Near-close near-back vowel

Near-close near-back vowel
ʊ
Image
IPA number	321
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʊ
Unicode (hex)	U+028A
X-SAMPA	U
Kirshenbaum	U
Sound
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The near-close near-back vowel, or near-high near-back vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The IPA symbol for the near-close near-back rounded vowel is ⟨ʊ⟩. This derives from a small turned capital Ω; although officially called a small Latin letter upsilon, it bears little resemblance to the Greek upsilon and is informally called "horseshoe u" instead. Prior to 1989, there was an alternate IPA symbol for this sound, ⟨ɷ⟩, called "closed omega". Use of this symbol is no longer sanctioned by the IPA. In Americanist phonetic notation, the symbol ⟨ᴜ⟩ (a small capital U) is used.

The IPA prefers terms "close" and "open" for vowels, and the name of the article follows this. However, a large number of linguists, perhaps a majority, prefer the terms "high" and "low", and these are the only terms found in introductory textbooks on phonetics such as those by Peter Ladefoged.

Some languages may have a near-close near-back unrounded vowel; since no language is known to contrast rounding of this vowel, the IPA has not devised a standard way to represent this and thus can be represented in a number of ways, including ⟨ɯ̽⟩ and ⟨ʊ̜⟩.

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

Features

IPA vowel chart
Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open
Paired vowels are: unrounded • rounded
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• Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
• Its vowel backness is near-back, which means the tongue is positioned as in a back vowel, but slightly further forward in the mouth.
• Its vowel roundedness is generally rounded, which means that the lips are rounded to a greater or lesser degree, but is sometimes rather ambiguous. Because no language is known to contrast rounding with this place of articulation, the IPA has not created separate symbols to show this.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, an unrounded vowel is represented by the "less-rounded" diacritic [ʊ̜]:

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic		كتب	[ˈkʊtʊb]	'books'	See Arabic phonology
Cabécar		Köpö´	[kʊpʊː]	'sleep'
Chinese	Cantonese	紅/hung4	[hʊ̜ŋ˨˩]	'red'	See Cantonese phonology
	Mandarin	紅/hóng	[xʊ̜ŋ˧˥]	'red'	May be only slightly rounded. See Mandarin phonology
	Shanghainese	花/hau	[xʊ̜ŋ˧˥]	'flower'
Dutch		voor	[vʊːr]	'for'	Allophone of /oː/ before /r/. See Dutch phonology
English		hook	[hʊk]	'hook'	May be only slightly rounded. See English phonology
Faroese		hvalur	[kvɛalʊɹ]	'whale'
French	Quebec	foule	[fʊl]	'crowd'	See French phonology
German		Schutz	[ʃʊts]	'protection'	See German phonology
Mongolian[1]		ус	[ʊs]	'water'
Portuguese	European[2]	pegar	[pʊ̜ˈɣaɾ]	'to hold'	Unstressed vowel. See Portuguese phonology
	Some Brazilian dialects[3]	arco	[ˈaɾkʊ]	'bow'
Russian[4]		сухой	[sʊˈxo̞j] (help·info)	'dry'	Unstressed allophone of /u/. See Russian phonology
Swedish		ort	[ʊʈː] (help·info)	'(geographic) place'	Exolabial (compressed). See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese		thu	[tʰʊw]	'autumn'	See Vietnamese phonology

References

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756 
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• 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, doi:10.1017/S002510030500191X 
• Jones, Daniel; Dennis, Ward (1969), The Phonetics of Russian, Cambridge University Press 

v t e   International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics* Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Extensions to the IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Conlang X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet   Consonants v t e IPA pulmonic consonants chartchart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bila​bial Labio​dental Den​tal Alve​olar Post​alv. Retro​flex Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn​geal Epi​glot​tal Glot​tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̪ n̥ n n̠ ɳ ɲ̥ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Plosive p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Fricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Trill ʙ r ɽ͡r ʀ я * Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊ ʎ̥˔ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̠ ʎ̯ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ᶑ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ tʼ cʼ ʈʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̥˔ kʟ̝̊ Co-articulated consonants Fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Approximants ʍ w ɥ ɫ Stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, left—right represent the voiceless—voiced consonants. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. * Symbol not defined in IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ •ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ ə •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •ä •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Vowels: IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view