Close back unrounded vowel
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| Close back unrounded vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɯ | |||
| IPA Number | 316 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɯ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+026F | ||
| X-SAMPA | M | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
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The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. Acoustically it is a close back-central unrounded vowel.[1] 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". It is not to be confused with ⟨uɪ⟩, a sequence of the symbols ⟨u⟩ and ⟨ɪ⟩ (which represent the close back rounded vowel and the near-close near-front unrounded vowel, respectively), which may look very similar in some fonts.
Essentially, this sound is an ordinary French/Spanish/Italian [u] (as in Spanish nunca) pronounced with unrounded lips.
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".
Features
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
- Its vowel height is close, also known as high, which means the tongue is positioned close 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 back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Unrounded back vowels tend to be centralized, which means that often they are in fact near-back.
- It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acehnese[2] | eu | [ɯ] | 'see' | Also described as closer to [ɨ].[3][4] | |
| Alekano | hanuva | [hɑnɯβɑ] | 'nothing' | ||
| Azeri | qırx | [gɯɾx] | 'forty' | ||
| Bashkir | ҡыҙ | [qɯð] | 'girl' | ||
| Chinese | Hokkien Amoy dialects | 豬 | [tɯ] | 'pig' | |
| Some Wu dialects | 父 | [vɯ] | 'father' | ||
| Xiang | 火 | [xɯ] | 'fire' | ||
| Crimean Tatar | canım | [dʒanɯm] | 'please' | ||
| English | California[5] | goose | [ɡɯ̟ˑs] | 'goose' | Near-back;[5] corresponds to [uː] in other dialects. |
| South African[6] | pill | [pʰɯ̟ɫ] | 'pill' | Near-back; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.[6] Also described as close-mid [ɤ̟].[7] | |
| Estonian[8] | kõrv | [kɯrv] | 'ear' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be mid central [ə] or mid back [ɤ̞] instead, depending on the speaker.[8] See Estonian phonology | |
| Garifuna | gürûgua | [ɡɯˈɹɯɡwə] | 'bite' | ||
| Irish | Ulster | caol | [kʰɯːl̪ˠ] | 'narrow' | See Irish phonology |
| Kensiu[9] | [häjɯ̟p] | 'to know' | Near-back.[9] | ||
| Korean[10] | 음식/飲食 eumsik | [ɯːmɕik̚] | 'food' | See Korean phonology | |
| Kyrgyz | кыз | [qɯz] | 'girl' | See Kyrgyz phonology | |
| Ongota | [kuˈbuːɯ] | 'dry' | |||
| Scottish Gaelic | caol | [kʰɯːl̪ˠ] | 'thin' | See Scottish Gaelic phonology | |
| Shipibo[11] | [ˈkɯ̟ni̞] | 'whisker' | Near-back.[11] | ||
| Sundanese | meunang | [mɯnaŋ] | 'get' | ||
| Thai[12] | ขึ้น[13] | [kʰɯ̟n˥˩] | 'to go up' | Near-back.[14] | |
| Turkish[15][16] | sığ | Audio file "Sığ.ogg" not found | 'shallow' | Near-back.[15] See Turkish phonology | |
| Turkmen | ýaşyl | [jäːˈʃɯl] | 'green' | ||
| Tuvan | Кызыл | [kɯˈzɯl] | 'Kyzyl' | ||
| Vietnamese | tư | [tɯ] | 'fourth' | See Vietnamese phonology | |
| Xumi | Upper[17] | [Hkɯ] | 'to bake' | Allophone of /ʉ/ after velar consonants.[17] | |
| Yakut | тыл | [tɯl] | 'tongue' | ||
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
References
- ^ Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
- ^ Mid-vowels in Acehnese
- ^ Agreement System in Acehnese Template:Webcite
- ^ Acehnese Coda Condition
- ^ a b Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
- ^ a b Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 617.
- ^ a b Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
- ^ a b Bishop (1996), p. 230.
- ^ Lee (1999), p. 122.
- ^ a b Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
- ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
- ^ Dictionary entry for ขึ้น (kheun) (thai-language.com)
- ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
- ^ a b Zimmer & Organ (1999:155)
- ^ Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
- ^ a b Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), p. 389.
Bibliography
- Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009), "Estonian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39 (3): 367–372, doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x
- Bishop, Nancy (1996), "A preliminary description of Kensiu (Maniq) phonology" (PDF), Mon–Khmer Studies Journal, 25
- Bowerman, Sean (2004), "White South African English: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 931–942, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169
- Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar (PDF), Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2014
- Ladefoged, Peter (1999), "American English", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–44
- 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
- Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109
- Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English 3: Beyond The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28541-0
- Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (PDF), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7