Open front rounded vowel

Open front rounded vowel
ɶ
IPA number	312
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɶ
Unicode (hex)	U+0276
X-SAMPA	&
Kirshenbaum	a.
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Sound
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The open front rounded vowel, or low front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, not confirmed to be phonemic in any spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɶ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is &. The letter ⟨ɶ⟩ is a small caps rendition of ⟨Œ⟩. Note that ⟨œ⟩, the lowercase version of the ligature, is used for the open-mid front rounded 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".

Riad (2014) reports that [ɶː] in Stockholm Swedish is sometimes difficult to distinguish from [ɒː]. He states that it is "a sign that these vowels are phonetically very close".^[1]

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
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IPA help • IPA key • chart •  chart with audio • view

• Its vowel height is open, also known as low, which means the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth – that is, as low as possible in the mouth.

• Its vowel backness is front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Note that rounded front vowels are often centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-front.

• It's rounded, which means that the lips are rounded rather than spread or relaxed.

Occurrence

A phoneme generally transcribed by this symbol is reported from the Amstetten dialect of Austro-Bavarian German. However, phonetically it is open-mid, i.e. [œ].^[2]

It occurs allophonically in Danish, Weert Limburgish and some speakers of Swedish.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Danish	Standard[3][4]	grøn	[ˈɡ̊ʁ̞ɶ̽nˀ]	'green'	Near-open near-front;[3] allophone of /œ/ (and /ø/ when before /v/) after /r/.[5] Some speakers may realize it the same as [œ].[4] See Danish phonology
Limburgish	Weert dialect[6]	bùj	[bɶj]	'shower'	Allophone of /œ/ before /j/.[6]
Swedish	Stockholm[1]	öra	[ˈɶ̂ːˈrâ̠]	'ear'	Pre-/r/ allophone of /œ/ and (more often) /øː/ for younger speakers.[1] Open-mid [œ, œː] for other speakers.[1] See Swedish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Riad (2014:38)
2. Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
3. Grønnum (1998:100)
4. Basbøll (2005:46): "Nina Grønnum uses two different symbols for the vowels in these and similar words: gøre she transcribes with (...) [œ] (narrow transcription), and grøn she transcribes with (...) [ɶ̝] (narrow transcription). Clearly, there is variation within Standard Danish on this point (...)."
5. Grønnum (2005:288)
6. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)

Bibliography

• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28 (1–2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006290
• Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
• Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28: 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
• Riad, Tomas (2014), The Phonology of Swedish, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954357-1
• Traunmüller, Hartmut (1982), "Vokalismus in der westniederösterreichischen Mundart.", Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 2: 289–333