Near-close central unrounded vowel

Near-close central unrounded vowel
ɪ̈
ɨ̞
ɘ̝
IPA number	319 415
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɪ​̈
Unicode (hex)	U+026A U+0308
X-SAMPA	I\ or 1_o or @\_r
Sound

The near-close central unrounded vowel, or near-high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet can represent this sound in a number of ways (see the box on the right), but the most common symbols are ⟨ɪ̈⟩ (centralized [ɪ]) and ⟨ɨ̞⟩ (lowered [ɨ]). In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed ⟨ɪ⟩, which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often ⟨ɨ⟩, which captures its centrality. The third edition of the OED adopted an unofficial extension of the IPA, ⟨ᵻ⟩, that is a conflation of ⟨ɪ⟩ and ⟨ɨ⟩, and represents either [ɪ̈] or a vowel that varies between [ɪ] and [ə].

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 in the USA, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these terms are used in introductory textbooks on phonetics published in America 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 near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
• Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Berber	Central Atlas Tamazight		—	—	Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants.
English	Some dialects	glasses	[ˈɡlæsɪ̈z]	'glasses'	Reduced vowel for speakers who have a contrast between schwa and a near-close central unrounded vowel. See English phonology
	South African	bit	[bɪ̈t]	'bit'	For some speakers it can be equal to [ə]. SAE has an allophonic variation, with [ɪ] occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and [ɪ̈~ə] elsewhere.
	Southeastern English	good	[gɪ̈d]	'good'	May be rounded [ʊ̈] instead; it corresponds to [ʊ] in other dialects. See English phonology
Russian		жена	[ʐɨ̞ˈna]	'wife'	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants and in unstressed syllables. See Russian phonology
Welsh	Northern dialects	pump	[pɨ̞mp]	'five'	/ɪ/ or /i/ in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology

Bibliography

• Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971), A Reference Grammar of Tamazight, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan 
• 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 
• Jones, Daniel; Ward, Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 
• Lodge, Ken (2009), A Critical Introduction to Phonetics, p. 174