The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel,
is a type 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 symbol 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 ...
that represents the sound is , a lowercase letter o with a diagonal stroke through it, borrowed from
Danish,
Norwegian, and
Faroese, which sometimes use the letter to represent the sound. This sound is represented by the
letter in most of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
; by the
digraphs and
(using the
ligature) in
French; and by
in many languages like German-derived languages, Estonian, Swedish, Finnish, and Icelandic. The symbol is commonly referred to as a "slashed o" in English.
For the close-mid front rounded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol , see
near-close front rounded vowel. If the usual symbol is , the vowel is listed here.
Close-mid front compressed vowel
The close-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , which is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter as (simultaneous and labial compression) or ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic may also be used with a rounded vowel letter as an ''ad hoc'' symbol, but 'spread' technically means unrounded.
For the close-mid front compressed vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol , see
near-close front compressed vowel. If the usual symbol is , the vowel is listed here.
Features
Occurrence
Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.
Close-mid front protruded vowel
Catford notes that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few, such as the
Scandinavian languages
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is al ...
, have protruded front vowels. One of them, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see
near-close near-front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).
As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, , will be used here as an ''ad hoc'' symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is or (a close-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but that could be misread as a diphthong.
For the close-mid front protruded vowel that is usually transcribed with the symbol , see
near-close front protruded vowel. If the usual symbol is , the vowel is listed here.
Acoustically, the sound is in between the more typical compressed close-mid front vowel and the unrounded close-mid front vowel .
Features
Occurrence
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Close-Mid Front Rounded Vowel
Close-mid vowels
Front vowels
Rounded vowels