Near-close central unrounded vowel

Near-close central unrounded vowel
ɪ̈
ɨ̞
ᵻ
ɘ̝
IPA number	319 415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɪ​̈
Unicode (hex)	U+026A U+0308
X-SAMPA	I\ or 1_o or @\_r
Braille
Sound
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The near-close central unrounded vowel, or near-high central unrounded vowel, is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet can represent this sound in a number of ways (see the box on the right), but the most common symbols are ⟨ɪ̈⟩ (centralized [ɪ]) and ⟨ɨ̞⟩ (lowered [ɨ]). In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed ⟨ɪ⟩, which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often ⟨ɨ⟩, which captures its centrality, or ⟨ᵻ⟩,^[1] which captures both. The third edition of the OED adopted an unofficial extension of the IPA, ⟨ᵻ⟩, that is a conflation of ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨ɨ⟩, and represents either [ɪ̈] or free variation between [ɪ] and [ə].

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 in the USA, 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
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• Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high 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
Afrikaans	Standard[2]	lig	[lɪ̈χ]	'light'	Stressed allophone of /ə/. See Afrikaans phonology
	Many speakers[3]	lug		'air'	Many speakers merge /œ/ and /ə/ into [ɪ̈], especially in natural speech.[3] See Afrikaans phonology
Amharic[4]		ሥር	[sɨ̞r]	'root'	Often transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩.
Berber	Central Atlas Tamazight[5]		—	—	Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants.
Cornish			—	—
English	Inland Southern American[6]	good	[ɡɪ̈d]	'good'	Corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects.[7] See English phonology
	Southeastern English[8]				May be rounded [ʊ̈] instead; it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
	London[9][10]	lip	[lɪ̈ʔp]	'lip'	Possible realization of /ɪ/.[9][10]
	South African[11]		[lɪ̈p]		For some speakers it can be equal to [ə]. General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with [ɪ] ([i] in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and [ɪ̈~ə] elsewhere.
	Southern American[12]				Allophone of /ɪ/ before labial consonants, sometimes also in other environments.[12]
Irish	Munster[13]	goirt	[ɡɨ̞ɾˠtʲ]	'salty'	Allophone of /ɪ/ between broad consonants.[13] See Irish phonology
	Ulster[14]				Allophone of /ɪ/.[14]
Mapudungun[15]		müṉa	[mɘ̝ˈn̪ɐ̝]	'male cousin on father's side'	Unstressed allophone of /ɘ/.[15]
Russian[16]		кожа	[ˈkʷo̞ʐ̺ɨ̞]	'skin'	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants and in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Sema[17]		sü	[ʃɨ̞̀]	'to hurt'	Also described as close [ɨ].[18]
Tera[19]		vur	[vɨ̞r]	'to give'	Allophone of /ɨ/ in closed syllables.[19]
Vietnamese	Hanoi dialect	thức	[tʰɨ̞k˧˥]	'mood'	Allophone of /ɨ/ before /k, ŋ/. See Vietnamese phonology
	Southern	xin	[s̪ɨ̞n˧˥]	'to ask for sth'	Allophone of /i/ before /t, n/. See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh	Northern dialects[20]	pump	[pɨ̞mp]	'five'	Merges with /ɪ/ in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology

References

1. Pullum & Ladusaw (1996:298)
2. Donaldson (1993:4)
3. Donaldson (1993:5)
4. Hayward & Hayward (1999:47)
5. Abdel-Massih (1971:15)
6. Wells (1982:534–535)
7. Wells (1982:535)
8. Lodge (2009:174)
9. Altendorf & Watt (2004:188–189)
10. Mott (2012:75)
11. Lass (2002:113–115)
12. Wells (1982:534)
13. Ó Sé (2000)
14. Ní Chasaide (1999:114)
15. Sadowsky et al. (2013:92)
16. Jones & Ward (1969:38)
17. Teo (2012:368)
18. Teo (2014:28)
19. Tench (2007:231)
20. Ball (1984:?)

Bibliography

• Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971), A Reference Grammar of Tamazight, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
• Altendorf, Ulrike; Watt, Dominik (2004), "The dialects in the South of England: 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. 181–196, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
• Ball, Martin J. (1984), "Phonetics for phonology", in Ball, Martin J.; Jones, G.E, Welsh Phonology, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-0861-9
• Donaldson, Bruce C. (1993), "1. Pronunciation", A Grammar of Afrikaans, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–35, ISBN 9783110134261
• Hayward, Katrina; Hayward, Richard J. (1999), "Amharic", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 45–50, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Lass, Roger (2002), "South African English", in Mesthrie, Rajend, Language in South Africa, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521791052
• Lodge, Ken (2009), A Critical Introduction to Phonetics, p. 174
• Mott, Brian (2012), "Traditional Cockney and popular London speech", Dialectologia (RACO (Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert)) 9: 69–94, ISSN 2013-2247
• Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999), "Irish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 111–16, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000), Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish), Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, ISBN 0-946452-97-0
• Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William A. (1996), Phonetic Symbol Guide, Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226685366
• Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (1): 87–96, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369
• Tench, Paul (2007), "Tera", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (1): 228–234, doi:10.1017/s0025100307002952
• Teo, Amos B. (2012), "Sumi (Sema)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 42 (03): 365–373, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000254
• Teo, Amos B. (2014), A phonological and phonetic description of Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland (PDF), Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics, ISBN 978-1-922185-10-5
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English 3: Beyond the British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28541-0