Close central unrounded vowel

File:Spectrogram of close central unrounded vowel (IPA ɨ).png

A spectrogram of

The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, namely the lower-case letter i with a horizontal bar. Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as barred i.

Occasionally, this vowel is transcribed Template:Angbr IPA (centralized Template:Angbr IPA) or Template:Angbr IPA (centralized Template:Angbr IPA).

The close central unrounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the rare post-palatal approximant .

Some languages feature the {{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Near-close_central_unrounded_vowel.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handler, which is slightly lower. It is most often transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA, but other transcriptions such as Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA are also possible. In many British dictionaries, this vowel has been transcribed Template:Angbr IPA, which captures its height; in the American tradition it is more often Template:Angbr IPA, which captures its centrality, or Template:Angbr IPA, which captures both. Template:Angbr IPA is also used in a number of other publications, such as Accents of English by John C. Wells. In the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Template:Angbr IPA represents variation between and .Template:Sfnp

Occurrence

is uncommon as a phoneme in Indo-European languages, occurring most commonly in some Slavic languages, such as Belarusian and Russian (see ы). 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 and both in modern living languages as well as reconstructed proto-languages (such as Proto-Uto-Aztecan). Campbell, Kaufman, and Smith-Stark identify the presence of this vowel phoneme as an areal feature of a Mesoamerican Sprachbund (although that is not a defining feature of the entire area).

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese				'to know'	Asyik and Al-Ahmadi Al-Harbi describe this sound as such while Durie describes it as closer to
AikanãTemplate:Sfnp				'aunt'	It also happens as allophone of before .Template:Sfnp
AmharicTemplate:Sfnp		/Template:Transliteration		'root'	Near-close.Template:Sfnp
Angami	KhonomaTemplate:Sfnp			'hail stone'	The height varies between close and mid Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA.
Arhuaco				'Arhuaco language'
Armenian	Meghri	ագարակ/agarak	[hɨˈgɛrak]	'farm'
Bantawa	Ilam, Nepal			'afraid'
Berber	Central Atlas Tamazight	/		'to work'	Epenthetically inserted into consonant clusters before labial and coronal consonants.
Chinese	Hokkien	/Template:Transliteration		'pig'
	Mandarin	/Template:Transliteration		'ten'
English	Inland Southern AmericanTemplate:Sfnp			'good'	Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in other dialects. See English phonology
	Southeastern English				May be rounded Template:IPAblink instead; it corresponds to Template:IPAblink in other dialects. See English phonology
	London	lip		'lip'	Possible realization of .
	South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp				For some speakers it can be equal to Template:IPAblink. General and Broad varieties of SAE have an allophonic variation, with (Template:IPAblink in Broad) occurring near velar and palatal consonants, and elsewhere. See South African English phonology
	Southern American				Allophone of before labial consonants, sometimes also in other environments.
	Southeastern EnglishTemplate:Sfnp			'rude'	May be rounded Template:IPAblink, or a diphthong instead.
Guaraní				'earth'
HausaTemplate:Sfnp				'to eat'	Allophone of .Template:Sfnp
Irish				'salty'	Allophone of between broad consonants. See Irish phonology
	MunsterTemplate:Sfnp			'sheep'	Allophone of between broad consonants.Template:Sfnp See Irish phonology
	Ulster	saol	[sɨl]	'life'	Allophone of . Near-close.
KalaganTemplate:Sfnp				'beard'
Kashmiri		/Template:Transliteration		'peach'
KeraTemplate:Sfnp				'knee'
Khmer		/Template:Transliteration		'to think'	See Khmer phonology
KurdishTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	Palewani (Southern)	/		'kermanshah'	Equal to Kurmanji and Sorani Template:IPAblink. See Kurdish phonology
LatgalianTemplate:Sfnp				'very much'	See Latgalian phonology
Mah MeriTemplate:Sfnp				'to be drunk'
Malay	Kelantan-Pattani			'to paint'	See Kelantan-Pattani Malay
Mapudungun				'male cousin on father's side'	Unstressed allophone of .
MongolianTemplate:Sfnp		/Template:Transliteration		'difficult'
MatisTemplate:Sfnp				'wall'
MonoTemplate:Sfnp				'count'
MpadeTemplate:Sfnp				'to eat'
PaicîTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Example needed			May be transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA.
RomanianTemplate:Sfnp				'I swim'	See Romanian phonology
RussianTemplate:Sfnp		/Template:Transliteration	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ru-ты.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'you' (singular/informal)	Occurs only after unpalatalized consonants. Near-close when unstressed.Template:Sfnp See Russian phonology
SahaptinTemplate:Sfnp		kʼsit		'cold'	Epenthetic. No lengthened equivalent
SanumáTemplate:Sfnp				'to see'	The nasal version also occurs.Template:Sfnp
Scottish Gaelic	LewisTemplate:Sfnp			'more'	Allophone of when short and in proximity to slender consonants.
ShipiboTemplate:Sfnp				Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	Possible realization of after coronal consonants.Template:Sfnp
SirionóTemplate:Sfnp				'dry wood'
Sundanese				'you'	Occasionally, sometimes as , or by younger speakers.
SümiTemplate:Sfnp				'to hurt'	Described variously as close Template:Sfnp and near-close .Template:Sfnp
Swedish	BohuslänTemplate:Sfnp			'to become'	A fricated vowel that corresponds to Template:IPAblink in Central Standard Swedish.Template:Sfnp See Swedish phonology
	NärkeTemplate:Sfnp
Tajik	BukharanTemplate:Sfnp			'the sound of wood sawing'	Allophone of in the environment of uvular consonants.Template:Sfnp
TamilTemplate:Sfnp		vály )		'tail'	Epenthetic vowel inserted in colloquial speech after word-final liquids; can be rounded Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp See Tamil phonology
TeraTemplate:Sfnp				'said'
				'to give'	Allophone of in closed syllables.
Tsou		,		'man'	, with free variant . Used to be written as Template:Angbr, but changed to Template:Angbr for more convenient typing.
Tupi				'mountain'	See Tupian Phonology
Turkish	Standard			'shallow'	Also described as close back Template:IPAblink and near-close near-back Template:IPAblink Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Turkish phonology
	Balkans	Template:Example needed			Word-final merger of standard Turkish sounds and , shift of and into single phoneme due to interactions caused by Balkan sprachbund. Dombrowski transcribes this phoneme as .
UdmurtTemplate:Sfnp		/		'it growls'
Vietnamese				'to carry'
Wayuu				'your mouth'
Welsh	Northern dialectsTemplate:Sfnp			'picture'	Close when long, near-close when short.Template:Sfnp Merges with in southern dialects. See Welsh phonology
		pump		'five'
Yaeyama				'person'
Zapotec	TilquiapanTemplate:Sfnp			'be sour'

The sound of Polish Template:Angbr is often represented as , but actually it is a close-mid advanced central unrounded vowel, more narrowly transcribed .Template:Sfnp Similarly, European Portuguese unstressed Template:Angbr, often represented as , is actually a near-close near-back unrounded vowel,Template:Sfnp more narrowly transcribed using ad hoc symbols such as (mid-centralized), (fronted) and (less rounded, i.e. unrounded).

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

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

External links

• Template:Phoible