Close back unrounded vowel

IPA Number 316

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Entity (decimal) ɯ

Unicode (hex) U+026F

X-SAMPA M

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IPA: Vowels

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

Legend: unrounded • rounded

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded vowel,^[1] is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɯ⟩. Typographically, it is a turned letter ⟨m⟩.

The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].

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Transcription

Features

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]
Arara^[5]		îput	[ɯput̚]	'my skin'	Frequent realisation of /ɨ/.^[5]
Azerbaijani		bahalı	[bɑhɑˈɫɯ]	'expensive'	Closer to an [ɘ]^[6]
Bashkir		ҡыҙ / qıď	[qɯð]	'girl'
Chinese	Mandarin	刺 / cì	[t͡sʰɯ˥˩]	'thorn'
	Some Wu dialects	父 / vu	[vɯ]	'father'
	Xiang	火 / xu	[xɯ]	'fire'
Chuvash		ыхра/ıxra	[ɯɣra]	'garlic'
Crimean Tatar		джаным/canım	[dʒanɯm]	'please'
English	African-American^[7]	hook	[hɯ̞k]	'hook'	Near-close; possible realization of /ʊ/.^[7]
	Tidewater^[8]	hook	[hɯ̞k]	'hook'	Near-close; may be rounded [ʊ] instead.^[8]
	Some California speakers^[9]	goose	[ɡɯˑs]	'goose'	Corresponds to [uː] in other dialects.
	New Zealand^[10]^[11]	treacle	[ˈtɹ̝̊iːkɯ]	'treacle'	Possible realization of the unstressed vowel /ɯ/, which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.^[10]^[11] Corresponds to /əl/ in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology
	Some Philadelphia speakers^[12]	plus	[pɫ̥ɯs]	'plus'	Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable.^[12] It corresponds to [ʌ] in other accents. See English phonology
	South African^[13]	pill	[pʰɯ̞ɫ]	'pill'	Near-close; possible allophone of /ɪ/ before the velarised allophone of /l/.^[13] See South African English phonology
Estonian^[14]		kõrv	[kɯrv]	'ear'	Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩; can be close-mid central [ɘ] or close-mid back [ɤ] instead, depending on the speaker.^[14] See Estonian phonology
Irish	Ulster	caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'narrow'	See Irish phonology
Japanese^[15]		空気 / kūki	[kɯːki]^ⓘ	'air'	May be compressed [ɯᵝ].^[16] See Japanese phonology
Katukina^[17]			[babɯˈdʒɯ]	'oscar (fish)'
Kazakh		қыс/qys	[qɯs]	'winter'	May be pronounced as [qəs]
Korean^[18]		음식 飮食 / eumsik	[ɯːmɕ͈ik̚]	'food'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)	tirş	[tˤɯɾʃ]	'sour'	See Kurdish phonology. The "i" after "t" always uses this sound if the "t" is "tˤ". However, it can also appear at other places.
Kurdish	Sorani (Central)	ترش / tirş	[tˤɯɾʃ]	'sour'
Kyrgyz		кыз / qyz	[qɯz]	'girl'	See Kyrgyz phonology
Panará^[19]			[tɯˈsəʰ]	'to breathe'
Portuguese	European^[20]	pegar	[pɯ̞ˈɣäɾ]^ⓘ	'to grab'	Reduced vowel. Near-close.^[20] Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɨ⟩. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Some speakers	când	[kɯnd]	'when'	Typically described as /ɨ/. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		caol	[kʰɯːl̪ˠ]	'thin'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sop		düm	[dɯm]	'tree'	See Sop language
Tamil		அழகு / aḻagu	[əɻəɣɯ]	'beauty'
Thai	Standard^[21]	ขึ้น / khuen/khîn	[kʰɯn˥˩]	'to go up'
Turkish^[22]		sığ	[sɯː]	'shallow'	Described variously as close back [ɯ],^[22] near-close near-back [ɯ̞]^[23] and close central [ɨ].^[24] See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		ýaşyl	[jɑːˈʃɯl]	'green'
Uyghur		تىلىم/tılım / tilim	[tɯlɯm]	'my language'	In complementary distribution with /ɪ/. See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamese		tư	[tɯ]	'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology

