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Vowels

See also: IPA, Consonants

	Front	Near- front	Central	Near- back	Back
Close	i · y ɨ · ʉ ɯ · u ɪ · ʏ ɪ̈ · ʊ̈ 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. Vowel length is indicated by appending  ː

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 rounded vowel is pronounced with protruded lips ('endolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are compressed ('exolabial').

Close back protruded vowel

In most languages, closed back rounded vowels are pronounced with protruded lips.

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 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
Arabic	Standard	جنوب	[dʒæˈnuːb]	'south'	See Arabic phonology
Catalan[1]		suc	[suk]	'juice'	See Catalan phonology
Chinese	Cantonese	菇/gu1	[ɡuː]	'mushroom'	See Standard Cantonese
	Mandarin	哭/kū	[kʰu˥]	'to cry'	See Standard Mandarin
Croatian		u	[u]	'in'
Czech		u	[u]	'at'
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] (help·info)	'where'	See French phonology
Georgian[6]		გუდა	[ɡudɑ]	'leather bag'
German		Fuß	[fuːs]	'foot'	See German phonology
Greek		ουρανός	[ˌuraˈno̞s̠]	'sky'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hebrew		תמונה	[tmuna]	'image'	Hebrew vowels are not shown in the script, see Niqqud and 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		{{lang|ms|bulan	[bulan]	'moon'
Mongolian[9]		?	[uːɾɘ̆]	'nest'
Polish[10]		buk	[buk] (help·info)	'beech tree'	Also represented by <ó>. See Polish phonology
Portuguese	European[11]	urso	[ˈuɾsu]	'bear'	See Portuguese phonology
	Brazilian[12]		[ˈuɾsʊ]
Romanian		unu	[ˈunu]	'one'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[13]		узкий	[ˈuskʲɪj]	'narrow'	See Russian phonology
Scottish Gaelic		gu	[ɡu]	'to'
Serbian		жут/žut	[ʒut]	'yellow'
Slovak		u	[u]	'at'
Spanish[14]		curable	[kuˈɾaβle]	'curable'	See Spanish phonology
Thai[15]		?	[sùt]	'rearmost'
Turkish		uçak	[utʃak]	'airplane'	See Turkish phonology
Udmurt[16]		?	[urete]	'to divide'
Vietnamese		tu	[tū]	'to mediate'	See Vietnamese phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[17]	gdu	[ɡdu]	'all'

Close back compressed vowel

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 [ɯ^β] ([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 kuuki	[ku͍ːki]	'air'	See Japanese phonology
Swedish		oro	[ù͍β̞ru͍β̞] (help·info)	'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

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232  
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (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  
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (2): 45–47  
• 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  
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107  
• 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  
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquipan 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  
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121  
• Shosted, Ryan K.; Vakhtang, Chikovani (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255–264  
• 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