Mid back rounded vowel

Mid back rounded vowel
o
o̞
IPA number	307 430
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	o​̞
Unicode (hex)	U+006F U+031E
Sound

The mid back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. While there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid back rounded vowel between close-mid [o] and open-mid [ɔ], it is normally written ⟨o⟩. If precision is desired, diacritics may be used, such as ⟨o̞⟩ or ⟨ɔ̝⟩, the former being more common. A non-IPA letter ⟨ⱺ⟩ is also found.

Note that just because a language has only one non-close non-open back vowel, it still may not be a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language Tukang Besi, for example, has a close-mid [o], whereas the Moluccan language Taba has an open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open close-mid vowel. The Kensiu language spoken in Malaysia and Thailand is highly unusual in that it contrasts true-mid vowels with close-mid and open-mid vowels without differences in other parameters such as backness or roundedness.

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 mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
• 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.
• Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Catalan	Algherese	soc	[ˈso̞k]	'clog'	/ɔ/ and /o/ merge into [o̞] in these dialects. See Catalan phonology
	Northern
Danish		monolog	[mo̞no̞ˈlo̞ːˀ]	'monologue'	See Danish phonology
English	Yorkshire	coat	[kʰo̟t]	'coat'	Corresponds to /əʊ/ in other British dialects. See English phonology
Finnish		kello	[ˈke̞llo̞]	'clock'	See Finnish phonology
Hebrew		שלום	[ʃäˈlo̞m]	'peace'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script. See Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology
Greek		ωκεανός okeanós	[o̞ˌce̞ɐˈno̞s]	'ocean'	See Modern Greek phonology
Japanese		子 ko	[ko̞]	'child'	See Japanese phonology
Korean		보리 bori	[po̞ˈɾi]	'barley'	See Korean phonology
Portuguese	Brazilian	pororoca	[po̞ɾo̞ˈɾɔ̞kɐ]	'pororoca'	Unstressed vowel. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian		copil	[ko̞ˈpil]	'child'	See Romanian phonology
Russian		сухой	[sʊˈxo̞j]	'dry'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian		čvȏr / чво̑р	[tʃʋô̞ːr]	'knot'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Spanish		todo	[ˈt̪o̞ð̞o̞]	'all'	See Spanish phonology
Turkish		kol	[kʰo̞ɫ]	'arm'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		поїзд	[ˈpo̞jizd]	'train'	See Ukrainian phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	do	[d̪o̞]	'corn tassel'

References

• Grønnum, Nina (1996), "Danish vowels: Scratching the recent surface in a phonological experiment", Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 28: 5–63 
• 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; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 
• Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 0-521-65236-7 
• Laufer, Asher (1999), "Hebrew", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, pp. 96–99 
• Lee, Hyun Bok (1999), "Korean", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 120–122, ISBN 0-521-63751-1 
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373 
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344 
• Okada, Hideo (1991), "Japanese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 21 (2): 94–96, doi:10.1017/S002510030000445X 
• Roca, Iggy; Johnson, Wyn (1999), A Course in Phonology, Blackwell Publishing 
• Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish", 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