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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	317
IPA – text	ɨ
IPA – image
Entity	ɨ
X-SAMPA	1
Kirshenbaum	i"
Sound sample (help·info)

The close central 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 ɨ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is 1. The IPA symbol is the letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as "barred-i".

There is also a near-close central unrounded vowel in some languages.

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 central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
• Its vowel roundedness is unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.

Occurrence

/ɨ/ is rare as a phoneme in most Indo-European languages. However, it is very common as a separate phoneme in the indigenous languages of the Americas and is often in phonemic contrast with other close vowels such as /i/ and /u/ both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (e.g. proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman & Smith-Stark (1986) identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although this is not a defining feature of the entire area).

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese		tupeue	[tupɨʔɛ]	'to know	Asyik[1] and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi[2] describe this sound as such while Durie[3] describes it as closer to [ɯ]
Amharic		ሥር	[sɨr]	'root'	Often transcribed as <ə>
Angor		hüfı	[xɨβə]	'hot'
English		roses	[ˈɹoʊzɨz]	'roses'	Reduced vowel in some dialects; corresponds to unstressed [ɪ] in other dialects. See English phonology.
Guaraní		yvy	[ɨʋɨ]	'earth'
Irish		saol	[sɨɫ]	'life'	See Irish phonology
Kaingang		fy	[ɸɨ]	'seed'
Mapudungun		trukür	[tʴuˈkɨɹ]	'fog'	See Mapudungun phonology
Mongolian[4]		?	[xutʃʰɨɾɘ̆]	'difficult'
Muisca	Hycha[5]	hycha	[hɨʂa]	'I'
Polish[6]		mysz	[mɨʂ] (help·info)	'mouse'	See Polish phonology
Romanian		înot	[ɨˈnot]	'I swim'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[7]		ты	[tɨ]	'you' (singular)	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. See Russian phonology
Sahaptin[8]		[kʼsɨt]		'cold'	Epenthetic; no lengthened equivalent.
Sirionó[9]		[eˈsɨ]		'dry wood'
Swedish		bi	[bɨː]	'bee'	Found in dialects in Närke and Bohuslän and in sociolects in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Tupi		yby	[ɨβɨ]	'earth'
Udmurt[10]		?	[ɨrete]	'to growl'
Võro		sysar	[sɨsarʲ]	'sister'
Welsh	Northern dialects[11]	llun	[ɬɨːn]	'picture'	See Welsh phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[12]	nɨ	[nɨ]	'be sour'

References

Bibliography

• Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi, Awwad Ahmad (2003), "Acehnese coda condition: An optimality-theoretic account", Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities 15: 9–21, http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/594-0403/594-0403-AL-HARBI-0-0  
• Ball, Martin J. (1984), "Phonetics for phonology", in Ball, Martin J.; Jones, G.E, Welsh Phonology, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-0861-9  
• Campbell, Lyle; Kaufman, Terrence; Smith-Stark, Thomas C (1986), "Meso-America as a linguistic area", Language 62 (3): 530–570  
• Firestone, Homer L. (1965), "Description and classification of Sirionó: A Tupí-Guaraní language.", Janua linguarum, Series Practica, London: Mouton & Co  
• Gómez, Paula. (1999). Huichol de San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco. Archivo de lenguas indígenas de México. México: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios.
• Hargus, Sharon; Beavert, Virginia (2002), "Predictable versus Underlying Vocalism in Yakima Sahaptin", International Journal of American Linguistics 68 (3): 316  
• 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.  
• Koehn, Edward; & Koehn, Sally. (1986). Apalai. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian linguistics (Vol. 1, pp. 33-127). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquipan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114  
• Payne, Doris L.; & Payne, Thomas E. (1990). Yagua. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian linguistics (Vol. 2, pp. 252-474). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.