The open-mid front rounded vowel, or low-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 .
Open-mid front compressed vowel The open-mid front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , which is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated IPA diacritic for compression. However, the compression of the lips can be shown by 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.
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 NotesAsturian Some Western dialects 'outside' Realization of in the diphthong . May also be realized as or .AzeriNorth Azerbaijani 'purple' Bavarian Amstetten dialect, cited in 'rope' 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 'I'd help' Allophone of before . Breton All speakers leur 'floor' Short counterpart of . May be transcribed in IPA with . Bas-Léon Long; contrasts with the short open-mid and the long close-mid . Other speakers have only one mid front rounded vowel . Buwal 'fine' Allophone of when adjacent to a labialized consonant.ChineseCantonese / 'long'See Cantonese phonologyLombardLombard'boy','man'Occurs naturally in the language, most frequently in western and northern regions, alternating with ø in many words, and rendered under the letter 'œ', while [ø] is under the letter ö. Danish Standard 'to do' Typically transcribed with , where instead represents mid . See Danish phonology Dutch Standard 'manoeuvre' Occurs only in a few loanwords. See Dutch phonology Some speakers 'perfume' Nasalized; occurs only in a few loanwords and it is used mainly in southern accents. Often nativized as . See Dutch phonology The Hague dialect 'out' Corresponds to in standard Dutch. See Dutch phonology English General New Zealand bird 'bird' May be mid instead. In broader varieties, it is close-mid or higher. Typically transcribed in IPA with . See New Zealand English phonology Scouse Possible realization of the merged – vowel . Southern Welsh Also described as mid and close-mid . General South African go 'go' Some speakers. Can be a diphthong of the type ~ instead. Other South African varieties do not monophthongize. See South African English phonology French 'young' See French phonologyGalician ˈweek' Labialization of pre-tonic , which is usually realized as German Standard 'hell' See Standard German phonology Western Swiss accents 'beautiful' Close-mid in other accents. See Standard German phonology Limburgish Many dialects 'sleeve' Central in Maastricht; the example word is from the Hasselt dialect. Low German / 'six' Espírito Santo East Pomeranian'hell' Saterland Frisian 'to rear' TurkishIstanbul 'fire' Corresponds to in standard Turkish. See Turkish phonology. West Frisian Hindeloopers See West Frisian phonology Súdwesthoeksk 'school'
Open-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 Scandinavian languages, have protruded front vowels. One Scandinavian language, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close 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 (an open-mid front vowel modified by endolabialization), but it could be misread as a diphthong.
Acoustically, the sound is "between" the more typical compressed open-mid front vowel and the unrounded open-mid front vowel .
Features
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Norwegian 'nut' The example word is from Urban East Norwegian, in which the vowel has also been described as mid central . See Norwegian phonology Swedish Central Standard 'ear' Allophone of and also sometimes before , and according to older accounts before and less often after . describe an even more open allophone in younger speakers whilst 's chats point to open-mid central allophones . See Swedish phonology Stockholm, Linköping, and Lund 'hen' 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 . An earlier study from the same authors found that the vowel moves slightly lower and more central during its pronunciation in Stockholm and Linköping, while it moves slightly higher in Lund. reports 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
Notes
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