| Korean | 노래 / norae | [noɾε] | 'song' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kurdish | Kurmanji (Northern) | roj | [roːʒ] | 'day' | See Kurdish phonology |
| Sorani (Central) | رۆژ / roj | ||||
| Latin | Classical | sol | [soːl] | 'sun' | |
| Limburgish | Most dialects | hoof | [ɦoːf] | 'garden' | The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. |
| Lower Sorbian | wocy | [ˈβ̞ot̪͡s̪ɪ] | '(two) eyes' | Diphthongized to [u̯ɔ] in slow speech. | |
| Luxembourgish | Sonn | [zon] | 'sun' | Sometimes realized as open-mid [ɔ]. See Luxembourgish phonology | |
| Malay | mampus | [mam.pos] | 'die' | Allophone of /u/ in closed-final syllables. May be [ʊ] or [o̞] depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology | |
| Malayalam | ഒന്ന് / onn | [on̪ːɨ̆] | 'one' | See Malayalam phonology | |
| Marathi | दोन / dōn | [doːn] | 'two' | See Marathi phonology | |
| Minangkabau | sado | [sädoː] | 'all' | ||
| Mpade | sko | [sko] | 'field' | ||
| Norwegian | Most dialects | lov | [loːʋ] | 'law' | The quality varies among dialects; in Urban East Norwegian, it has been variously described as close-mid back [oː] and mid [o̞ː], in Stavangersk it is a close-mid near-back [o̟ː], whereas in Telemark it is a back open-mid vowel [ɔː]. In some dialects it is replaced by the diphthong [ɑʊ]. See Norwegian phonology |
| Persian | لاکپشت / lakpošt | [lɒkˈpoʃt] | 'turtle' | ||
| Portuguese | dodô | [doˈdo] | 'dodo' | See Portuguese phonology | |
| Polish | wiośnie | [ˈvʲoɕɲɛ] | 'spring' | Allophone of /ɔ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology | |
| Romanian | acolo | [aˈkolo] | 'there' | See Romanian phonology | |
| Saterland Frisian | doalje | [ˈdo̟ːljə] | 'to calm' | Near-back; typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɔː⟩. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to /ʊ/ ([ʊ̞]). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨oː⟩ is actually near-close [o̝ː]. | |
| Shiwiar | [example needed] | Allophone of /a/. | |||
| Slovak | Some speakers | telefón | [ˈtɛ̝lɛ̝foːn] | 'telephone' | Realization of /ɔː/ reported to occur in dialects spoken near the river Ipeľ, as well as - under Hungarian influence - in some other speakers. Corresponds to mid [ɔ̝ː] in standard Slovak. See Slovak phonology |
| Slovene | moj | [mòːj] | 'my' | See Slovene phonology | |
| Sotho | pontsho | [pʼon̩t͡sʰɔ] | 'proof' | Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels. See Sotho phonology | |
| Spanish | camión | [kaˈmjon] | 'truck' | See Spanish phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard | på | ⓘ | 'on' | Often a centering diphthong (as in ⓘ). See Swedish phonology |
| Ukrainian | молодь / molod' | [ˈmɔlodʲ] | 'youth' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
| Upper Sorbian | Bóh | [box] | 'god' | Diphthongized to [u̯ɔ] in slow speech. | |
| Welsh | nos | [noːs] | 'night' | See Welsh phonology | |
| West Frisian | bok | [bok] | 'billy-goat' | See West Frisian phonology | |
| Wu Chinese | Shanghainese | 瓜 / kò | [ko˩] | 'melon' | Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel. |
| Yoruba | egba mi o | [egbamio] | 'help' |
Close-mid back compressed vowel
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨◌⟩ (the opposite of ⟨◌̫⟩), will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for compressed back vowels. It was only added to Unicode in 2025, however, and it may take some time for font support to catch up. Compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɤ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɤ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɤᵝ⟩ ([ɤ] modified with labial compression), though that can suggest that the vowel is a diphthong.
Only Wu Chinese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close-mid back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, also known as high-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel (a high vowel) and a mid 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.
* Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
- 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
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wu Chinese | Shanghainese | 都 / tè | [tɤᵝ˩] | 'capital' | Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel. |
Notes
External links
- onPHOIBLE