The 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.
Although there is no dedicated 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 "exact" mid front rounded vowel between close-mid and open-mid , is generally used. If precision is desired, diacritics can be used, such as or .
Mid front compressed vowel
The mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as or . This article uses the first symbol for simplicity. 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 letters / as an ''ad hoc'' symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.
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.
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 languages, such as
Scandinavian ones, have protruded front vowels. One of these, 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, (a mid front rounded vowel modified by endolabialization) will be used here as an ''ad hoc'' symbol for protruded mid front vowels.
Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed mid front vowel and the unrounded mid front vowel .
Features
Occurrence
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mid Front Rounded Vowel
Mid vowels
Front vowels
Rounded vowels
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