Close-mid back rounded vowel

The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-mid 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 Template:Angbr IPA.

Close-mid back protruded vowel

The close-mid back protruded vowel is the most common variant of the close-mid back rounded vowel. It is typically transcribed in IPA simply as Template:Angbr IPA, and that is the convention used in this article. As there is no dedicated diacritic for protrusion in the IPA, the symbol for the close-mid back rounded vowel with an old diacritic for labialization, Template:Angbr IPA, can be used as an ad hoc symbol Template:Angbr IPA for the close-mid back protruded vowel. Another possible transcription is Template:Angbr IPA or Template:Angbr IPA (a close-mid back vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.

In English, the symbol Template:Angbr IPA is typically associated with the vowel in the "goat", but in Received Pronunciation and General American, that vowel is a diphthong whose starting point may be unrounded and more centered than .

For the close-mid near-back protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol Template:Angbr IPA, see near-close back protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is Template:Angbr IPA, the vowel is listed here.

Features

File:Spectrogram of close-mid back rounded vowel (IPA o).png

Spectrogram of

Occurrence

Because 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
Afrikaans	StandardTemplate:Sfnp			'goat'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. The height varies between close-mid and mid Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Afrikaans phonology
Bavarian	Amstetten dialect				Contrasts close Template:IPAblink, near-close Template:IPAblink, close-mid and open-mid Template:IPAblink back rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded Template:IPAblink. Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA.
Bengali				'your'	May be closer to mid Template:IPAblink. See Bengali phonology
BulgarianTemplate:Sfnp		/		'mouth'	Unstressed allophone of and .Template:Sfnp See Bulgarian phonology
CatalanTemplate:Sfnp				'I am'	See Catalan phonology
Czech	BohemianTemplate:Sfnp			'eye'	Backness varies between back and near-back; may be realized as mid Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp See Czech phonology
Danish	StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'wife'	Also described as near-close Template:IPAblink.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Danish phonology
Dutch	Standard BelgianTemplate:Sfnp		Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'cabbage'	In the Netherlands often diphthongized to . See Dutch phonology
English	Estuary	yawn		'yawn'	May be or instead.
	CockneyTemplate:Sfnp
	Received PronunciationTemplate:Sfnp				Typically transcribed with Template:Angbr IPA. See English phonology
	South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp				General and Broad varieties. Cultivated SAE has a more open vowel. See South African English phonology
	General IndianTemplate:Sfnp	go		'go'
	General PakistaniTemplate:Sfnp				Varies between .
	SingaporeanTemplate:Sfnp
	Birmingham and the Black Country	cut	'cut'	Corresponds to in other dialects.
EstonianTemplate:Sfnp				'chair'	See Estonian phonology
FaroeseTemplate:Sfnp				'to endure'	May be a diphthong instead.Template:Sfnp See Faroese phonology
FrenchTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'network'	See French phonology
German	StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'or'	See Standard German phonology
	Upper SaxonTemplate:Sfnp			'except'	Pharyngealized; corresponds to Template:IPAblink in Northern Standard German. The example word is from the Chemnitz dialect.Template:Sfnp
Greek	SfakianTemplate:Sfnp	/		'translate'	Corresponds to mid Template:IPAblink in Modern Standard Greek.Template:Sfnp See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)		/		'strength, power'	See Hindustani phonology
HungarianTemplate:Sfnp				'disease'	See Hungarian phonology
ItalianTemplate:Sfnp				'shade'	See Italian phonology
KaingangTemplate:Sfnp				'toad'
Khmer		/		'molecule'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		/		'song'	See Korean phonology
KurdishTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	Kurmanji (Northern)			'day'	See Kurdish phonology
	Sorani (Central)	/
Latin	ClassicalTemplate:Sfnp			'sun'
Limburgish	Most dialectsTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'garden'	The example word is from the Maastrichtian dialect.
Lower SorbianTemplate:Sfnp				'(two) eyes'	Diphthongized to in slow speech.Template:Sfnp
LuxembourgishTemplate:Sfnp				'sun'	Sometimes realized as open-mid Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay				'die'	Allophone of in closed-final syllables. May be Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink depending on the speaker. See Malay phonology
Malayalam		Template:Category handler		'one'	See Malayalam phonology
Marathi		Template:Category handler		'two'	See Marathi phonology
Minangkabau				'all'
MpadeTemplate:Sfnp				'field'
Norwegian	Most dialectsTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp			'law'	The quality varies among dialects; in Urban East Norwegian, it has been variously described as close-mid back Template:Sfnp and mid Template:IPAblink,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp in Stavangersk it is a close-mid near-back ,Template:Sfnp whereas in Telemark it is a back open-mid vowel Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp In some dialects it is replaced by the diphthong .Template:Sfnp See Norwegian phonology
Persian		/		'turtle'
PortugueseTemplate:Sfnp				'dodo'	See Portuguese phonology
Polish				'spring'	Allophone of between palatal or palatalized consonants. See Polish phonology
Romanian				'there'	See Romanian phonology
Saterland FrisianTemplate:Sfnp				'to calm'	Near-back; typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. Phonetically, it is nearly identical to (Template:IPAblink). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA is actually near-close Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp
ShiwiarTemplate:Sfnp					Allophone of Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfnp
Slovak	Some speakersTemplate:Sfnp			'telephone'	Realization of reported to occur in dialects spoken near the river Ipeľ, as well as - under Hungarian influence - in some other speakers. Corresponds to mid Template:IPAblink in standard Slovak.Template:Sfnp See Slovak phonology
Slovene				'my'	See Slovene phonology
SothoTemplate:Sfnp				'proof'	Contrasts close, near-close and close-mid back rounded vowels.Template:Sfnp See Sotho phonology
Spanish				'truck'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central StandardTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'on'	Often a centering diphthong (as in Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler). See Swedish phonology
UkrainianTemplate:Sfnp		/		'youth'	See Ukrainian phonology
Upper SorbianTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp				'god'	Diphthongized to in slow speech.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
Welsh				'night'	See Welsh phonology
West FrisianTemplate:Sfnp				'billy-goat'	See West Frisian phonology
Wu Chinese	ShanghaineseTemplate:Sfnp	/		'melon'	Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back compressed vowel.Template:Sfnp
YorubaTemplate:Sfnp				'help'

Close-mid back compressed vowel

As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, Template:Angbr IPA (the opposite of Template:Angbr IPA), will be used here as an ad hoc symbol for compressed back vowels. It was only added to Unicode in 2025, however, and it may take some time for font support to catch up. Compression of the lips can be shown with the letter Template:IPAalink as Template:Angbr IPA (simultaneous and labial compression) or Template:Angbr IPA ( modified with labial compression), though that can suggest that the vowel is a diphthong.

Only Wu Chinese is known to contrast it with the more typical protruded (endolabial) close-mid back vowel, but the height of both vowels varies from close to close-mid.Template:Sfnp

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Wu Chinese	ShanghaineseTemplate:Sfnp	/		'capital'	Specifically in Shanghainese. Height varies between close and close-mid; contrasts with a close to close-mid back protruded vowel.Template:Sfnp

References

• Template:Accents of English

External links

• Template:Phoible