Close back rounded vowel

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Vowels

v • d • e

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ʊ e · ø ɘ · ɵ ɤ · o ə ɛ · œ ɜ · ɞ ʌ · ɔ æ ɐ a · ɶ ɑ · ɒ
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.

IPA – number	308
IPA – text	u
IPA – image
Entity	u
X-SAMPA	u
Kirshenbaum	u
Sound sample (help·info)

The close back rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is u, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u.

In most languages this vowel is exolabial (with pursed lips). However, in a few cases it is endolabial (compressed).

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 exolabial, which means that the lips are pursed and protrude, with the inner surfaces exposed.

Occurrence

Close back compressed vowel

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 endolabial, which means that the corners of the mouth are drawn slightly together and the lips are compressed horizontally, but do not protrude.

Occurrence

As there is no official diacritic for compression in the IPA, the spread-lip diacritic [  ͍ ] will be used here with the rounded vowels as an ad hoc symbol. Another possibility would be the old diacritic for labialization, [  ̫ ].

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A. & Eleonora C. Albano (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227-232
• Carbonell, Joan F. & Joaquim Llisterri (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53-56
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90-94
• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103-107
• Jones, Daniel & Ward Dennis (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 239-245
• Rogers, Derek & Luciana d'Arcangeli (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117-121
• Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264
• Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Illustrations of the IPA: Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20 (2): 37-41