Close back unrounded vowel
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| Edit - 2× | Front | N.-front | Central | N.-back | Back |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.
represents a rounded vowel.
| IPA – number | 316 |
| IPA – text | ɯ |
| IPA – image |  |
| Entity | ɯ |
| X-SAMPA | M |
| Kirshenbaum | u- |
| Sound sample | |
|---|---|
The close back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɯ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is M. The IPA symbol is a turned letter m, although given its relation to the sound represented by the letter u, it can be considered a u with an extra "bowl". The sound is sometimes referred to as "unrounded u".
[edit] 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 vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.
[edit] Occurs in
- Azeri: qırx [ɡɯrx], "forty"
- Korean: eumsik [ˈɯːmɕik], "food"
- Scottish Gaelic:caol [kɯːl], "strait"
- Turkish: ılık [ɯˈɫɯk], "mild"
- Vietnamese: tư [tɯ̄], "fourth"
The /ɯ/ symbol is often used to transcribe the close back compressed vowel found in Japanese, which is written as う or ウ. ː
