- Close back rounded vowel
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Close back rounded vowel u Image 
IPA number 308 Encoding Entity (decimal) uUnicode (hex) U+0075 X-SAMPA uKirshenbaum uSound
The close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is u, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.
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.
In most languages this rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').
Contents
Close back protruded vowel
In most languages, close back rounded vowels are pronounced with protruded lips.
Features
IPA vowel chart Front Near-front Central Near-back Back Close Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded This table contains phonetic symbols. They may not display correctly in some browsers (Help).
IPA help • IPA key • chart •
chart with audio • view- 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.
- Its vowel roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed.
Occurrence
Note: Since back rounded vowels are assumed to have protrusion, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have compression.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Armenian Eastern Դուռ [duɾ] 'door' Arabic Standard جنوب [dʒæˈnuːb] 'south' See Arabic phonology Catalan[1] suc [ˈsuk] 'juice' See Catalan phonology Chinese Cantonese 菇/gu1 [ɡuː] 'mushroom' See Cantonese phonology Mandarin 哭/kū [kʰu˥] 'to cry' See Mandarin phonology Croatian u [u] 'in' See Serbo-Croatian phonology Czech u [u] 'at' See Czech phonology Dutch[2] voet [vuːt] 'foot' See Dutch phonology English GA boot [bu̟ːˀt] 'boot' Typically more front than cardinal [u]. See English phonology RP[3] Faroese ur [uːr] '(wrist-)watch' Finnish[4] kukka [ˈkukːɑ] 'flower' See Finnish phonology French[5] où [u] ( 
listen)'where' See French phonology Georgian[6] გუდა [ɡudɑ] 'leather bag' German Fuß [fuːs] 'foot' See German phonology Greek ουρανός/uranόs [ˌuraˈno̞s̠] 'sky' See Modern Greek phonology Hebrew תמונה [tmuna] 'image' Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and Modern Hebrew phonology Hungarian[7] unalmas [unɒlmɒʃ] 'boring' See Hungarian phonology Irish gasúr [ˈɡasˠuːɾˠ] 'boy' See Irish phonology Italian[8] tutta [ˈtutta] 'all' (fem.) See Italian phonology Malay bulan [bulan] 'moon' Mongolian[9] үүр [uːɾɘ̆] 'nest' North Frisian bru [bru] 'bridge' Polish[10] buk [buk] ( listen)'beech tree' Also represented by ⟨ó⟩. See Polish phonology Portuguese European[11] urso [ˈuɾsu] 'bear' See Portuguese phonology Brazilian[12] [ˈuxsʊ] Romanian unu [ˈunu] 'one' See Romanian phonology Russian[13] узкий [ˈuskʲɪj] 'narrow' See Russian phonology Scottish Gaelic gu [ɡu] 'to' See Scottish Gaelic phonology Serbian жут/žut [ʒut] 'yellow' See Serbo-Croatian phonology Slovak ruka [ˈruka] 'arm' Spanish[14] curable [kuˈɾaβle] 'curable' See Spanish phonology Thai[15] ? [sut˨˩] 'rearmost' Turkish uçak [utʃak] 'airplane' See Turkish phonology Udmurt[16] ? [urete] 'to divide' Ukrainian Умань [umɐnʲ] 'Uman' See Ukrainian phonology Vietnamese tu [tu] 'to mediate' See Vietnamese phonology West Frisian sûch [suːχ] 'sow' Zapotec Tilquiapan[17] gdu [ɡdu] 'all' Close back compressed vowel
Close back compressed vowel u͍ ɯᵝ
Some languages, such as Japanese
listen (help·info) and Swedish,[18] are found with a close back vowel that has a distinct type of rounding, called compressed or exolabial. No language is known to contrast this with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close back vowel.As there is no official diacritic for compression in the IPA, the spread-lip diacritic [ ͍ ] will be used here with the rounded vowel [u] as an ad hoc symbol. Other possible transcriptions are [ɯ͡β̞] (simultaneous [ɯ] and labial compression) and [ɯᵝ] ([ɯ] modified with labial compression).
Features
- Its vowel height is close, 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.
- Its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed.
Occurrence
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Japanese 空気 kūki [ku͍ːki] ( listen)'air' See Japanese phonology Swedish oro [ù͍β̞ru͍β̞] ( listen)'unease' Contrasts with a close central and close front compressed vowel. See Swedish phonology Danish du [d̥u͍] 'you' See Danish phonology Norwegian mot [mu͍ːt] 'courage' See Norwegian phonology See also
References
- ^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:54)
- ^ Gussenhoven (1992:47)
- ^ Roach (2004:242)
- ^ Iivonen & Harnud (2005:60, 66)
- ^ Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)
- ^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006:261–262)
- ^ Szende (1994:92)
- ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:119)
- ^ Iivonen & Harnud (2005:62, 66–67)
- ^ Jassem (2003:105)
- ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
- ^ Barbosa (Albano:229)
- ^ Jones & Ward (1969:67)
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:256)
- ^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993:24)
- ^ Iivonen & Harnud (2005:64, 68)
- ^ Merrill (2008:109)
- ^ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
Bibliography
- Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
- Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
- Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
- Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
- Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76
- 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
- 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
- Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768
- Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
- Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
- Szende, Tamás (1994), "Illustrations of the IPA:Hungarian", Journal of the International Phonetic Alphabet 24 (2): 91–94
- Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37–41
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association · History of the IPA · Kiel convention (1989) · Journal of the IPA (JIPA) · Naming conventionsPhonetics Special topics Encodings Consonants IPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • audioPlace → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Glottal Nasal m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Trill ʙ r ɽ͡r ʀ я * Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̠ ʎ̯ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ Affricates p̪f ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ Co-articulated consonants Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA. Chart image Vowels Vowels: IPA help • chart • chart with audio • viewCategories:- Vowels
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