Close-mid back rounded vowel
From Freepedia
| Edit - 2× | Front | N.-front | Central | N.-back | Back |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
represents a rounded vowel.
| IPA – number | 307 |
| IPA – text | o |
| IPA – image | Image:Xsampa-o.png |
| entity | o |
| X-SAMPA | o |
| Kirshenbaum | o |
| Sound sample ▶(?) | |
|---|---|
The close-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 o, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is o.
Contents |
Features
- Its vowel height is close-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between close vowel and a mid vowel.
- Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- Its vowel roundedness is rounded, which means that the lips are rounded.
Occurs in
- Dutch: kool [koʷl], 'cabbage'
- English: (AuE and NZE) ball [boːl]
- In CaE, there is a tendency to monophthongize [oʊ] (usually during rapid speech); as a result, [o] may occur alone in words like boat.
- French: réseau [ʀe̝zo̝], 'net'
- German: Kohl [koːl], 'cabbage'
- Swedish: åka Image:Loudspeaker.png [ˈoːkʲa], 'travel', 'go'
- Vietnamese: tô [tō], 'soup bowl'
French /o/ is more close than German /o/, as symbolized by the raising diacritic, and is perhaps near-close. The German /o/ in turn is more close than Spanish /o/, which is a mid vowel (see below).
Mid back rounded vowel
Many languages, such as Spanish and Japanese, have a mid back rounded vowel, which to speakers is clearly distinct from both the close-mid and open-mid vowels. However, since no language is known to distinguish all three, there is no separate IPA symbol for the mid vowel, and [o] is generally used. If precision is desired, the lowering diacritic may be used: [o̞].
Note that just because a language has only one non-close, non-open back vowel, that doesn't mean it's a cardinal mid vowel. The Sulawesian language Tukang Besi, for example, has a close-mid [o], whereas the Moluccan language Taba has a open-mid [ɔ]; in neither language does this contrast with another open/close-mid vowel.
Occurs in
- Spanish: todo [ˈto̞ð̞o̞], 'everything'
- Japanese: 面白い [o̞mo̞ɕiɺo̞↓i], 'fun, interesting'
- Romanian: copil [ko̞ˈpil], 'child'
- Turkish: kol [ko̞ɫ], 'arm'
