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Near-close Near-back Rounded Vowel





NEAR-CLOSE NEAR-BACK ROUNDED VOWEL

The near-close near-back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound, used in some Spoken Language s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . This derives from a small capital U; although officially called a ''small Latin letter upsilon'', it bears little resemblance to the Greek Upsilon and is informally called " Horseshoe U " instead.

Some languages may have a near-close near-back unrounded vowel (see below). However, no language is known to contrast rounding this place of articulation, so the IPA symbol has not devised separate symbols.


Features

  • Its Vowel Height is Near-close , which means the tongue is positioned similarly to a Close Vowel , but slightly less constricted.

  • 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 Rounded , which means that the lips are rounded. However, no language is known to contrast rounding this place of articulation, so the IPA symbol has not devised separate symbols.



Occurs in

  • English : ''hook'' . (May be only slightly rounded, , in many varieties of English)

  • Faroese : ''hvalur'' , 'whale'.

  • German : ''Schutz'' , 'protection'

  • Swedish : ''ort'' , '(geographic) place'



History

Prior to 1989 , there was an alternate IPA symbol for this sound, , called "closed Omega ". This symbol is no longer supported by the IPA.


NEAR-CLOSE NEAR-BACK UNROUNDED VOWEL

A near-close near-back unrounded vowel may be transcribed as a Close Back Unrounded Vowel with the mid-centralizing diacritic, .


Features



Occurs in

  • European .