Close-mid central unrounded vowel

Close-mid central unrounded vowel
ɘ
ë
IPA number	397
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɘ
Unicode (hex)	U+0258
X-SAMPA	@\
Kirshenbaum	@<umd>
Braille
Image
Sound
source · help

The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɘ⟩. This is a mirrored letter e, and should not be confused with the schwa ⟨ə⟩, which is a turned e. It was added to the IPA in 1993; before that, this vowel was transcribed ⟨ë⟩ (Latin small letter e with umlaut, not Cyrillic small letter yo). This letter may be used with a lowering diacritic ⟨ɘ̞⟩, to denote the mid central unrounded vowel.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. 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-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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.

• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan	Central Catalan	Marieta	[məɾɪ̝ˈɛ̈t̪ə̝]	'little Mary'	Traditional pronunciation in Central Catalan. Variant of [ə]
	Central Valencian[1]	poc	[ˈpɒ̝kːë]	'little'	Vocalic release found in final consonants. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩. See Catalan phonology
English	Australian[2][3]	bird	[bɘːd]	'bird'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɜː⟩. See Australian English phonology
	Southern Michigan[4]		[bɘ˞ːd]		Rhotacized.
	Cardiff[5]	foot	[fɘ̠t]	'foot'	Somewhat retracted;[5] corresponds to /ʊ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
	New Zealand[6]	bit	[bɘt]	'bit'	Corresponds to /ɪ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
	Southern American[7]	nut	[nɘt]	'nut'	Some dialects.[7] Corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
German	Standard[8]	bitte	[ˈbɪtɘ]	'please'	Also described as mid [ə].[9][10] See Standard German phonology
Irish	Munster[11]	sáile	[ˈsˠɰaːlʲɘ]	'salt water'	Usually transcribed in IPA with [ɪ̽]. It is an allophone of /ə/ next to non-palatal slender consonants.[11] See Irish phonology
Jebero[12]		[ˈiʃɘk]		'bat'
Kaingang[13]		[ˈᵐbɘ]		'tail'	Varies between central [ɘ] and back [ɤ].[14]
Kazakh		тіл	[tɘl]	'language'
Kensiu[15]		[ɟɘ˞h]		'to trim'	Rhotacized; may be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɚ⟩.[15]
Korean		어른	[ɘː.ɾɯn]	'senior'	See Korean phonology.
Lizu[16]		[^Fkɘ]		'eagle'	Allophone of /ə/ after velar stops.[16]
Mapudungun[17]		elün	[ë̝ˈlɘn]	'to leave (something)'
Mongolian[18]		үсэр	[usɘɾɘ̆]	'jump'
Mono[19]		dœ	[dɘ]	'be (equative)'	May be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.[19]
Norman		acataer	[akatɘ]	'to buy'	May be [u ~ o ~ e] depending on the region. In Jèrriais it's spelled aï and pronounced [aɪ].
Northern Qiang	Mawo dialect	[ɘ ʑu]		'a pile'
Northern Tiwa	Taos dialect	[ˌpʼɒ̀ˑxɘ̄ˈɬɑ̄ːnæ]		'star'	Allophone of /ɤ/. See Taos phonology
Paicî		??	[kɘ̄ɾɘ̄]	'spider'
Polish[20]		tymczasowy	[t̪ɘ̟mt͡ʂäˈs̪ɔvɘ̟]	'temporary'	Somewhat fronted;[20] typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Polish phonology
Romanian	Moldavian dialects[21]	casă	[ˈkäsɘ]	'house'	Corresponds to [ə] in standard Romanian. See Romanian phonology
Russian	Some speakers[22]	солнце	[ˈs̪o̞n̪t̪͡s̪ɘ]	'sun'	Unstressed allophone of /ɨ/ after /t͡s/; other speakers realize it as near-close [ɨ̞].[22] See Russian phonology
Sama	Sibutu[23]	[miˈwɘːʔ]		'lost'	Allophone of /ɨ/ in word-final stressed syllables before /ʔ/; can be transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.[23]
Shiwiar[24]
Skolt Sami		vuõˊlǧǧem	[vʲuɘlɟ͡ʝːɛm]	'I left'
Vietnamese[25]		vợ	[vɘ˨˩ˀ]	'wife'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩. See Vietnamese phonology
Xumi	Upper[26]	[^LPmɘ̃dɐ]		'upstairs'	Nasalized; occurs only in this word.[26] It is realized as mid [ə̃] in Lower Xumi.[27]
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[28]	ne	[nɘ]	'and'	Most common realization of /e/.[28]

