The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages.
The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is , a lowercase letter 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 those languages of Scandinavia; by the digraphs and (using the ligature) in French; and by in several languages, including the North Germanic languages Swedish and Icelandic, and the Finno-Ugric languages Estonian and Finnish. 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 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.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Asturian Some Western dialects 'outside' Realization of in the diphthong . May also be realized as or . Cabrales (East) Bavarian Amstetten dialect, cited in Contrasts close , near-close , close-mid and open-mid front rounded vowels in addition to the open central unrounded . Typically transcribed in IPA with . Northern Allophone of before . Breton 'hour' Chechen / / اوڢا 'hamster' Chinese Shanghainese / 'safety' Danish Standard 'buy' Also described as near-close ., cited in . See Danish phonologyDjeoromitxi 'man' Dutch Standard Belgian 'nose' Also described as central . In the Standard Northern variety, it is often diphthongized to . See Dutch phonology Many Eastern and Southern accents Present in many Eastern and Southern varieties. See Dutch phonology English Broad New Zealand bird 'bird' Possible realization of . Other speakers use a more open vowel . See New Zealand English phonology Cardiff Lower in other southern Welsh accents. It corresponds to mid central unrounded in other Welsh accents and in RP. Port Talbot Geordie Can be mid central unrounded instead. South African Used in General and Broad accents; may be mid instead. In the Cultivated variety, it is realized as mid central unrounded . See South African English phonology Estonian 'work' See Estonian phonology Faroese Suðuroy dialect 'bridges' Realization of unstressed and . The stressed vowel typically transcribed with in IPA transcriptions of Faroese is open-mid ., cited in See Faroese phonology French 'few' See French phonology German Standard 'beautiful' See Standard German phonology Southern accents 'hell' Common realization of in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria. See Standard German phonology Hungarian 'woman' See Hungarian phonology Iaai 'to close eyes'KurdishPalewani (Southern)/sör'wedding'See Kurdish phonology LemerigFrançois (2013), p. 207. 'forget' Limburgish Most dialects 'beech' Central in Maastricht; the example word is from the Hamont-Achel dialect. Lombard Lombardy / 'new' One of the phonetic pronunciations of the classic lombard orthography trigraph 'oeu', along with [ø], modern orthography uses 'ö' to distinguish it from the [œ] phoneme that is rendered by letter 'œ'. Low German / 'son' May be realized as a narrow closing diphthong in certain dialects. LöyöpFrançois (2013), p. 226. 'place haunted by spirits' Luxembourgish 'stupid' Occurs only in loanwords. See Luxembourgish phonology Portuguese MicaelenseVariação Linguística no Português Europeu: O Caso do Português dos Açores 'ox' Allophone of . See Portuguese phonology Some European speakersLista das marcas dialetais e outros fenómenos de variação (fonética e fonológica) identificados nas amostras do Arquivo Dialetal do CLUP 'I give' Ripuarian Cologne Mösch 'sparrow' Can also appear long, as in pröve [pʁøː¹və] 'test'. Saterland Frisian 'gutter' Typically transcribed in IPA with . Phonetically, it is nearly identical to (). The vowel typically transcribed in IPA with is actually near-close .Wariʼ'capybara'Rare; for some speakers, it is evolving into in open syllables and in closed ones. West Frisian Hindeloopers Diphthongized to in Standard West Frisian. See West Frisian phonology
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, 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 Language Word IPA Meaning Notes NorwegianWhile does not describe the exact type of rounding of this vowel, some other sources (e.g. ) state explicitly that it is protruded. 'sweet' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel has also been described as central . See Norwegian phonology Swedish Central Standard 'to die' reported this vowel to diphthongise (as in ) but recent accounts of Linköping and Stockholm accents failed to replicate the results. reported the phonemes and placed the short variant at mid height, as in . According to , the long vowel has been lowered to open-mid in Linköping and Lund, and near-open in Stockholm, with the recommendation of transcribing the phoneme as instead of . reported both short and long variants as allophones of the phonemes , lowered before and any retroflex segment; long are marked as 'lower-mid' and short are marked as 'mid-high', each pairing being differentiated primarily by formant acoustics other than height, and all as central rather than front. See Swedish phonology
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links