Close-mid back rounded vowel

Close-mid back rounded vowel
o
IPA number	307
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	o
Unicode (hex)	U+006F
X-SAMPA	o
Kirshenbaum	o
Braille
Sound
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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⟩.

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".

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, 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.

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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• 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 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.

• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard[1]	Botha	[ˈböˑtɐ]	'Botha'	Near-back. Allophone of /oə/ in less stressed words, in stressed syllables of polysyllabic words and in word-finally when unstressed. In the second case, it is in free variation with the diphthongal realization [öə̯ ~ ö̯ə ~ öə].[1] See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Egyptian	بؤ	[boʔ]	'mouth'	See Egyptian Arabic phonology
Assamese		ল'ৰা	[loɹa]	'boy'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		hoga	[hoːga]	'steam'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect[2]
Bulgarian[3]		уста	[os̪ˈt̪a]	'mouth'	Unstressed allophone of /u/ and /ɔ/.[3] See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan[4]		sóc	[sok]	'I am'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	高/gou1	[kou]	'tall'	See Cantonese phonology
	Shanghainese[5]	[ko¹]		'melon'	Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.[5]
	Wu	花	[ho]	'flower'
Czech	Bohemian[6]	oko	[ˈoko]	'eye'	Backness varies between back and near-back; may be realized as mid [o̞] instead.[6] See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[7][8]	kone	[ˈkʰoːnə]	'wife'	Also described as near-close [o̝ː].[9][10] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard Belgian[11]	kool	[koːɫ]	'cabbage'	In the Netherlands often diphthongized to [oʊ]. See Dutch phonology
	Northeastern
	Leuven	maken	[ˈmoːkə]	'make'	Corresponds to /aː/ in standard Dutch.
English	Australian[12]	yawn	[joːn]	'yawn'	See Australian English phonology
	Cockney[13]				May be [oʊ] or [ɔo] instead.
	New Zealand[14]
	South African[15]				General and Broad varieties. Cultivated SAE has a more open vowel.
	General Indian[16]	go	[ɡoː]	'go'
	General Pakistani[17]				Varies between [oː~əʊ~ʊ].
	Multicultural London[18]
	Scottish[19]
	Singaporean[20]
Faroese		tosa	[ˈtoːsa]	'speak'
French[21]		réseau	[ʁeˈzo]	'net'	See French phonology
German	Standard[22]	oder	[ˈʔoːdɐ]	'or'	See German phonology
Hindustani		दो/دو	[d̪oː]	'two'	See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		kór	[koːr]	'disease'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian[23]		foro	[ˈfoːro]	'hole'	See Italian phonology
Kaingang[24]		[pɪˈpo]		'toad'
Korean		보수/bosu	[ˈpoːsu]	'salary'	See Korean phonology
Limburgish	Most dialects[25][26][27]	hoof	[ɦoːf]	'garden'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
	Rural Weerts[28]	koke	[ˈkoːkə]	'to cook'	Corresponds to /uə/ in the city dialect. The vowel transcribed /oː/ in the city dialect is actually a centering diphthong /oə/.[29]
Luxembourgish[30][31]		Sonn	[zon]	'sun'	Sometimes realized as open-mid [ɔ].[31] See Luxembourgish phonology
Marathi		गोड	[ɡoɖ]	'sweet'	See Marathi phonology
Norwegian	Stavangersk[32]	lov	[lo̟ːʋ]	'law'	Somewhat fronted.[32] See Norwegian phonology
Polish		jojo	[ˈjojɔ]	'yo-yo'	Allophone of /ɔ/ between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Portuguese[33]		dois	[d̪ojʃ]	'two'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਹੋਰ	[ɦoːɾ]	'more'
Shiwiar[34]					Allophone of /a/.[34]
Silesian		Ślůnsk	[ˈɕlonsk]	'Silesia'
Slovak	Some speakers[35]	telefón	[ˈt̻e̞le̞foːn]	'telephone'	Realization of /oː/ reported to occur in dialects spoken near the river Ipeľ, as well as - under Hungarian influence - in some other speakers. Corresponds to mid [o̞ː] in standard Slovak.[35] See Slovak phonology
Sorbian	Lower[36]	wocy	[ˈβ̞ot̪͡s̪ɪ]	'(two) eyes'	Diphthongized to [u̯ɔ] in slow speech.[36][37] See Upper Sorbian phonology
	Upper[36][38]	Bóh	[box]	'god'
Swedish		åka	[ˈoːka]	'travel'	See Swedish phonology
Ukrainian		мотузка	[moˈtuzkɑ]	'rope'	Unstressed allophone of /ɔ/ before stressed syllables with /u/. See Ukrainian phonology
Uzbek		Oʻzbek	[ozˈbek]	'Uzbek'
Vietnamese		tô	[toː]	'bowl'	See Vietnamese phonology
West Frisian[39]		bok	[bok]	'billy-goat'	See West Frisian phonology
Yoruba[40]

Close-mid back compressed vowel

Close-mid back compressed vowel
o͍
ɤᵝ

There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the 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). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨  ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨o͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.

Only the Shanghainese dialect is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close-mid back vowel, although the height of both of these vowels varies from close to close-mid.^[5]

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 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.

• 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
Chinese	Shanghainese[5]	[tɤᵝ¹]		'capital'	Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.[5]

References

1. Lass (1987), p. 119.
2. Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
3. Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999:56)
4. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)
5. Chen & Gussenhoven (2015:328–329)
6. Dankovičová (1999:72)
7. Grønnum (1998:100)
8. Ladefoged & Johnson (2010:227)
9. Uldall (1933:?)
10. Basbøll (2005:47)
11. Verhoeven (2005:245)
12. Harrington, Cox & Evans (1997)
13. Wells (1982a:311)
14. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
15. Lass (2002:116)
16. Wells (1982b:626)
17. Mahboob & Ahmar (2004:1009)
18. Gimson (2014:91)
19. Scobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7)
20. Deterding (2000)
21. Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
22. Kohler (1999:87), Mangold (2005:37)
23. Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)
24. Jolkesky (2009:676–677 and 682)
25. Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
26. Peters (2006:119)
27. Verhoeven (2007:221)
28. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:107)
29. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:107, 109)
30. Trouvain & Gilles (2009:75)
31. Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
32. Vanvik (1979:17)
33. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
34. Fast Mowitz (1975:2)
35. Kráľ (1988:92)
36. Stone (2002:600)
37. Šewc-Schuster (1984:32–33)
38. Šewc-Schuster (1984:20)
39. Tiersma (1999:10)
40. Bamgboṣe (1969:166)

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