Close back unrounded vowel

Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA number	316
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɯ
Unicode (hex)	U+026F
X-SAMPA	M
Kirshenbaum	u-
Braille
Image
Sound
source · help

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is a close back-central unrounded vowel.^[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically 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". It is not to be confused with ⟨uɪ⟩, a sequence of ⟨u⟩ and ⟨ɪ⟩, which may look very similar in some fonts.

This sound is sometimes referred to as "unrounded u".

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, hence the name of this article. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low".

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ɯ̽ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ •ɐɞ̞ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
This table contains phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help]
IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is close, also known as high, 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 back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that 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
Acehnese[2]		eu	[ɯ]	'see'	Also described as closer to [ɨ].[3][4]
Alekano		hanuva	[hɑnɯβɑ]	'nothing'
Azeri		qırx	[gɯɾx]	'forty'
Bashkir		ҡыҙ	[qɯð]	'girl'
Chinese	Some Min Nan dialects	豬	[tɯ]	'pig'
	Some Wu dialects	父	[vɯ]	'father'
	Xiang	火	[xɯ]	'fire'
Crimean Tatar		canım	[dʒanɯm]	'please'
English	California[5]	goose	[ɡɯ̟ˑs]	'goose'	Near-back;[5] corresponds to [uː] in other dialects.
	South African[6]	pill	[pʰɯ̟ɫ]	'pill'	Near-back; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.[6] Also described as close-mid [ɤ̟].[7]
Estonian[8]		kõrv	[kɯrv]	'ear'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be mid central [ə] or mid back [ɤ̞] instead, depending on the speaker.[8] See Estonian phonology
Garifuna		gürûgua	[ɡɯˈɹɯɡwə]	'bite'
Irish	Ulster	caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'narrow'	See Irish phonology
Kensiu[9]		[häjɯ̟p]		'to know'	Near-back.[9]
Korean[10]		음식/飲食/eumsik	[ɯːmɕik̚]	'food'	See Korean phonology
Kyrgyz		кыз	[qɯz]	'girl'	See Kyrgyz phonology
Ongota		[kuˈbuːɯ]		'dry'
Sakha		тыл	[tɯl]	'tongue'
Scottish Gaelic		caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'thin'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Shipibo[11]		?	[ˈkɯ̟ni̞]	'whisker'	Near-back.[11]
Sundanese		meunang	[mɯnaŋ]	'get'
Thai[12]		ขึ้น[13]	[kʰɯ̟n˥˩]	'to go up'	Near-back.[14]
Turkish[15][16]		sığ	[sɯ̟ː]	'shallow'	Near-back.[15] See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		ýaşyl	[jäːˈʃɯl]	'green'
Vietnamese		tư	[tɯ]	'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology
Xumi	Upper[17]	[^Hkɯ]		'to bake'	Allophone of /ʉ/ after velar consonants.[17]

The symbol ⟨ɯ⟩ is sometimes used for Japanese /u/, but that sound is rounded, albeit with labial compression rather than protrusion. It is more accurately described as an exolabial close back vowel.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
2. Mid-vowels in Acehnese
3. Agreement System in Acehnese
4. Acehnese Coda Condition
5. Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
6. Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
7. Wells (1982), p. 617.
8. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
9. Bishop (1996), p. 230.
10. Lee (1999), p. 122.
11. Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
12. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
13. Dictionary entry for ขึ้น (kheun) (thai-language.com)
14. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
15. Zimmer & Organ (1999:155)
16. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
17. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), p. 389.

Bibliography

• Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
• Bishop, Nancy (1996), "A preliminary description of Kensiu (Maniq) phonology" (PDF), Mon–Khmer Studies Journal 25
• Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive, A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169
• Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar (PDF), Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2014
• Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44
• 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
• Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (1): 24–26, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746
• Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English 3: Beyond The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28541-0
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (PDF), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7