Close back rounded vowel
Close back rounded vowel | |
---|---|
u | |
IPA number | 308 |
Encoding | |
Entity (decimal) |
u |
Unicode (hex) | U+0075 |
X-SAMPA |
u |
Kirshenbaum |
u |
Sound | |
source · help |
The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨u⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.
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".
In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').
The close back rounded vowel is almost identical featurally to the labio-velar approximant [w]. [u] alternates with [w] in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, [u̯] with the non-syllabic diacritic and [w] are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.
Close back protruded vowel
The close back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as ⟨u⟩, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, symbol for the close back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, ⟨ ̫⟩, can be used as an ad hoc symbol ⟨u̫⟩ for the close back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is ⟨uʷ⟩ or ⟨ɯʷ⟩ (a close back vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.
Features
IPA vowel chart | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||
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.
- Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.
Occurrence
Note: 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 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adyghe | дунaй | [dunaj] | 'world' | ||
Albanian | guri | [ˈguɾi] | 'the rock' | ||
Arabic | Standard[1] | جنوب | [d͡ʒaˈnuːb] | 'south' | See Arabic phonology |
Armenian | Eastern[2] | դուռ | [dur] | 'door' | |
Assamese | তুমি | [tumi] | 'you' | ||
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | guda | [guːda] | 'wall' | ||
Bavarian | Amstetten dialect[3] | ||||
Bengali | তুমি | [tumi] | 'you' | See Bengali phonology | |
Bulgarian[4] | луд | [ɫut̪] | 'crazy' | See Bulgarian phonology | |
Catalan[5] | suc | [s̺uk] | 'juice' | See Catalan phonology | |
Chinese | Cantonese | 菇/gu1 | [kuː] | 'mushroom' | See Cantonese phonology |
Mandarin | 哭/kū | [kʰu˥] | 'to cry' | See Standard Chinese phonology | |
Shanghainese[6] | [ku¹] | 'melon' | Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.[6] | ||
Czech | u | [u] | 'at' | See Czech phonology | |
Danish | Standard[7][8] | du | [d̥u] | 'you' | See Danish phonology |
Dutch | Belgian[9] | voet | [vu̟t] | 'foot' | More front in Belgium. See Dutch phonology |
Netherlandic[10] | [vut] | ||||
English | Cultivated South African[11] | boot | [bu̟ːt] | 'boot' | Typically more front than cardinal [u]. Instead of being back, it may be central [ʉː] in Geordie and RP, and front [yː] in Multicultural London. See English phonology |
General American[12] | |||||
Geordie[13] | |||||
Multicultural London[14] | |||||
Received Pronunciation[15] | |||||
Welsh[16] | |||||
Pakistani[17] | [buːʈ] | ||||
Estonian[18] | sule | [ˈsulɛ] | 'feather (gen. sg.)' | See Estonian phonology | |
Faroese | ur | [uːɹ] | 'watch' | ||
Finnish[19][20] | kukka | [ˈkukːɑ] | 'flower' | See Finnish phonology | |
French[21] | où | [u̹] | 'where' | See French phonology | |
Georgian[22] | გუდა | [ɡudɑ] | 'leather bag' | ||
German | Standard[23] | Fuß | [fuːs] | 'foot' | See German phonology |
Greek | ουρανός/uranόs | [ˌuraˈno̞s̠] | 'sky' | See Modern Greek phonology | |
Hebrew | תמונה | [tmuna] | 'image' | Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology | |
Hindustani | اردو / उर्दू | [ˈʊrd̪u] | 'Urdu' | See Hindustani phonology | |
Hungarian[24] | út | [uːt̪] | 'way' | See Hungarian phonology | |
Icelandic[25][26][27] | þú | [θ̠u] | 'you' | See Icelandic phonology | |
Irish | gasúr | [ˈɡasˠuːɾˠ] | 'boy' | See Irish phonology | |
Italian[28] | tutta | [ˈt̪ut̪t̪ä] | 'all' (sing. fem.) | See Italian phonology | |
Kabardian | дуней | [dunej] | 'world' | ||
Kaingang[29] | [ˈndukːi] | 'in the belly' | |||
Limburgish[30][31][32][33] | sjoen | [ʃu̟n] | 'beautiful' | Back[32][33] or near-back,[30][31] depending on the dialect. The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect. | |
Luxembourgish[34][35] | Luucht | [luːχt] | 'air' | See Luxembourgish phonology | |
Macedonian | уста | [ˈus̪t̪ä] | 'mouth' | See Macedonian phonology | |
Malay | bulan | [bulan] | 'moon' | ||
Mongolian[36] | үүр | [uːɾɘ̆] | 'nest' | ||
North Frisian | bru | [bru] | 'bridge' | ||
Polish[37] | buk | [buk] | 'beech tree' | Also represented by ⟨ó⟩. See Polish phonology | |
Portuguese[38] | tu | [ˈtu] | 'you' | See Portuguese phonology | |
Punjabi | ਊਠ | [uːʈʰ] | 'camel' | ||
Romanian | unu | [ˈun̪u] | 'one' | See Romanian phonology | |
Russian[39] | узкий | [ˈus̪kʲɪj] | 'narrow' | See Russian phonology | |
