Open-mid front rounded vowel

File:Spectrogram of open-mid front rounded vowel (IPA œ).png

Spectrogram of

The open-mid front rounded vowel, or low-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is Template:Angbr IPA. The symbol œ is a lowercase ligature of the letters o and e. The letter Template:Angbr IPA, a small capital version of the Template:Angbr ligature, is used for a different vowel sound: the open front rounded vowel.

Open-mid front compressed vowel

The open-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as Template:Angbr IPA, which is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated IPA diacritic for compression. However, the compression of the lips can be shown by the letter Template:IPAalink as Template:Angbr IPA (simultaneous and labial compression) or Template:Angbr IPA ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic Template:Angbr IPA may also be used with a rounded vowel letter Template:Angbr IPA as an ad hoc symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.

Occurrence

Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Asturian	Some Western dialects			'outside'	Realization of Template:Angbr in the diphthong Template:Angbr. May also be realized as Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink.
Azeri	North Azerbaijani			'purple'
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect			'rope'	Contrasts close Template:IPAblink, near-close Template:IPAblink, close-mid Template:IPAblink and open-mid front rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded Template:IPAblink. Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA.
	NorthernTemplate:Sfnp			'I'd help'	Allophone of before .Template:Sfnp
Breton	All speakersTemplate:Sfnp	leur		'floor'	Short counterpart of Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfnp May be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA.
	Bas-LéonTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Example needed			Long; contrasts with the short open-mid and the long close-mid Template:IPAslink. Other speakers have only one mid front rounded vowel Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfnp
BuwalTemplate:Sfnp				'fine'	Allophone of when adjacent to a labialized consonant.Template:Sfnp
Catalan	Capcinès			'Moon'	Realization [œ] of “u” in Capcir. See Catalan phonology.
Chinese	Cantonese	/ Template:Transliteration		'long'	See Cantonese phonology
Lombard	Lombard			'boy','man'	Occurs naturally in the language, most frequently in western and northern regions, alternating with ø in many words, and rendered under the letter 'œ', while [ø] is under the letter ö.
Danish	StandardTemplate:Sfnp			'to do'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Danish phonology
Dutch	StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Nl-manoeuvre.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'manoeuvre'	Occurs only in a few loanwords.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Dutch phonology
	Some speakersTemplate:Sfnp			'perfume'	Nasalized; occurs only in a few loanwords and it is used mainly in southern accents. Often nativized as .Template:Sfnp See Dutch phonology
	The Hague dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'out'	Corresponds to in standard Dutch.Template:Sfnp See Dutch phonology
English	General New ZealandTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	bird		'bird'	May be mid Template:IPAblink instead. In broader varieties, it is close-mid or higher.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See New Zealand English phonology
	ScouseTemplate:Sfnp				Possible realization of the merged Template:Sc2–Template:Sc2 vowel .Template:Sfnp
	Southern WelshTemplate:Sfnp				Also described as mid Template:IPAblinkTemplate:Sfnp and close-mid Template:IPAblink.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
	General South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp	go		'go'	Some speakers. Can be a diphthong of the type ~ instead. Other South African varieties do not monophthongize. See South African English phonology
FrenchTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "LL-Q150 (fra)-GrandCelinien-jeune.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'young'	See French phonology
Galician				ˈweek'	Labialization of pre-tonic , which is usually realized as
German	StandardTemplate:Sfnp			'hell'	See Standard German phonology
	Western Swiss accentsTemplate:Sfnp			'beautiful'	Close-mid Template:IPAblink in other accents.Template:Sfnp See Standard German phonology
Limburgish	Many dialectsTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'sleeve'	Central Template:IPAblink in Maastricht;Template:Sfnp the example word is from the Hasselt dialect.
Low GermanTemplate:Sfnp		/		'six'
	Espírito Santo East PomeranianTemplate:Sfnp			'hell'
Saterland FrisianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'to rear'
West Frisian	HindeloopersTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Example needed			See West Frisian phonology
	SúdwesthoekskTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'school'

Open-mid front protruded vowel

Catford notesTemplate:Full citation needed that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few, such as Scandinavian languages, have protruded front vowels. One Scandinavian language, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, Template:Angbr IPA, will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA (an open-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but it could be misread as a diphthong.

Acoustically, the sound is "between" the more typical compressed open-mid front vowel and the unrounded open-mid front vowel Template:IPAblink.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
NorwegianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'nut'	The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel has also been described as mid central Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Norwegian phonology
Swedish	Central StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "sv-öra.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'ear'	Allophone of and most often also before .Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp May be more open for younger speakers from Stockholm.Template:Sfnp See Swedish phonology
	Younger Stockholm speakersTemplate:Sfnp			'to buy'	Higher Template:IPAblink for other speakers. See Swedish phonology

References

• Template:SOWL
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Accents of English

External links

• Template:Phoible