Close-mid central unrounded vowel

Close-mid central unrounded vowel
ɘ
Image
IPA number	397
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɘ
Unicode (hex)	U+0258
X-SAMPA	@\
Kirshenbaum	@<umd>
Sound

The close-mid central unrounded vowel, or high-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɘ⟩. This is a reversed letter e, and should not be confused with the schwa ⟨ə⟩, which is a turned e. This symbol may be used with a lowering diacritic ⟨ɘ̞⟩, to denote the mid central unrounded vowel.

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", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	some Southern American dialects	nut	[nɘt]	'nut'	Corresponds to /ʌ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
	New Zealand	bit	[bɘt]	'bit'	Corresponds to /ɪ/ in other dialects. See English phonology
Mongolian		?	[usɘɾɘ̆]	'jump'
Paicî		[kɘ̄ɾɘ̄]		'spider'
Russian		солнце	[ˈsont͡sɘ]	'sun'	This occurs only for some speakers after /t͡s/. See Russian phonology
Skolt Sami		Vuõˊlǧǧem	[vʲuɘlɟ͡ʝːɛm]	'?'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	ne	[nɘ]	'and'

Bibliography

• Bauer, L.; Warren, P.; Bardsley, D.; Kennedy, M.; Major, G. (2007). "New Zealand English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 (1): 97–102. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830. http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=995732. 
• 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. 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969). The Phonetics of Russian. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521067367. 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008). "Tilquiapan Zapotec". Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114. doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344. 
• Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999). A Course in Phonology. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631213457.