The close front rounded vowel, or high front 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 . Across many languages, it is most commonly represented orthographically as (in German, Turkish, Estonian and Hungarian) or (in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Albanian) but also as (in French and Dutch and the Kernewek Kemmyn standard of Cornish); / (in the romanization of various Asian languages); (in Cyrillic-based writing systems such as that for Chechen); or (in Cyrillic-based writing systems such as that for Tatar).

Short and long occurred in pre-Modern Greek. In the Attic and Ionic dialects of Ancient Greek, front developed by fronting from back around the 6th to 7th century BC. A little later, the diphthong when not before another vowel monophthongized and merged with long . In Koine Greek, the diphthong changed to , likely through the intermediate stages and . Through vowel shortening in Koine Greek, long merged with short . Later, unrounded to , yielding the pronunciation of Modern Greek. For more information, see the articles on Ancient Greek and Koine Greek phonology.

The close front rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the labialized palatal approximant . alternates with in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, with the non-syllabic diacritic and are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.

In most languages, this rounded vowel is pronounced with compressed lips ('exolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are protruded ('endolabial').

Close front compressed vowel The close front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , and that is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated diacritic 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, 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.

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Afrikaans Standard 'you' (formal) Merges with in younger speakers. See Afrikaans phonology Albanian Standard 'rainbow' Azerbaijani 'bullet' Bavarian Amstetten dialect, cited in Contrasts close , near-close , close-mid and open-mid front rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded . Breton 'noise' Catalan Northern 'aim' Found in Occitan and French loanwords. See Catalan phonology Chechen / 'yard' Chinese Mandarin / 'woman' See Standard Chinese phonology and Cantonese phonology Cantonese / 'book' Shanghainese 'donkey'Chuvashтӳме[tyme]'button'CornishKernewek Kemmyn Danish Standard 'synonym' See Danish phonology Dutch Standard 'now' Also described as near-close . The Standard Northern realization has also been described as close central . See Dutch phonology English General South African few 'few' Some younger speakers, especially females. Others pronounce a more central vowel . See South African English phonology Multicultural London May be back instead. Scouse May be central instead. Ulster Long allophone of ; occurs only after . See English phonology Estonian 'one' See Estonian phonology Faroese 'mythological' Appears only in loanwords. See Faroese phonology Finnish 'one' See Finnish phonology French 'you' The Parisian realization has been also described as near-close . See French phonology German Standard 'over' See Standard German phonology Many speakers 'protect' The usual realization of in Switzerland, Austria and partially also in Western and Southwestern Germany (Palatinate, Swabia). See Standard German phonology Greek Tyrnavos / 'saliva' Corresponds to in Standard Modern Greek. Velventos Hungarian 'pin' See Hungarian phonology Iaai 'quarrel' Korean / 'back' Now usually a diphthong , especially in Seoul and surrounding dialects. See Korean phonologyKurdishKurmanji (Northern)'mountain'Equal to Palewani (Southern) . See Kurdish phonology Limburgish 'sees' Central in Maastricht. The example word is from the Weert dialect.LombardMost dialects'laughed' Low German / 'fire' Löyöp 'one' Luxembourgish 'envelope' Occurs only in loanwords. See Luxembourgish phonology Mongolian Inner Mongolia / 'prairie fire' Diphthong in Khalkha. Norwegian 'south' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel varies in rounding between compressed and protruded . It can be diphthongized to . See Norwegian phonology. Occitan 'music' See Occitan phonology Plautdietsch Canadian Old Colony 'builds' Corresponds to back in other varieties. Portuguese AzoreanVariação Linguística no Português Europeu: O Caso do Português dos Açores 'figure' Stressed vowel, fronting of original in some dialects. See Portuguese phonology AlgarvePortuguese: A Linguistic Introduction – by Milton M. Azevedo Page 186. 'all' Brazilian The perception of German vowels by Portuguese-German bilinguals: do returned emigrants suffer phonological erosion? Pages 57 and 68. 'déjà vu' Found in French and German loanwords. Speakers may instead use or . See Portuguese phonology Saterland Frisian 'wanted' (v.) Scottish Gaelicyounger Lewis speakerscù'dog'Normal allophone of . More central as among older speakers. See Scottish Gaelic phonology Swedish Central Standard 'out' Often realized as a sequence or . The height has been variously described as close and near-close . Typically transcribed in IPA with ; it is central in other dialects. See Swedish phonology Turkish 'sun' See Turkish phonology Uyghur 'grape' See Uyghur phonology West Frisian 'out' See West Frisian phonology

Close 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, 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 front vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.

Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed close front vowel and the unrounded close front vowel .

Features

Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning NotesKurdishPalewani (Southern)'mountain'Allophone of in regional dialects. See Kurdish phonology Norwegian 'south' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel varies in rounding between protruded and compressed . It can be diphthongized to . See Norwegian phonology. Swedish Central Standard 'howl' Often realized as a sequence or (hear the word: ); it may also be fricated or, in some regions, fricated and centralized (). See Swedish phonology

See also Near-close near-front protruded vowel Close central protruded vowel Index of phonetics articles

Notes

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