Notes

^ While the International Phonetic Association prefers the terms "close" and "open" for vowel height, many linguists use "high" and "low".
^ Durie, Mark (1990). "Proto-Chamic and Acehnese Mid Vowels: Towards Proto-Aceh-Chamic" (PDF). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. LII, Part 1: 100–111. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00021297. S2CID 162224060. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2010.
^ Asyik, Abdul Gani. "The Agreement System in Acehnese" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. XI: 1–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 July 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
^ Al-Harbi, Awwad Ahmad Al-Ahmadi (January 2003). "Acehnese Coda Condition: An Optimality-Theoretic Account" (PDF). Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities. 15 (1): 9–28.
^ ^a ^b Alves (2013), p. 269.
^ Ghaffarvand-Mokari & Werner 2016, p. 514.
^ ^a ^b Wells (1982), p. 557.
^ ^a ^b Wells (1982), p. 536.
^ Ladefoged (1999), pp. 42–43.
^ ^a ^b Warren, Paul. NZE Phonology (PDF) (Report). Victoria University of Wellington. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2024.
^ ^a ^b Bauer & Warren (2004), p. 585.
^ ^a ^b Gordon (2004), p. 290.
^ ^a ^b Bowerman (2004), p. 936.
^ ^a ^b Asu & Teras (2009), p. 369.
^ Labrune (2012), p. 25.
^ Okada (1999), p. 118.
^ dos Anjos (2012), p. 129.
^ Lee (1999), p. 122.
^ Vasconcelos (2013), p. 182.
^ ^a ^b Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.
^ Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993), p. 24.
^ ^a ^b Göksel & Kerslake (2005:10)
^ Kılıç & Öğüt (2004)
^ Zimmer & Orgun (1999:155)

References

Alves, Ana Carolina Ferreira (2013). "Aspectos do sistema fonológico de Arara (Karib)" (PDF). Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas. 8 (2): 265–277. doi:10.1590/S1981-81222013000200003.
Asu, Eva Liina; Teras, Pire (2009). "Estonian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 367–372. doi:10.1017/s002510030999017x.
Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul (2004), "New Zealand 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. 580–602, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
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
Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
dos Anjos, Zoraide (2012). "Fonologia Katukina-Kanamari". LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas. 12 (1): 123–156. doi:10.20396/liames.v0i12.1486.
Ghaffarvand-Mokari, Payam; Werner, Stefan (2016), "An acoustic description of spectral and temporal characteristics of Azerbaijani vowels", Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 52 (3), doi:10.1515/psicl-2016-0019, S2CID 151826061
Göksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005), Turkish: a comprehensive grammar, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415114943
Gordon, Matthew J. (2004), "New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: 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. 282–299, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
International Phonetic Association (1999), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
Kılıç, Mehmet Akif; Öğüt, Fatih (2004). "A high unrounded vowel in Turkish: is it a central or back vowel?" (PDF). Speech Communication. 43 (1–2): 143–154. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2004.03.001 – via Elsevier ScienceDirect.
Labrune, Laurence (2012), The Phonology of Japanese, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954583-4
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
Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur S. (1993). "Thai". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 23 (1): 24–26. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746. S2CID 242001518.
Vasconcelos, Eduardo A. (2013). Investigando a hipótese Cayapó do Sul-Panará (PhD). Campinas: University of Campinas. doi:10.47749/T/UNICAMP.2013.929939. hdl:20.500.12733/1622968.
Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128541-0 .
Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7, archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2018, retrieved 20 November 2015

External links

List of languages with [ɯ] on PHOIBLE

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ	tɕʼ	kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]

Vowels

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

Legend: unrounded • rounded

This page was last edited on 26 May 2024, at 09:23

Close back unrounded vowel

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Transcription

Features

Occurrence

See also

Notes

References

External links