A central vowel, formerly also known as a mixed 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 some 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 central vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately halfway between a front vowel and a

back vowel A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. 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 c ...

. (In practice, unrounded central vowels tend to be further forward and rounded central vowels further back.)

List

The central 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 central unrounded vowel *

close central protruded vowel } The close central rounded vowel, or high central 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 , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is }. ...

* close-mid central unrounded vowel (older publications may use ) * close-mid central rounded vowel (older publications may use ) * mid central vowel with ambiguous rounding * open-mid central unrounded vowel (older publications may use ) * open-mid central rounded vowel (older publications may use ) * near-open central vowel with ambiguous rounding (typically used for an unrounded vowel; if precision is desired, may be used for an unrounded vowel and for a rounded vowel) There also are central vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA: * close central compressed vowel * near-close central unrounded vowel , , or (unofficial symbol: ) * near-close central protruded vowel , , or (unofficial symbol: ) * near-close central compressed vowel * mid central unrounded vowel or (commonly written ) * mid central protruded vowel or (commonly written as if it were close-mid) * mid central compressed vowel * open central unrounded vowel (commonly written as if it were front) * open central rounded vowel

Bibliography

* Vowels by backness {{phonetics-stub

List

See also

Bibliography