Close-mid back unrounded vowel

The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ɤ⟩, called "ram's horns". It is distinct from the symbol for the voiced velar fricative, ⟨ɣ⟩, which has a descender. Despite that, some writings[2] use this symbol for the voiced velar fricative.

Close-mid back unrounded vowel
ɤ
IPA Number315
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɤ
Unicode (hex)U+0264
X-SAMPA7
Braille
Audio sample
source · help

Before the 1989 IPA Convention, the symbol for the close-mid back unrounded vowel was ⟨⟩, sometimes called "baby gamma", which has a flat top; this symbol was in turn derived from and replaced the inverted small capital A, ⟨Ɐ⟩, that represented the sound before the 1928 revision to the IPA.[3] The symbol was ultimately revised to be ⟨⟩, "ram's horns", with a rounded top, in order to better differentiate it from the Latin gamma ⟨ɣ⟩.[4] Unicode provides only U+0264 ɤ LATIN SMALL LETTER RAMS HORN (HTML ɤ), but in some fonts this character may appear as a "baby gamma" instead.

Features
  • Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
  • It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence
LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Aklanon saeamat [saʔɤmat] 'thanks'
Bashkir туғыҙ/tuğïð [tuˈʁɤð]  'nine'
Chinese Southern Min 蚵/ô [ɤ˧] 'oyster'
English Cape Flats[5] foot [fɤt] 'foot' Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be [u] or [ʉ] instead.[5] See South African English phonology
Indian South African[6] Possible realization of /ʊ/; may be a weakly rounded [ʊ] instead.[6] See South African English phonology
Estonian[7] kõrv [kɤrv] 'ear' Can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close back [ɯ] instead, depending on the speaker.[7] See Estonian phonology
Gayo[8] kule [kuˈlɤː] 'tiger' Close-mid or mid; one of the possible allophones of /ə/.[8]
Irish Ulster[9] Uladh [ɤl̪ˠu] 'Ulster' See Irish phonology
Kaingang[10] mo [ˈᵐbɤ] 'tail' Varies between back [ɤ] and central [ɘ][11]
Korean Gyeongsang dialect 거기/geogi [ˈkɤ̘ɡɪ] 'there' See Korean phonology
Northern Tiwa Taos dialect mânpəumán [ˌmã̀ˑˈpɤ̄u̯mã̄] 'it was squeezed' May be central [ɘ] instead. See Taos phonology
Scottish Gaelic doirbh [d̪̊ɤrʲɤv] 'difficult' See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Thai[12] เธอ/thoe [tʰɤː] 'you'

See also

Notes
  1. While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
  2. Such as Booij (1999) and Nowikow (2012).
  3. International Phonetic Association (1912). The principles of the International Phonetic Association. Paris, Association Phonétique Internationale. pp. 10.
  4. Nicholas, Nick (2003). "Greek-derived IPA symbols". Greek Unicode Issues. University of California, Irvine. Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
  5. Finn (2004), p. 970.
  6. Mesthrie (2004), p. 956.
  7. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
  8. Eades & Hajek (2006), p. 111.
  9. Ní Chasaide (1999:114–115)
  10. Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676–677, 682.
  11. Jolkesky (2009), pp. 676, 682.
  12. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.

References
  • Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
  • Booij, Geert (1999), The phonology of Dutch, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823869-X
  • Eades, Domenyk; Hajek, John (2006), "Gayo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 107–115, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002416
  • Finn, Peter (2004), "Cape Flats English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 934–984, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • 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
  • Mesthrie, Rajend (2004), "Indian South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 953–963, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (1999), "Irish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 111–16, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
  • Nowikow, Wieczysław (2012) [First published 1992], Fonetyka hiszpańska (3rd ed.), Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, ISBN 978-83-01-16856-8
  • Tingsabadh, M. R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (1): 24–28, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746
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