Scottish Gaelic | gu | [ɡu] | 'to' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
Serbo-Croatian | жут / žut | [ʒut̪] | 'yellow' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology | |
Shiwiar[40] | |||||
Slovak[41] | ruka | [ˈrukä] | 'arm' | Backness varies between back and near-back; most commonly, it is realized as near-close [ʊ] instead.[42] See Slovak phonology | |
Spanish[43] | curable | [kuˈɾäβ̞le̞] | 'curable' | See Spanish phonology | |
Sorbian | Lower[44] | zub | [z̪up] | 'tooth' | |
Upper[44][45] | žuk | [ʒuk] | 'beetle' | See Upper Sorbian phonology | |
Thai[46] | สุด | [sut˨˩] | 'rearmost' | ||
Turkish[47][48] | uzak | [uˈz̪äk] | 'far' | See Turkish phonology | |
Udmurt[49] | урэтэ | [urete] | 'to divide' | ||
Ukrainian | Умань | [ˈumɐnʲ] | 'Uman' | See Ukrainian phonology | |
Vietnamese | tu | [tu] | 'to practice asceticism' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
West Frisian | sûch | [suːχ] | 'sow' | ||
Yoruba[50] | |||||
Zapotec | Tilquiapan[51] | gdu | [ɡdu] | 'all' |
Close back compressed vowel
Close back compressed vowel | |
---|---|
u͍ | |
ɯᵝ |
Some languages, such as Japanese ( listen ) and Swedish, are found with a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial.[52] Only the Shanghainese dialect is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel, although the height of both of these varies from close to close-mid.[6]
There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter ⟨β̞⟩ as ⟨ɯ͡β̞⟩ (simultaneous [ɯ] and labial compression) or ⟨ɯᵝ⟩ ([ɯ] modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic ⟨ ͍ ⟩ may also be used with a rounded vowel letter ⟨u͍⟩ as an ad hoc symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.
Features
- 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.
- 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[6] | [tɯᵝ¹] | 'capital' | Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.[6] | |
Japanese[53] | 空気/kūki | [kɯ̟ᵝːki] | 'air' | Near-back; may be realized as central [ÿ] by younger speakers.[53] See Japanese phonology | |
Lizu[54] | [Fmɯ̟ᵝ] | 'feather' | Near-back.[54] | ||
Norwegian | mot | [mɯᵝːt] | 'courage' | See Norwegian phonology | |
Swedish | Central Standard | oro | [ˈɯ̂ᵝβ̞ˌrɯ̂ᵝβ̞] | 'unease' | Contrasts with a close central and close front compressed vowels in some Swea dialects |
See also
References
- ↑ Thelwall & Sa'Adeddin (1990:38)
- ↑ Dum-Tragut (2009:13)
- ↑ Traunmüller (1982), cited in Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:290)
- ↑ Ternes & Vladimirova-Buhtz (1999:56)
- ↑ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)
- 1 2 3 4 5 Chen & Gussenhoven (2015:328–329)
- ↑ Grønnum (1998:100)
- ↑ Basbøll (2005:46)
- ↑ Verhoeven (2005:245)
- ↑ Gussenhoven (1992:47)
- ↑ Lass (2002:116)
- ↑ Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009)
- ↑ Watt & Allen (2003:268)
- ↑ Gimson (2014:91)
- ↑ Roach (2004:242)
- ↑ Coupland (1990:93-95, 135)
- ↑ Mahboob & Ahmar (2004:1007)
- ↑ Asu & Teras (2009:368)
- ↑ Iivonen & Harnud (2005:60, 66)
- ↑ Suomi, Toivanen & Ylitalo (2008:21)
- ↑ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
- ↑ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:261–262)
- ↑ Kohler (1999:87), Mangold (2005:37)
- ↑ Szende (1994:92)
- ↑ Árnason (2011:60)
- ↑ Einarsson (1945:10), cited in Gussmann (2011:73)
- ↑ Haugen (1958:65)
- ↑ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)
- ↑ Jolkesky (2009:676–677 and 682)
- 1 2 Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
- 1 2 Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
- 1 2 Peters (2006:119)
- 1 2 Verhoeven (2007:221)
- ↑ Trouvain & Gilles (2009:75)
- ↑ Gilles & Trouvain (2013:70)
- ↑ Iivonen & Harnud (2005:62, 66–67)
- ↑ Jassem (2003:105)
- ↑ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
- ↑ Jones & Ward (1969:67)
- ↑ Fast Mowitz (1975:2)
- ↑ Pavlík (2004:95)
- ↑ Pavlík (2004:93, 95)
- ↑ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:256)
- 1 2 Stone (2002:600)
- ↑ Šewc-Schuster (1984:20)
- ↑ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993:24)
- ↑ Zimmer & Organ (1999:155)
- ↑ Göksel & Kerslake (2005:11)
- ↑ Iivonen & Harnud (2005:64, 68)
- ↑ Bamgboṣe (1969:166)
- ↑ Merrill (2008:109)
- ↑ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:295)
- 1 2 Okada (1999:118)
- 1 2 Chirkova & Chen (2013:78)
Bibliography
- Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
- Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
- Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966), A Grammar of Yoruba, [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
- Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
- Chen, Yiya; Gussenhoven, Carlos (2015), "Shanghai Chinese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 45 (3): 321–327, doi:10.1017/S0025100315000043
- Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Lizu" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 75–86, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000242
- Coupland, Nikolas (1990), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, ISBN 1-85359-032-0
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
- Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Einarsson, Stefán (1945), Icelandic. Grammar texts glossary., Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, ISBN 978-0801863578
- Fast Mowitz, Gerhard (1975), Sistema fonológico del idioma achual, Lima: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278
- Gimson, Alfred Charles (2014), Cruttenden, Alan, ed., Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
- Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar (PDF), Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2014
- Grønnum, Nina (1998), "Illustrations of the IPA: Danish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28 (1 & 2): 99–105, doi:10.1017/s0025100300006290
- Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
- Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association (University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies) 29: 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526
- Gussmann, Edmund (2011). "Getting your head around: the vowel system of Modern Icelandic" (PDF). Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia 12: 71–90. ISBN 978-83-232-2296-5.
- Haugen, Einar (1958). "The Phonemics of Modern Icelandic". Language 34 (1): 55–88. doi:10.2307/411276. JSTOR 411276.
- Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 28: 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
- 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
- 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
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19814-8
- Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend, Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
- Mahboob, Ahmar; Ahmar, Nadra H. (2004), "Pakistani English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W., A handbook of varieties of English 1, Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1003–1015
- Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch, Duden, p. 37, ISBN 9783411040667
- Mannell, R.; Cox, F.; Harrington, J. (2009a), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Macquarie University
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
- Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
- Okada, Hideo (1991), "Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94–96, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X
- Pavlík, Radoslav (2004), "Slovenské hlásky a medzinárodná fonetická abeceda" (PDF), Jazykovedný časopis 55: 87–109
- Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
- Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768
- Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
- Šewc-Schuster, Hinc (1984), Gramatika hornjo-serbskeje rěče, Budyšin: Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
- Stone, Gerald (2002), "Sorbian (Upper and Lower)", in Comrie, Bernard; Corbett, Greville G., The Slavonic Languages, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 593–685, ISBN 9780415280785
- Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka (2008), Finish sound structure, ISBN 978-951-42-8983-5
- Szende, Tamás (1994), "Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 24 (2): 91–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005090
- Ternes, Elmer; Vladimirova-Buhtz, Tatjana (1999), "Bulgarian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 55–57, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
- Thelwall, Robin; Sa'Adeddin, M. Akram (1990), "Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–39, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266
- Tingsabadh, M. R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (1): 24–28, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746
- Traunmüller, Hartmut (1982), "Vokalismus in der westniederösterreichischen Mundart.", Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 2: 289–333
- Trouvain, Jürgen; Gilles, Peter (2009), PhonLaf - Phonetic Online Material for Luxembourgish as a Foreign Language 1 (PDF), pp. 74–77
- Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
- Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
- Watt, Dominic; Allen, William (2003), "Tyneside English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 267–271, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001397
- 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