Close central unrounded vowel

Close central unrounded vowel
ɨ
Image
IPA number	317
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɨ
Unicode (hex)	U+0268
X-SAMPA	1
Kirshenbaum	i"
Sound

The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɨ⟩. The IPA symbol is the letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "barred-i".

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.

There is also a near-close central unrounded vowel in some languages.

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 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

/ɨ/ is rare as a phoneme in most Indo-European languages. However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as /i/ and /u/ both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (e.g. proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark (1986) identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although this is not a defining feature of the entire area).

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese		tupeue	[tupɨʔɛ]	'to know	Asyik and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi describe this sound as such while Durie describes it as closer to [ɯ]
Amharic		ሥር	[sɨr]	'root'	Often transcribed ⟨ə⟩
Angor		hüfı	[xɨβə]	'hot'
Czech	Some dialects	był	[bɨɫ]	'he was'	Found in some eastern Moravian, Lach and Silesian dialects. See Czech phonology
English		roses	[ˈɹoʊzɨz]	'roses'	Reduced vowel in some dialects; corresponds to unstressed [ɪ] in other dialects. See English phonology.
Guaraní		yvy	[ɨʋɨ]	'earth'
Irish		saol	[sɨɫ]	'life'	See Irish phonology
Kaingang		fy	[ɸɨ]	'seed'
Mapudungun		trukür	[tʴuˈkɨɹ]	'fog'	See Mapudungun phonology
Mongolian		?	[xutʃʰɨɾɘ̆]	'difficult'
Muisca	Hycha	hycha	[hɨʂa]	'I'
Polish		mysz	[mɨʂ]	'mouse'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		înot	[ɨˈnot]	'I swim'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		ты	[tɨ]	'you' (singular)	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Sahaptin		[kʼsɨt]		'cold'	Epenthetic; no lengthened equivalent.
Sirionó		[eˈsɨ]		'dry wood'
Swedish		bi	[bɨː]	'bee'	Found in dialects in Närke and Bohuslän and in sociolects in Stockholm and Gothenburg. See Swedish phonology
Tupi		yby	[ɨβɨ]	'earth'
Udmurt		?	[ɨrete]	'to growl'
Vietnamese		trưa	[ʈɨɜ˧]	'noon'	See Vietnamese phonology
Võro		sysar	[sɨsarʲ]	'sister'
Welsh	Northern dialects	llun	[ɬɨːn]	'picture'	See Welsh phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	nɨ	[nɨ]	'be sour'

Bibliography

• Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi, Awwad Ahmad (2003), "Acehnese coda condition: An optimality-theoretic account", Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities 15: 9–21, http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/594-0403/594-0403-AL-HARBI-0-0 
• Ball, Martin J. (1984), "Phonetics for phonology", in Ball, Martin J.; Jones, G.E, Welsh Phonology, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-0861-9 
• Campbell, Lyle; Kaufman, Terrence; Smith-Stark, Thomas C (1986), "Meso-America as a linguistic area", Language 62 (3): 530–570, doi:10.2307/415477, JSTOR 415477 
• Firestone, Homer L. (1965), "Description and classification of Sirionó: A Tupí-Guaraní language.", Janua linguarum, Series Practica, London: Mouton & Co 
• Gómez, Paula. (1999). Huichol de San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco. Archivo de lenguas indígenas de México. México: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios.
• Hargus, Sharon; Beavert, Virginia (2002), "Predictable versus Underlying Vocalism in Yakima Sahaptin", International Journal of American Linguistics 68 (3): 316, doi:10.1086/466492 
• 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 
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521067367 
• Koehn, Edward; & Koehn, Sally. (1986). Apalai. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian linguistics (Vol. 1, pp. 33–127). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114 
• Payne, Doris L.; & Payne, Thomas E. (1990). Yagua. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian linguistics (Vol. 2, pp. 252–474). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.