Close back unrounded vowel
From Freepedia
| Edit - 2× | Front | N.-front | Central | N.-back | Back |
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | |||||
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right
represents a rounded vowel.
represents a rounded vowel.
| IPA – number | 316 |
| IPA – text | ɯ |
| IPA – image | Image:Xsampa-M.png |
| entity | ɯ |
| X-SAMPA | M |
| Kirshenbaum | u- |
| Sound sample ▶(?) | |
|---|---|
The close 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 ɯ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is M. The IPA symbol is a turned letter m, although given its relation to the sound represented by the letter u, it can be considered a u with an extra "bowl". The sound is sometimes referred to as "unrounded u".
Features
- Its vowel height is close, which means the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
- 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 unrounded, which means that the lips are spread.
Occurs in
- Korean: eumsik [ˈɯːmɕik], 'food'
- Turkish: ılık [ɯˈɫɯk], 'mild'
- Vietnamese: tư [tɯ̄], 'fourth'
This symbol is often used to transcribe the Japanese /u/. However, that vowel is actually a close back compressed vowel, which has no IPA symbol of its own.
