Mid back unrounded vowel
| Mid back unrounded vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɤ̞ | |
| ʌ̝ | |
| IPA Number | 315 430 |
| Audio sample | |
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source · help
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| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ɤ̞ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0264 U+031E |
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Legend: unrounded • rounded |
The mid back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Although there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid back unrounded vowel between close-mid [ɤ] and open-mid [ʌ]. Because no language is known to distinguish all three, ⟨ɤ⟩ is normally used. If more precision is desired, diacritics can be used, such as ⟨ɤ̞⟩ or ⟨ʌ̝⟩.
Features
- Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
- 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulgarian | път | [pɤ̞t̪] | 'path' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɤ⟩ in broad transcriptions. See Bulgarian phonology | |
| Chinese | Shanghainese | 渠 | [kɤ̞¹] | 'ditch' | Tends to be diphthongized to [ɤ̞ɯ̞] by younger speakers. |
| English | Cardiff | plus | [pl̥ʌ̝s] | 'plus' | May be [ə], [ɜ], [ɜ̟] or [ë̞] instead. It corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩. |
| Norfolk | Corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩. See English phonology | ||||
| Philadelphia | [pɫ̥ʌ̝s] | May be either open-mid [ʌ] or a lowered and unrounded /uː/ ([ɯ̽]) instead. It corresponds to [ʌ] in other dialects. Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩. See English phonology | |||
| Gayo | kule | [kuˈlɤ̞ː] | 'tiger' | One of the possible allophones of /ə/. | |
| German | Chemnitz dialect | Schirm | [ʃʌ̝ˤːm] | 'umbrella' | Pharyngealized; may be an opening diphthong [ɪːɒ̯] instead. |
| Ibibio | [dʌ̝k˦] | 'enter' | Typically transcribed in IPA with ⟨ʌ⟩. | ||
| Vietnamese | Hanoi | tờ | [t̻ɤ̞˧˨] | 'sheet' | Realization of /ɤ/ (also transcribed in IPA with ⟨ə⟩) according to Kirby (2011). See Vietnamese phonology |