Close back unrounded vowel

Close back unrounded vowel
ɯ
IPA number	316
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɯ
Unicode (hex)	U+026F
X-SAMPA	M
Kirshenbaum	u-
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Sound
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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

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close i • y ɨ • ʉ ɯ • u ɪ • ʏ ɪ̈ • ʊ̈ ɯ̽ • ʊ e • ø ɘ • ɵ ɤ • o e̞ • ø̞ ə • ɵ̞ ɤ̞ • o̞ ɛ • œ ɜ • ɞ ʌ • ɔ æ •  ɐ • ɞ̞ a • ɶ ä • ɒ̈ ɑ • ɒ 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 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. Note that 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	[sɯ̟ː]	'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

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Geoff Lindsey (2013) The vowel space, Speech Talk
2. Mid-vowels in Acehnese
3. Agreement System in Acehnese Archived 2013-06-05 at WebCite
4. Acehnese Coda Condition
5. Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
6. Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
7. Wells (1982), p. 617.
8. Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
9. Bishop (1996), p. 230.
10. Lee (1999), p. 122.
11. Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
12. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
13. Dictionary entry for ขึ้น (kheun) (thai-language.com)
14. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 25.
15. Zimmer & Organ (1999:155)
16. Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
17. 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, A handbook of varieties of English, 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