References

1. Saborit (2009:11)
2. Cox (2006:?)
3. Durie & Hajek (1994:?)
4. Hillenbrand (2003:122)
5. Coupland (1990:93)
6. Bauer et al. (2007)
7. Roca & Johnson (1999:186)
8. "John Wells's phonetic blog: ɘ". Retrieved 28 January 2016.
9. Kohler (1999:87)
10. Mangold (2005:37)
11. Ó Sé (2000)
12. Valenzuela & Gussenhoven (2013:101)
13. Jolkesky (2009:676–677 and 682)
14. Jolkesky (2009:676 and 682)
15. Bishop (1996:230)
16. Chirkova & Chen (2013a:79)
17. Sadowsky et al. (2013:92)
18. Iivonen & Harnud (2005:62, 66–67)
19. Olson (2004:235)
20. Jassem (2003:105)
21. Pop (1938), p. 29.
22. Jones & Ward (1969:38)
23. Allison (1979:198)
24. Fast Mowitz (1975:2)
25. Hoang (1965:24)
26. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013:389)
27. Chirkova & Chen (2013b:370)
28. Merrill (2008:109–110)

Bibliography

• Allison, E. Joseph (1979), "The phonology of Sibutu Sama: A language of the southern Philippines" (PDF), Studies in Philippine Linguistics 3 (2): 63–104
• Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007), "New Zealand English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (1): 97–102, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830
• Bishop, Nancy (1996), "A preliminary description of Kensiu (Maniq) phonology" (PDF), Mon–Khmer Studies Journal 25
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013a), "Lizu" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 75–86, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000242
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013b), "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (3): 363–379, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157
• 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
• Cox, F.M. (2006), "The acoustic characteristics of /hVd/ vowels in the speech of some Australian teenagers", Australian Journal of Linguistics 26: 147–179, doi:10.1080/07268600600885494
• Coupland, Nikolas (1990), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, p. 93, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
• Durie, M.; Hajek, J. (1994), "A revised standard phonemic orthography for Australian English vowels", Australian Journal of Linguistics 14 (1): 93–107, doi:10.1080/07268609408599503
• Fast Mowitz, Gerhard (1975), Sistema fonológico del idioma achual, Lima: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano
• Hillenbrand, James M. (2003), "American English: Southern Michigan" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 121–126, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001221
• Hoang, Thi Quynh Hoa (1965), A phonological contrastive study of Vietnamese and English (PDF), Lubbock, Texas: Texas Technological College
• Iivonen, Antti; Harnud, Huhe (2005), "Acoustical comparison of the monophthong systems in Finnish, Mongolian and Udmurt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (1): 59–71, doi:10.1017/S002510030500191X
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2009), "Fonologia e prosódia do Kaingáng falado em Cacique Doble", Anais do SETA (Campinas: Editora do IEL-UNICAMP) 3: 675–685
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-06736-7
• Kohler, Klaus J. (1999), "German", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 86–89, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, ISBN 9783411040667
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
• Olson, Kenneth S. (2004), "Mono" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (02): 233–238, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001744
• Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000), Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish), Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, ISBN 0-946452-97-0
• Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
• Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999), A Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-21345-7
• Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 87–96, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369
• Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Gussenhoven, Carlos (2013), "Shiwilu (Jebero)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 97–106, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000370