A back vowel is any in a class of

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

sound used in spoken

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they are perceived as sounding darker than the front vowels. Near-back vowels are essentially a type of back vowels; no language is known to contrast back and near-back vowels based on backness alone. The category "back vowel" comprises both raised vowels and retracted vowels.

Articulation

In their articulation, back vowels do not form a single category, but may be either raised vowels such as or retracted vowels such as .Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012
"The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"
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Partial list

The back vowels that have dedicated symbols in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

are: * close back unrounded vowel * close back protruded vowel * near-close back protruded vowel * close-mid back unrounded vowel * close-mid back protruded vowel * open-mid back unrounded vowel * open-mid back rounded vowel * open back unrounded vowel * open back rounded vowel There also are back vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA: * close back compressed vowel or * near-close back unrounded vowel or * near-close back compressed vowel or * close-mid back compressed vowel or * mid back unrounded vowel or * mid back rounded vowel or As here, other back vowels can be transcribed with diacritics of relative articulation applied to letters for neighboring vowels, such as , or for a near-close back rounded vowel.

Occurrence

According to PHOIBLE, the most common phonemic back vowel is //, occurring in approximately 88% of languages, while the most uncommon phonemic back vowel is //, occurring in only 2% of recorded inventories.

References

{{IPA navigation Vowels by backness

Articulation

Partial list

Occurrence

See also

References