Close back unrounded vowel

The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded 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. Typographically, it is a turned letter Template:Angbr.

The close back unrounded vowel can in many cases be considered the vocalic equivalent of the voiced velar approximant [ɰ].

File:Spectrogram of close back unrounded vowel (IPA ɯ).png

Spectrogram of

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Acehnese				'see'	Also described as closer to Template:IPAblink.
AraraTemplate:Sfnp		îput		'my skin'	Frequent realisation of .Template:Sfnp
Arbëresh		Arbëreshë		'Arbëreshë'	in standard Albanian.
Azerbaijani		/		'expensive'	Closer to an .Template:Sfn
Bashkir		/ /		'girl'
Chinese	Mandarin	/ cì		'thorn'
	Wuhan dialect, Southwestern Mandarin	/ keu		'to go'
	Some Wu dialects	/ vu		'father'
	Xiang	/ xu		'fire'
Chuvash				'garlic'
Crimean Tatar				'my dear'
English	African-AmericanTemplate:Sfnp	hook		'hook'	Near-close; possible realization of Template:IPAslink.Template:Sfnp
	TidewaterTemplate:Sfnp				Near-close; may be rounded Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp
	Some California speakersTemplate:Sfnp	goose		'goose'	Corresponds to Template:IPAblink in other dialects.
	New ZealandTemplate:Sfnp	treacle		'treacle'	Possible realization of the unstressed vowel , which is variable in rounding and ranges from central to (more often) back and close to close-mid.Template:Sfnp Corresponds to in other accents. Develops from dark L; See New Zealand English phonology
	Some Philadelphia speakersTemplate:Sfnp	plus		'plus'	Used by some speakers; the exact height and backness is variable.Template:Sfnp It corresponds to Template:IPAblink in other accents. See English phonology
	South AfricanTemplate:Sfnp	pill		'pill'	Near-close; possible allophone of before the velarised allophone of .Template:Sfnp See South African English phonology
EstonianTemplate:Sfnp				'ear'	Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA; can be close-mid central Template:IPAblink or close-mid back Template:IPAblink instead, depending on the speaker.Template:Sfnp See Estonian phonology
Irish	Ulster			'narrow'	See Irish phonology
JapaneseTemplate:Sfnp		/ Template:Transliteration	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "ja-kuuki.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'air'	May be compressed Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Japanese phonology
KatukinaTemplate:Sfnp				'oscar (fish)'
Kazakh		/		'winter'	May be pronounced as
KoreanTemplate:Sfnp		/		'food'	See Korean phonology
Kurdish	Kurmanji (Northern)			'sour'	See Kurdish phonology. The "i" after "t" always uses this sound if the "t" is "tˤ". However, it can also appear at other places.
	Sorani (Central)	/ tirş
Kyrgyz		/ qyz / قىز		'girl'	See Kyrgyz phonology
PanaráTemplate:Sfnp				'to breathe'
Portuguese	EuropeanTemplate:Sfnp		{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Pegar_european_pt.wav" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'to grab'	Reduced vowel. Near-close.Template:Sfnp Typically transcribed in IPA with Template:Angbr IPA. See Portuguese phonology
Romanian	Some speakers			'when'	Typically described as Template:Angbr IPA. See Romanian phonology
Scottish Gaelic				'thin'	See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sop				'tree'	See Sop language
Tamil		/ aḻagu		'beauty'
Thai	StandardTemplate:Sfnp	/ khuen/khîn		'to go up'
Turkish			{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Tr-sığ.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'shallow'	Described variously as close back , near-close near-back and close central Template:IPAblink. See Turkish phonology
Turkmen		/		'green'
Uyghur		/ tilim		'my language'	In complementary distribution with Template:IPAslink. See Uyghur phonology
Vietnamese				'fourth'	See Vietnamese phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Ɯ

References

• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:Accents of English

External links

• Template:Phoible