Close back unrounded vowel

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded vowel,[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically a turned letter ⟨m⟩, given its relation to the sound represented by the letter ⟨u⟩ it can be considered a ⟨u⟩ with an extra "bowl". In Armenian it is an open vowel as well as the first letter of the Armenian alphabet.

Not to be confused with the Armenian letter ա, or the Cyrillic letter ш.
Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA Number316
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɯ
Unicode (hex)U+026F
X-SAMPAM
Braille
Audio sample
source · help

Features
  • Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close 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 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
Acehnese[2]eu[ɯ]'see'Also described as closer to [ɨ].[3][4]
Azerbaijanibahalı[bɑhɑˈɫɯ]'expensive'
Bashkirҡыҙ/qyž[qɯð]'girl'
ChineseHokkien Amoy dialects豬/tu[tɯ]'pig'Allophone of [ɨ]
Some Wu dialects父/vu[vɯ]'father'
Xiang火/xu[xɯ]'fire'
Chuvash ыхра [ɯɣra] 'garlic'
Crimean Tatarcanım[dʒanɯm]'please'
EnglishAfrican-American[5]hook[hɯ̞k]'hook'Near-close; possible realization of /ʊ/.[5]
Tidewater[6]Near-close; may be rounded [ʊ] instead.[6]
California[7]goose[ɡɯˑs]'goose'Corresponds to [uː] in other dialects.
New Zealand[8][9]treacle[ˈtɹ̝̊iːkɯ]'treacle'Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /ɯ/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.[8][9] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology
Some Philadelphia speakers[10]plus[pɫ̥ɯs]'plus'Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable.[10] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other accents. See English phonology
South African[11]pill[pʰɯ̞ɫ]'pill'Near-close; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.[11] See South African English phonology
Estonian[12]kõrv[kɯrv]'ear'Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close-mid back [ɤ] instead, depending on the speaker.[12] See Estonian phonology
IrishUlstercaol[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]'narrow'See Irish phonology
Japanese[13]空気 / kūki[kɯːki]'air'May be compressed [ɯᵝ].[14] See Japanese phonology
Korean[15]음식 飮食 eumsik[ɯːmɕik̚]'food'See Korean phonology
Kurdish Kurmanji (Northern) tirş [tˤɯɾʃ] 'sour' See Kurdish phonology. The "i" after "t" always uses this sound if the "t" is "tˤ". However, it can also appear at other places.
Sorani (Central) ترش‎/tirš
Kyrgyzкыз/qyz[qɯz]'girl'See Kyrgyz phonology
PortugueseEuropean[16]pegar[pɯ̞ˈɣäɾ]'to hold'Reduced vowel. Near-close.[16] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Portuguese phonology
Scottish Gaeliccaol[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]'thin'See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Tamil அழகு/aḻagu [əɻəgɯ] 'beauty'
ThaiStandard[17]ขึ้น/khuen[kʰɯn˥˩]'to go up'
Turkish[18]sığ[sɯː]'shallow'Described variously as close back [ɯ],[18] near-close near-back [ɯ̞][19] and close central [ɨ].[20] See Turkish phonology
Turkmenýaşyl[jäːˈʃɯl]'green'
Uyghurتىلىم/tulum[tɯlɯm]'my language'In complementary distribution with /ɪ/. See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamesetư[tɯ]'fourth'See Vietnamese phonology

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. Mid-vowels in Acehnese Archived 2010-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Agreement System in Acehnese" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-30. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  4. Acehnese Coda Condition
  5. Wells (1982), p. 557.
  6. Wells (1982), p. 536.
  7. Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
  8. "NZE Phonology" (PDF). Victoria University of Wellington. p. 3.
  9. Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 585.
  10. Gordon (2004), p. 290.
  11. Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
  12. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
  13. Labrune (2012), p. 25.
  14. Okada (1999), p. 118.
  15. Lee (1999), p. 122.
  16. Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
  17. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
  18. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
  19. Kılıç & Öğüt (2004)
  20. Zimmer & Organ (1999:155)

References
  • Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009). "Estonian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 367–372. doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x.
  • Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2004), "New Zealand 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. 580–602, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White 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. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44
  • Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
  • Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
  • Gordon, Matthew J. (2004), "New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: 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. 282–299, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
  • International Phonetic Association (1999), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
  • Labrune, Laurence (2012), The Phonology of Japanese, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954583-4
  • Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44
  • Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–123, ISBN 0-521-63751-1
  • Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
  • Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–26. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746.
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Volume 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52128541-0.
  • Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
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