Close back unrounded vowel

Not to be confused with the Armenian letter ա.

Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA number	316
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɯ
Unicode (hex)	U+026F
X-SAMPA	M
Kirshenbaum	u-
Image
Sound

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back 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 ⟨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". The sound is sometimes referred to as "unrounded u".

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, hence the name of this article. 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, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible 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 as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese		eu	[ɯ]	'see'	Durie describes this sound as such, while Asyik and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi describe it as closer to [ɨ].
Alekano		hanuva	[hɑnɯβɑ]	'nothing'
Azeri		qırx	[ɡɯrx]	'forty'
Bashkir		ҡыҙ	[qɯð]	'girl'
Chinese	Mandarin	字 zì	[t͡sɯ˥˩]	'word'	See Mandarin phonology
	Min Nan	豬	[tɯ]	'pig'
	Wu	父	[vɯ]	'father'
	Xiang	火	[xɯ]	'fire'
Crimean Tatar		canım	[dʒanɯm]	'please'
Garifuna		gürûgua	gɯˈɹɯgwə	'bite'
Irish	Ulster	caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'narrow'	See Irish phonology
Korean		음식 eumsik	[ɯːmɕik̚]	'food'	See Korean phonology
Kyrgyz		кыз	[qɯz]	'girl'
Ongota		[kuˈbuːɯ]		'dry'
Sakha		тыл	[tɯl]	'tongue'
Scottish Gaelic		caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'thin'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sundanese		meunang	[mɯnaŋ]	'get'
Thai		ขึ้น	[kʰɯn˥˩]	'to go up'
Turkish		ılık	[ɯˈɫɯk]	'warm'	See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		ýaşyl	[jäːˈʃɯl]	'green'
Vietnamese		tư	[tɯ]	'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology

The symbol ⟨ɯ⟩ is sometimes used for Japanese /u/, but that sound is rounded, albeit with labial compression rather than protrusion. It is more accurately described as an exolabial close back vowel.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

• 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 
• Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (1): 24–26, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746