Close-mid front rounded vowel

Close-mid front rounded vowel
ø
Image
IPA number	310
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ø
Unicode (hex)	U+00F8
X-SAMPA	2
Kirshenbaum	Y
Sound

The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ø⟩, a lowercase letter o with a diagonal stroke through it, derived from the Danish, Norwegian and Faroese alphabets which use the letter to represent this sound. The symbol is commonly referred to as "o, slash" in English.

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 front, which means the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• Its vowel 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	Wu	最/tzeu	[tsøː]	'most'
Danish		købe	[ˈkøːb̥ə]	'buy'	See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard	keuken	[ˈkøːkə(n)]	'kitchen'	In the north of the Netherlands usually diphthongized to [øʏ]. See Dutch phonology
	Southern				See Dutch phonology
Estonian		köök	[køːk]	'kitchen'
Faroese		øl	[øːl]	'beer'
Finnish		tyttö	[tytːø]	'girl'	See Finnish phonology
French		peu	[pø]	'few'	See French phonology
German		schön	[ʃøːn]	'beautiful'	See German phonology
Hungarian		nő	[nøː]	'woman'	See Hungarian phonology
Korean		쇠 soe	[søː]	'iron'	May be diphthongized to [we] by younger speakers. See Korean phonology
Lombard	Western	coeur	[køːr]	'heart'	Also written ⟨ö⟩, particularly in Switzerland and Italy
Ngwe	Mmockngie dialect	[nøɣə̀]		'sun'
Norwegian		søt	[søːt]	'sweet'	See Norwegian phonology
Rotuman		mösʻạki	[møːsʔɔki]	'to put to bed'
Swedish		öl	[øːl]	'beer'	See Swedish phonology

Bibliography

• 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 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76 
• Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA:Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Alphabet 24 (2): 91–94